Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Damn Strait! George Was Rockin'!


For the 2nd time in my life (and counting!), my friends Paula and Larry took me to see King George, Strait the 1st, last night as he opened Rodeo Houston! KHOU.com has a video clip of his opening song and I don't know how long it'll be available, but enjoy it if you can!









My comments on last year's Strait night - George Strait Was Great!











Check out the assortment of guitars...I swear he played every one of them too! He puts on the longest show of any of the performers I've ever seen! But you know, all he has to sing is The Fireman for me to have heard my favorite Strait song...

Monday, February 26, 2007

I'll Take That Dare! So There!

Jason at Cigars..Donuts..and Coffee issued a dare to one and all to take this quiz....... so I did and this is what I got, which is about what I expected to get!





You Are 65% Feminine, 35% Masculine



You are in touch with your feminine side.

Sensitive, intuitive, and caring are all words that describe you.

And you're just masculine enough to relate to both men and women.



I'd MUCH rather do "guy stuff" than girl stuff any day of the week. Guys have ALL the fun! What's not fun about boy toys? I'd rather wander around a computer store than a dress shop! I LOVE office supplies! Hardware stores are cool too! I think it has something to do with being the only girl and the youngest to boot....I was always tagging along after my bros and they were hell bent to ditch me at the first opportunity. THEY got BB guns and Erector Sets and I got a stupid doll that wet herself. Phooey, I might never get over that.....

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Looking for Drugs, Teacher Texts Kentucky Trooper

From the DUH Department.......

MURRAY, Ky. -- It's a tough lesson for a Kentucky middle school teacher.

State police say she sent text messages looking for marijuana to a state trooper instead of a drug dealer.

The trooper was at a birthday dinner when his phone started buzzing with messages about a pot purchase.

Police spokesman Barry Meadows says the trooper thought it was a joke at first, but realized it wasn't after a few phone calls.

So he set up a meeting with Ann Greenfield.

Law enforcement officers were waiting for her when she arrived at the meeting point.

Says police spokesman Meadows: ''She learned her lesson. Program your dealers into your phone.''

Greenfield, who's 34, has been suspended with pay pending results of an investigation.

Officer.com

Sorority makes prettiness an issue at Indiana college

It evicts several members, including the overweight and many minorities.

GREENCASTLE, IND. — When a psychology professor at DePauw University surveyed students, they described one sorority as a group of "daddy's little princesses" and another as "offbeat hippies." The sisters of Delta Zeta were seen as "socially awkward."

Worried that a negative stereotype of the sorority was contributing to a decline in membership that had left its Greek-columned house here half empty, Delta Zeta's national officers interviewed 35 DePauw members in November, quizzing them about their dedication to increasing recruitment. They judged 23 of the women insufficiently committed and later told them to vacate the sorority house.

The 23 members included every woman who was overweight. They also included the only black, Korean and Vietnamese members. The dozen students allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men — conventionally pretty women the sorority hoped could attract new recruits. Six of the 12 were so infuriated they quit.

"Virtually everyone who didn't fit a certain sorority-member archetype was told to leave," said Kate Holloway, a senior who withdrew from the chapter during its reorganization.

"I didn't have room in my life for these women to come in and tell my sisters of three years that they weren't needed," Holloway added.

(deleted for the sake of brevity - click link to read the entire article)

At the start of the fall term the national office was especially determined to raise recruitment because 2009 is the 100th anniversary of the DePauw chapter's founding. In September, Menges and Kathi Heatherly, a national vice president of the sorority, visited the chapter to announce a reorganization plan they said would include an interview with each woman about her commitment. The women were urged to look their best for the interviews.

The tone left four women so unsettled that they withdrew from the chapter almost immediately.

Robin Lamkin, a junior who is an editor at The DePauw and was one of the 23 women evicted from the house, said many of her sisters bought new outfits and modeled them for each other before the interviews. Many women declared their willingness to recruit diligently, Lamkin said.

A few days after the interviews, national representatives took over the house to hold a recruiting event. They asked most members to stay upstairs in their rooms. To welcome freshmen downstairs, they assembled a meet-and-greet team that included several of the women eventually asked to stay in the sorority, along with some slender women invited from Delta Zeta's Indiana University chapter, Holloway said.

