…I might have to accidentally buy these…
Miss Sixty 'Scarlett' Pump
Can see them with my cute black&white plaid skirt w/cute tights for fall/winter. Or a multitude of other cute fall & winter skirt/dress outfits :)
And seeing the need for a new little black dress that would work…
Oh look…going into the Colts/Cardinal game I seem to have already won :) I will revel in this relaxed win as a fluke. My opponent has no more players to play (plus left Westbrook in when he was out to due to injury!!!) and I have Dallas Clark and Tim Hightower in tonight’s game and I am 12 points ahead already. Whew…
This makes me 3-0 in our fantasy league. And #2 in our 10 person/team league. And so far (fingers AND toes crossed) the #1 is losing this week – darn…
BUT – I am praying for an ARI win so that I am tie for our pool picks going into MNF. I have 48 points. So it is a looooong shot that I win but I don’t give up :)
Won my Survivor pick. I chose BAL. And so did everyone else but 1 person (husband) who chose them last week. So we all survived. Darn. Only 1 person out in this league (the admin – hehe) since it started.
So a good NFL week for me…
I’m not “religious”. My parents both went to Catholic school and my father was very against forcing any religion on me. He viewed it as something I should find and believe for myself. I was baptized so that my grandparents wouldn’t worry about my eternal soul but that was it.
Now, it’s not to say I am not spiritual. I very much believe there is more to humans and life than the meat bodies we inhabit. But what is it? That I cannot tell you. Pretty sure you can’t tell me for sure either.
I’m a big believer in religious freedom. I figure you should be able to believe whatever you want as long as it is not causing harm to others (you want to harm yourself – that’s up to you.) And by this, I also mean you cannot suppress your people/believers (talking right at you Islamic countries and the way you treat women.)
I do also believe people need some form of religion. A sense of group belonging. People need to believe that there is something more than what they have. Always. Society also needs the group mores provided by religion. Man left on his own will devolve. It’s why society also needs the police and the army. Of course, organized religions that grow large also grow very powerful. This power can corrupt. Simple fact. Will you find bad apples? Of course you will. Statistically, the more people there are, the more bad ones there are too.
And zealots of any religious flavor are bad. Be able to accept other people’s beliefs. You don’t like mine? Well, I might not like yours either. But whatever.
I do not care what you believe (as long as not harmful) or what God you want to pray to. Or days you want to celebrate as holy or whatever. But do NOT mess with mine either. My cards say Merry Christmas. If I receive a card that says Happy Hanukkah, or Happy Kwanzaa or Happy Festivus – I don’t mind. Someone is sharing their well wishes with me. That’s nice. Why in the world do people get upset by this kind of stuff?? That’s stupid. Period.
I was emailed this Ben Stein write-up (from a Today Show appearance in 2008) and I agree with it. Not all of it is attributed to Ben Stein. But I believe what the rest of it is saying so I left it in. No mention of it on Snopes.com that I could find. And at the end of the day Google does not equal research (thank you Dan Brown and Dr. Langdon!) so even if/though no one famous said the bulk of this – I agree with the idea behind it :)
“The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.
My confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are: Christmas trees.
It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.
(Note: the source for the remainder of this article is not Ben Stein, I have kept it here because it is still food for thought. There seems to be no such thing as absolute truth as regards news information so take it for what it is, the writings of a fellow human trapped in relative dualistic reality.)
In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking.
Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her ‘How could God let something like this happen?’ (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, ‘I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?’
In light of recent events… terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with ‘WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.’
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing yet?”
YAY! My Gentle Giant Jawas arrived today! They were released in 9/07 and sold out but Gentle Giant emailed their Collector’s Club with a small offering of them last week and I scooped 1 up (or in other words, they cleaned out/organized their warehouse and found some old stuff…)
Yes, I really do try and limit my collecting to a few characters but the Gentle Giant busts are a bit different. I do collect a lot of those. They are really well done. I like my standards (Han, Chewie, Leia) plus any of the female characters and the odd/fringe characters. And of course, the special editions (like the Christmas ones or Con exclusives.) Plus these little guys have light-up eyes – so really, had to get ’em :)
Gentle Giant Jawas
I still want the Gamorrean Guard but he sold out too fast :( So I will continue to troll eBay…
Gentle Giant Gamorrean Guard
Now I need to find room on my shelf this weekend!
Very cute…wish they had the white/gold combo in my size but I guess I can’t wear those now that it’s post-Labor Day anyway ;-)
Hmmm…decisions…
Week 2 of the NFL, and my fantasy season, was VERY stressful!!! I actually thought I lost for sure as of last night. Watching Brandon Jacobs get stuffed by the DAL defense was painful. I was playing someone with TEN’s Chris Johnson who got him 111 points! WTH????
