Al Roker…..you lap dancing fool!

So this morning on the Today show Matt, Meredith and Al were exchanging witty banter about privacy and hidden cameras. I can’t remember exactly what the exchange was about but Meredith commented on being on hidden camera and said something like “You really wouldn’t want to see yourself then would you?” Al then promptly replied with……”No way, not like a stripper on a pole in front of a mirror.”

Result: dead silence, crickets chirping…… Did he really just say "Stripper Pole" in casual converstaion on The Today Show? I swear it was so quiet you could here Katy Couric snickering in her upper west side apartment 50 blocks away.

Despite the tranquility of hearing Meredith Viera shut-up for a few seconds, it was one of the most awkward moments I’ve ever seen on the Today Show, of which there have been quite a few.

Weeds

Because I hate Blockbuster……they are the devil…….Barb and I have a subscription to Netflix. This week we received the first 6 episodes of the Showtime TV show “Weeds”. It is so funny! So wrong, but hilarious. We are addicted to it now. I’m almost tempted to get a subscription to Showtime, just to watch the second season.

It stars Mary-Louise Parker as Nancy as a recently widowed, mother of two, who sells marijuana to support her upper-middle class suburban lifestyle in So Cal. It costars Elizabeth Perkins as Celia, her desperate, uptight, controlling neighbor; who’s discovery that she has breast cancer sends her into a crazy mid-life crisis that includes flashing Nancy’s 15 year old sun and a one night stand with Nancy’s supplier.

Meanwhile, Nancy maintains her lifestyle by selling to other adults in the neighborhood including Celia’s husband and her accountant Doug, played by Kevin Nealon.

This is a fantastic show. A warning, though, don’t watch it to learn any moral lessons, rather to see an innovative plot unravel and excellent and realistic character portrayals by excellent actors.

You can learn more about the show by going to the Showtime website:
http://www.sho.com/site/weeds/home.do

Bored at work? Try this.....

If youÂ’re looking for something to help pass the time, check out the web site of JKrowlingg, the author of the Harry Potter books. The website, http://www.jkrowling.com/, being geared for 12 year olds around the world, is actually quite entertaining for the 12 year old in all of us.

The site is set-up like you are in her house; sitting at her desk, looking at her bulletin board, reading books in her library and looking at her journal. Within the site are many Easter Eggs that will give you snippets into the new book, or character developments. ItÂ’s interesting.

To get you started, when you log in, go to the “Extra Stuff” section by clicking on the hairbrush sitting on the desk. Once there click and drag the eraser to the blank sheet of paper. When you do, it will reveal the ingredients required to gain a special prize. These 3 items can be found all around the website if you look carefully. Once you find an item click on it to store it. Once you have all 3, the secret prize will be revealed.

I Miss Katy

If you are a regular viewer of the Today Show, like me, you may have strong feeling about the Today Show. I am not a morning person, and I definitely have a routine in the morning; part of which is watching the Today Show. A couple weeks ago, the Today Show, introduced their new anchor, Meredith Viera, as well as a new set. It may be that I am just grumpy in the morning, but I think Meredith is just annoying.

She’s trying too hard; things seem forced. It’s like she’s pretending to have this history with Matt, Al and Anne when she doesn’t. Also, you can just tell that Anne wanted that anchor position and just wants to drop-kick Meredith off the set.

I’m not sure if that’s how it was when Katie Couric started, but it seems very forced compared to KC. Katy may be annoying and smug sometimes, but at lease she seems real.I'm not giving up on her yet though. I hope she'll calm down a little and force things a little less in a few months.

On the side note, the new Today Show set is weird. It’s so colorless, like they are transmitting from a saved set from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Everything is all plastic. The camera is also off center due to the HD filming, I don’t like it.

My Mullet and Me

So….for the last couple years I have had relatively long hair. In fact, most of the time I have had a mullet of sorts. It wasn’t intentional and the back of my hair was the same length as the front, but the back has this wicked, trailer park wave to it that makes it look like a mullet when it’s long Today, I finally let go of the Indigo Girl inside me and cut it all off. While I was getting the snip I became reminescent and began to think of all the famous people who have had mullets…..

Kevin Coster
As mentioned above...both of the Indigo Girls
1/3 of the NHL
1/4 of MLB
Michael Bolton
Billy Ray Cyrus
Andre Agassi
Jerry Seinfeld

After bidding farewell to “the party in the back and the business in the front” I was still haunted by it’s memory heading back to work. While exploring the internet I came across this excellent ppt presentations on the history of the mullet.

Click here to view the presentation

Apparently the mullet…or mullette in French…. Has been around for thousands of year and is also genetically passed to children of Mulleters. Who’d a thunk it?

Anyway, enjoy the presentation and if the mood hits, observe a moment of silence for the loss of my mullet.

The Buffoons....er The Buffalos

Ok, ok, it’s been a long time since I’ve written. I seem to have focused most of my attention on our wedding website lately. It’s looking pretty good, but I have neglected my outpouring of thoughts into wanderingwithwords.com this summer.
Luckily I had something that inspired me start writing this up again…CU football. We are terrible. We’re 0-3 with 3 convincing losses; one of which was to division 1-AA, (1-2) Montana State, oh yeah that’s right; we are they’re only win so far. Now that’s sad…..