"They had these unassuming freshman girls downstairs with these plastic women from Indiana University, and 25 of my sisters hiding upstairs," she said. "It was so fake, so completely dehumanized. I said, 'This calls for a little joke.'"

Holloway put on an outlandish wig and some John Lennon rose-colored glasses, burst through the front door during the recruitment event, and skipped around singing "Ooooh! Delta Zeta!" and other chants.

The face of one of the national representatives, she recalled, "was like I'd run over her puppy with my car."

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I like that Kate Holloway gal! I don't really have any comments on the above....I just present it for your inspection.

National Lampoon's Pledge This!: Naughty Version (Unrated) - One of the worst movies of the year, ANY year......the review is funnier than the movie! But when I read about this real, goofy sorority it made me think of this Paris Hilton vehicle! If nothing else, click the link and go see the screen shots for the movie.......they pretty much say it all....

Saturday, February 24, 2007

When to Replace Common Household Items : Yahoo! Finance

When to Replace Common Household Items : Yahoo! Finance

They forgot to add....

When to replace your husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/sigOther/lover/partner/whatever! But other than that......useful info for when to say WHEN!

Counseling Center - 52 Proven Stress Reducers

Counseling Center - 52 Proven Stress Reducers

These are wonderful suggestions for making our lives less stressful. The key being we make our own stress many times and if you just plan ahead your can terminate a great deal of it! I've been using some of these ideas for many years and I think I do so because I'm OCD! Which is not entirely bad....my theory is that if it wasn't for the obsessive compulsive among us nothing would ever be done RIGHT or ON TIME! The hardest part is accepting that not everyone is OCD and that doesn't make them "bad". The 2nd hardest part is keeping your hands to yourself when faced with disarray and clutter! I'm a picture straightener and neat freak from way back.

Check out the list and either implement or scoff...your choice entirely, as always.....

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Aspirin A Day For Women

Aspirin a day might help women fight heart risk | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: "Nearly all U.S. women are in danger of heart disease or stroke and should be more aggressive about lowering their risk — including asking their doctors about daily aspirin use, the American Heart Association said Monday in new guidelines.

It is the first time guidelines have urged all women to consider aspirin for preventing strokes, although specialists warn that it can cause ulcers and dangerous bleeding. They said it is probably not a good idea for young women with no big health problems."


All a woman has to do is take one 81 mg Ecotrin a day and get on with their life. I saw my cardiologist just yesterday and he told me to get back on my one-a-day routine. I also use a doctor prescribed hormone patch and just love it. It's easy, effective and relatively safe so long as you check your boobies yourself and get a Mammygrammy every year.

The most difficult part about being more healthy to me is the exercise part. It's recommended 20 minutes a day, more if trying to lose weight. I'll go at it hot and heavy for awhile and then something will come along to break the pattern and I slide back into my slovenly ways. Sigh. I need to jump start myself on that issue.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Sign The Petition - Take The Pledge

If you ever vote Republican, and you feel as I do, take The Pledge:

If the United States Senate passes a resolution, non-binding or otherwise, that criticizes the commitment of additional troops to Iraq that General Petraeus has asked for and that the president has pledged, and if the Senate does so after the testimony of General Petraeus on January 23 that such a resolution will be an encouragement to the enemy, I will not contribute to any Republican senator who voted for the resolution. Further, if any Republican senator who votes for such a resolution is a candidate for re-election in 2008, I will not contribute to the National Republican Senatorial Committee unless the Chairman of that Committee, Senator Ensign, commits in writing that none of the funds of the NRSC will go to support the re-election of any senator supporting the non-binding resolution.

Go here to sign your name


We'll likely see today how many Senators earn me keeping my checkbook firmly closed.

Here are 17 Republicans in the House of Representatives who shouldn't see dime one:

Michael Castle (DE),
Howard Coble (NC), a USCG and USCGR vet,
Tom Davis(VA), a US Army and US Army Reserve vet,
John 'Jimmy' Duncan (TN), National Guard and US Army Reserve vet
Philip English (PA),
Wayne Gilchrest (MD),
Bob Inglis (SC),
Tim Johnson (IL),
Walter Jones (NC),
Ric Keller (FL),
Mark Kirk (IL), USNR
Steven LaTourette (OH),
Ron Paul (TX),
Thomas Petri (WI),
Jim Ramstad (MN), US Army and US Army Reserve vet
Fred Upton (MI),
James Walsh (NY)

******************************************

Go to Iraq War Today and read the comments entitled My Two Cents: The Speech No Politician Would Ever Give!