Drew Brees was awesome as usual. Got me double what Yahoo projected. But my #1 rated defense? SUCK IT! Apparently Troy Polamalu is the #1 rated defense. And with him sidelined with an injury, they suck. 5 points I got from them….
All of my WRs and RBs got less than projected. I put in Jamal Lewis who was highly rated this week. Guess what? A good player on a suck team still doesn’t do much…I should have left Hightower in.
So my Fantasy Week 2 was riding on my tight end in MNF, Dallas Clark getting 50+ points. True, my opponent didn’t have any players in the IND/MIA game but still…over 50 points from a tight end? Right…so I basically gave up.
And then Peyton Manning to Dallas Clark for an 80 point TD pass!!! 30 points in the first drive of the game for me!!! All of a sudden – I was alive! Dallas ended up getting me 65.75 points. My highest point getter of the week was Brees at 65.85 points. Ho-le-mo-lee!
This is my 4th year with Dallas Clark as my TE. He was injured most of (was it?) last year but I do always draft him. I never get a TE in time for Gonzalez or Gates but after those 2 – Dallas is the man. Total WR/TE.
So yay! I won my week 2!! With my opponent getting 111 points from 1 player!! That’s insane. And some Irish luck shined on me :) And boy – that was some stress. But ended up getting some good total points on the week after all. So for all of my previous complaining about tight ends being a worthless roster spot – I owe my week to mine :)
I of course love my Fantasy QB. Brees gave me a lot of points last year and is having a stellar year so far. Love him and drafted him as my 2nd pick. But I will always love Peyton. He was my QB a couple of years ago and I think he is the best QB in the NFL right now (and my favorite QB of all time is Montana.) But besides that, he seems like a great guy. And really – who cannot love him on SNL :)
OR
These make me cry from laughing every time I watch them :) And frankly, he was better than most actors/entertainers that I have seen appear on the show. I think as a highly competitive athlete, he made sure he knew his lines and was professional. And damn funny :)
Last night I woke up at around 1:30am to a banging noise. It was obvious to me it was one of my dogs banging on a door to be let in/let out of someplace. Since they were both asleep when I went to bed last night, this seemed odd.
I got up and out of bed immediately and checked for the dogs. They both always sleep in the same spots – Angelus on his bed and Storm under our bed (it’s a tall bed.) Storm wasn’t there. So I checked the spare bedroom and office as their doors were closed. They aren’t usually closed but until Storm’s Cushing’s Disease medication kicks in, I have been making sure to give him less open areas in the house to have an “accident”.
But no Storm in those rooms. Checked the garage and then back downstairs to the master bedroom to check the closet. Now this was in a span of a minute or 2. I was flying around the house looking for him. Where could he be? Then I decide to look out the window of the front door. And I see his little head.
I let him in and he ran right downstairs to the bedroom and drank almost a whole bowl of water. And then scooted under the bed and just sat there, panting very hard. He was clearly very stressed out. I hung out with him, petting him for about 15 minutes and he fell asleep. This means he was off-leash, no collar or tags and free to roam the neighborhood and get lost. Or worse – get hit by a car. We have only a few streetlights on our street and some of the streets around us have none. Rural area.
Luckily Storm is a Momma’s boy and would not venture away unless his brother led his away (who was likely annoyed that he was stuck inside!) Or if he saw a cat, raccoon, skunk, etc., then he would have taken off after it for sure. Not entirely sure how he got OUT of the yard. Must investigate that. Thinking that he squeezed himself between the posts on the gate. But thankfully, his desire to always be by his people, kept him safely at the front door wanting to be let in. He is quite the creature of routine and he knew it was sleepy time (you tell them “sleepy time” and they go right to their beds.) It was very dark out (fog, no moonlight, no outside lights on) and he was stuck outside – which never happens. This stressed him out. Since he has Cushing’s Disease and just got over a too-many-doctor-visit-stress-induced tummy/GI issue, I really don’t want him stressed further.
Plus I had a weird accident the day before (car peeling out of parking lot and not seeing me crossing Highway 1 so had to run fast out of his way, tripped myself up, causing me to take a digger on the asphalt so that I could pull the dogs forward in front of me and out of the street.) This freaked me out a bit as I had been having these weird thoughts about something happening to the dogs. So…thinking about him being stressed and sad, wondering why he was alone and stuck outside in the dark, made *me* very sad and stressed out. All of this likely contributing to my bad dreams for the rest of the night.
Then as I was petting Storm and he was panting hard, my husband woke up and asked what all the commotion was. I told him Storm was stuck outside and I just let him in (knowing it was he who let him out into the front yard and then apparently forget to bring him inside before he went to bed.) Oh, he says. And goes back to sleep. Grrrr.
I went back to bed and had nightmares for the rest of the night about bad things happening to the dogs. I would fall asleep for a few minutes and then the same nightmare would wake me up. All night long. I finally gave up trying to get any sleep around 5:30am. I don’t recall what the details of the nightmares were anymore, just the bad feeling of them.
This morning, husband told me he must have forgotten that he let Storm out to pee last night and then just went to bed. Oops. Kind of funny really, right? No, notsomuch. He then asked if Storm scratched the front door when he wanted to be let in. I don’t know. And actually don’t care.
Nothing bad happened to Storm other than some unneeded stress on his little system. But thinking of what could have happened stresses me out. I normally don’t think that way actually but when it comes to the safety of my doggies, I am very careful and probably a bit neurotic. So a little more concern displayed this AM would have been nice but whatever. Storm is contently catching up on his sleep…
Sleepy puppy...
But today, I am very exhausted. And grumpy. Instead of eating lunch I am typing this in the hopes my venting will alleviate my stress/upset. But I better eat something today at some point or someone could get stabbed…
Was able to snag the Mynock Chewbacca bust from Gentle Giant! LOVE it! Received it last week and put it up today!
Chewbacca Mynock edition - Gentle Giant
Yes…I do love Chewie. He is the BEST best friend, co-pilot, first officer, first mate. There when you need him. Always. Would give his life for you. If Angelus would have been brown, he would have been named Chewbacca. So yeah, I have a fair amount of Chewie stuff…just a sample…
Chewbacca - Gentle Giant bust
Chewbacca - Gentle Giant
That Chewie statue was my very first Gentle Giant collectible. Loved it soooo much when I received it . Still do.
Chewbacca - original Star Wars plush
My husband bought me this Chewie plush. It’s an original from 1977 – Star Wars era. Tag still attached. I was very happy with this prize :) Little Chewies on his lap are from other lines and not 70s.
Chewbacca - signed pic
My signed Peter Mayhew pic. Got this at Wonder Con in SF. TESB is my favorite movie ever so wanted this pic signed. He is a very nice guy. VERY tall!! But a very, very nice guy.
Chewbacca - radcliffe pewter
And Chewie as done by Radcliffe in pewter. I have a fair amount of these pewter figures. Well, in the characters I really care about. At some point, you can just spend too much on fringe characters or characters you don’t really care about. But Han and Chewbacca…well…my favorites. The scoundrel with a heart and his best friend :)
I missed Comic-Con this year :( Kevin Smith is there every year and is always a great panel to sit in for. Here he rants about Twilight (pro!) and it makes a heck of a lot of sense! So HA to all you judgey-judgersons out there :) Favorite line is re: Spock, Chewbacca, geeks :) Hehehehe
I found out about this clip because of this Vanity Fair interview:
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2009/09/kevin-smith.html#share-1000000000175205
He is definitely a funny guy. Crude but funny.
I *definitely* want to see the new movie “The September Issue”. It’s a full-access (supposedly/hopefully) behind the scenes look at Anna Wintour and her solidified place in the fashion industry. I don’t usually even read Vogue but I kind of want to see if I can find the September issue now (after reading about the movie and watching the full trailer!)
After reading and/or watching “The Devil Wears Prada”, I think we assume we know what she is like. But at the end of the day, most executives in large companies are that demanding. Just because she is a woman, she is a bitch? Meh – I saw a LOT worse and heard just as many crazy demands when I worked at a hedge fund. All by men.
Of course, Meryl Streep was FAN-tastic in the role of Miranda. The book made the assistant (Andy) seem like a big whiner to me. They toned that feeling down a lot in the movie. She was much more likable. The same went for the Nanny Diaries actually. Whine, whine, whine girls!! I can recall soooo many out of this world requests when I was the assistant to the Managing General Partner of the hedge fund where I worked. And so many more for other assistants after I didn’t have to do them anymore :) I could probably write a book full of crazy stuff the “average” person would be shocked at/laugh at/shake their head at/wonder why the hell people stayed there. None of the stuff in the book or the movie shocked me or made me think – what a horrible bitch she is. It’s called a job people…but it does make for good reading for those on the outside of the situation!
I might wait for this to come out on DVD though. Seems more fun to watch it while wearing some insanely fashionable outfit that wouldn’t be comfortable at ALL in a movie theater and drinking a glass or 2 of Veuve Cliquot :)