Friday, February 16, 2007

Exactly What I Would Of Said To The House


Congressman Culberson issued the following statement today on the floor of the House of Representatives regarding the Democrats' Iraq resolution, H. Con. Res. 63, disapproving the President's decision to deploy an additional 20,000 soldiers to Iraq on a temporary basis.

"The vote today is very simple. Will America give up and walk away from the fight to preserve American civilization?

"The people of Houston's District Seven are immensely proud of the men and women of our armed forces, and we want our soldiers and our commander-in-chief to know that we will always support them, and to know that we will do our best to protect them, especially in a time of war.

"We thank our armed forces for keeping us safe and free from another terrorist attack for the 1,985 days since 9/11.

"On behalf of the people of Houston's District Seven, I will vote no on this resolution and tell our enemies and our friends that Americans will never quit, and Americans will never surrender in the fight to preserve, protect, and defend American freedom."


Thank you, Representative Culberson, for speaking eloquently for me! God Bless Our Troops and guide our President and tell the Democrats in Congress to take a flying bleep!

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Some Links Of Interest.....To ME Anyway

I've the worst for finding cool links and sending them in e-mail to my kids mostly. Sometimes they tell me they got some use out of them. There is sooooo much STUFF online that it is impossible to see/find it all. I read a lot of "link lists" and these are some of the ones I found worthwhile...

1. Wake Up Feeling Great With These 22 Tips for High Self-Esteem
I need to study this one. I tend to bounce between good self-esteem and feeling lower than a worm's behind about myself. One of my good friends can pull me down faster than anything and yet remains clueless to his comments effects. He thinks he's very supportive and that I've got interpretation problems. I will give him credit for making my skin a tad tougher over the years, but from time to time I have to take a vacation from both his positive and his negative retorts.

2. Gmail - A Google approach to email
This is without a doubt the BEST free e-mail provider online. You get tons of storage space or, like me, you can forward your mail to your own program and not even have to go to the site to check for new messages. Now I'll admit I rarely use this e-mail address, but ever so often one wants to get and give e-mail on the QT and this is great for that too! Until now one had to be invited to Gmail, now it's open for everyone. Yea!

On a similar note, the best throw-away e-mail idea comes from Bloglines. You can set up unlimited amounts of e-mail addresses using any name you like and when you are through with them you just unsubscribe to them and they are gone. Perfect for those times when you are supposed to get out your e-mail address to get free offers, etc., but you don't want to be hounded for the rest of your days at one of your "real" addresses. NOW if they'd just come up with a bogus physical address generator I'd be a happy form filler!

3. 8 steps you should take if your identity is stolen
They say that this is the fastest growing crime on the planet. May anyone that profits from such an endeavor suffered bloody boils on his or her privates!

4. Protecting Yourself Against Online Identity Theft
Maybe I should put this how-not-to before the good-god-it-happened-to-me post. It's all good.

5. 4 Homemade Febreeze Recipes
This is pretty cool for the DIYers and anyone wanting to save some scratch!

6. The 20 Minute Guide to PC Security
I worry everyday about the e-mail I get from my some of my friends that are well meaning and sweet, but totally clueless about the dangers that e-mail can bring into your CPU. All I can do is hope their anti-virus programs are updated daily and make double damned sure mine are too!

7. 10 things you should never buy used
I thought this was an interesting read. I thought of a bunch of silly suggestions like condoms, tampons, toothbrushes, rectal thermometer, dental bridge, temporary crowns, glass eyes, etc. Then I added makeup and mascara knowing full well that me and the girls sell TONS of that every time we have a garage sale! Go fig.

Until next time...

Is This Any Way To Run An Airline?

As I mentioned in my post If This Is February, It Must Be Vegas, it's not uncommon for planes to have to circle and/or taxi before allowing passengers to de-plane. But this one takes the cake and the frosting on top!

Seems a JetBlue Airways (who I've never heard of) airplane up Nawth held passengers prisoner on one of their birds for NINE HOURS! This is what one of the passenger prisoners had to say about the experience:

"You gotta realize the frustration - you can look out the window and you can see, there's the gate, and if you let us off the plane, we can walk there,'' said Farrell, 48, of Brooklyn.

Onboard the planes, snack foods wore out their welcome, bathrooms became unpleasant and cabins sweltered, passengers said.

"They had to open the door every 20 minutes just so we could get air,'' said Sean Corrinet, 29, who was on a flight bound for Cancun, Mexico. It was delayed for at least eight hours, Baldwin said.


I'm thinking that maybe JetBlue would want to change their name to JetPhew! Or JetEuuu! Or JetBooHooLookOutForTheLawsuits!

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

If This Is February, It Must Be Vegas!

I've been in Las Vegas for our annual Vegas-Birthday bash. My best friend Paula's birthday is the 5th and we couldn't go then because it was Super Bowl weekend and Vegas is even more of a traffic jam that weekend than usual, so we picked the weekend of the 9th instead. We left on the 8th and got back on the 12th. I'm still trying to recover.

I thought we'd never get off the airplane last night. We had to circle about 15-20 minutes out and then when we finally got the okay to land, in theory, we had to circle some more and then on the ground we had to TAXI while the plane that was at our assigned gate was still there. They ended up changing our gate to another and we were way late by then. Not that it mattered to us, but many on the flight were trying to get on connecting flights and they were seriously miffed to say the least. The funny part was when we left Vegas the pilot was bragging that we had clear skies and a good tail wind and would most likely be home 20 or 30 minutes BEFORE schedule. Don't you just love it when pilots drink and drive!!

While in Vegas I went to see the Bodies exhibition at the Tropicana! It was AWE-SUM! I'm not kidding! I love that stuff! Everyone who can should go and see it ...... or at least every kid in school! To see a human heart that is perfectly preserved and NOT just a model left me speechless. The way they "splay" something like the muscles and ligaments made it all so much more clear than looking at pictures in books. The blood vessel and veins displays are almost like works of art. In fact, the bodies themselves are ALL like artwork. Leonardo da Vinci would of had a ball!



Just look at that picture! That's a real human body! Can you imagine how being able to see inside the body they way they do would of meant to medical students and such for the past several hundred years? Would anyone EVER start smoking if they could see an actual "black lung"? Not just pictures, but the real deal.....amazing! 'Course that's just me, going off on what a swell exhibit it was ...... the folks I was with all said "euuuuu" and wouldn't of been caught dead there......every pun intended.

We stayed downtown again. I really like Freemont Street for accommodations. You can hit plenty of casinos and spend not one red cent on taxi fares. You can walk back and forth and still not put out as much energy or shoe leather that you would just to walk from the front door at the Flamingo to the front door at Cesar's Palace. The food is okay and the gambling was good because you can still find some of the older style slot machines downtown. I liked the newest ones too.....the giant Wheel Of Fortune that nine people can sit around and when you hit the SPIN the whole wheel in the center revolves. My newest favorite though was something called "Gold Fish". I was winning, or at least not losing badly, until Saturday....then I went nuts and started selecting my machines unwisely and not getting out when I hit something. Sigh. I had a good time though and I take what I can afford to lose and never, ever even think about writing checks or using the ATM machines.

Oh, I forgot to mention, we stayed in the North tower of the Four Queens and it was very nice. I'd love to stay at the Golden Nugget, but it's gotten too pricey since the Landry folks took over. They manage to do that with most of the stuff they touch.....they pretty much ruined Luby's cafeteria with their high prices and changing the way things were done. They don't give old folks a break anymore and they cook with even more grease than the last owners did. Their motto must be "Lots and Lots Of Grease And Salt" means you can sell more expensive iced tea!

I love going to Vegas and I love coming back home. It's a great vacation, but I don't see how anyone would want to live there full time. If you did live there you'd get used to the unrelenting glitz and then what would you do for fun?

On one final note - if it's February, it's also time to wish Happy Birthdays to my baby girl Elaine, my son-in-law Bert and my bud Don! Happy Birthday, y'all!