There is just no talent to work with on the team. We all knew Barnett couldn’t coach his way out of a paper bag, but it turns out that he really couldn’t recruit either. I mean, our offense had negative yards through the first 5 halves of this season! This being said, our defense looks pretty good actually. This is probably due to all the practice they are getting by being on the field about 45 minutes of every game. The good news is that even though our offense may go 4 and out with negative yards every drive, we are able to hold the other teams….most of the time.
The good news is this year I don’t have to continually be disappointed every game when I hold out hope that we may win. I can focus my energy on things that have a better chance of happening….like Jake Plummer being MVP….or Maurice Clarett starting a recreational football league in the Ohio Penal System. (see Clarett Article here)

Come On.....Flag Burning........Really?

Is a flag burning ban really the most pressing issue for the senate to address? I understand that it is a great “tool” to use when campaigning that your opponent voted it was ok to degrade our flag and, therefore, what it stands for, but I am a little disgusted by this waste of time, tax-payer’s money and senatorial effort. With all the pressing issues at hand, the war in Iraq, social security reform, health care reform, border control, why are all our senators taking time to pass a flag-burning amendment?

I am a patriot; I’m glad to be from America and wouldn’t personally want to degrade our flag and what it stands for, but aren’t we a country founded on freedom? Ironic, that this potential new constitutional amendment, contradicts our very first amendment, freedom of speech. It isn’t “freedom of speech, unless the congress doesn’t like it.” Shouldn’t someone have the right to express their anger at our country by burning the flag? We allow people to burn other country’s flags; it’s ok if someone burns a likeness of our president or a presidential candidate, but our flag…no.

I guess I will just have to sit at home, and watch this fascinating and pressing debate and see what the outcome is…….all the while eating my freedom fries.

Back from Hiatus

I decided to take a little break from blogging while work was particularly busy and we were in the midst of moving, but I am hoping things will be slowing down soon so I can jump back into this. Anyway, here are just a few things that I have been contemplating lately…..

Things on my mind:

• Weddings – Wow, everyone is getting married! Something is in the air for sure; I don’t know about you, but I plan on never getting married.
• Scrubs – What the hell……NBC cancelled Scrubs! I don’t understand? That show is so funny, and NBC has no funny shows anymore. How does a show like “7th Heaven” stay on the air and Scrubs gets cancelled. Now I know the acting on 7th Heaven is suburb and the character development is very complex and three-dimensional, but come on! Scrubs has all those things too; plus an occasional musical montage featuring a string of has-been 80’s pop artists.
• Julia Roberts – She hasn't looked very good in her movies recently; she looked horrible in Oceans 12. Is it me or does her mouth seems to keep getting bigger as she gets older? Anyone else notice that? It’s really strange, she almost has a Joker like grin now.
• Butlers – I think some day I would like a butler. How cool would it be to have someone to butle around for you? I can be sitting in the East Wing of the house and simply yell out “Farnsworth, I would like a snow cone made with ice from the arctic glacial basin and flavoring made from hawaiian pineapple grown on the original Dole farm on the island Oahu, served in the cone brazier worn by Madonna at her London stop of the Blond Ambition Tour” and he would say “Of course, Mr. Martin, right away.” Yes………….that would be excellent.

New Kids on the Block

So we bought a house! It’s pretty crazy, we are under contract on a house in Bonnie Brae. It’s a 3 bedroom, 2 bath ranch built in 1952. It has a new kitchen, an awesome backyard and ….wait for it…..a bar! We are really excited. Check out some of the pictures…….

Dining Room

Kitchen

Mmmm....Beer

Backyard

Selling a kidney to buy a home

It’s been insanely busy lately!

For starters – our place is under contract! It only took 2 weeks for an offer to come in. I countered and they accepted. Although I am not making any money on my place (I was never expecting too) I am happy with what I’m getting for it and am getting what I put into it. So now that that is done, Barb and I are frantically looking for a new place. If we can’t find a place before we close on our old place, we have a couple of friends that generously offered to let us stay at their places until we find a new place. I would rather not do that, but it’s a nice offer.

This leads me to my rant for the week…..
How do people afford homes in Denver? The market is so out of whack. I think that with Barb and my combined incomes, we make enough to afford a decent house. Apparently I am wrong. Every place we look at has something wrong with it…like a 1970’s kitchen, a toilet in the middle of the basement or a famly of squirrels living in the fireplace…………. and the sellers are asking an absurd amount of money for it…..squirrels and all. It’s perplexing. We have looked in a handful of different neighborhoods and, on average, the prices of homes has gone up by double-digit percentages per year for the last 5 years. That’s funny because I don’t think inflation, the GDP or my salary has gone up by that much each year. Am I missing something? Is there some secret to buying a home that I don’t know about? Do I have to sell a vital organ in order to afford a decent home?

Ok I’m done now. Thanks for reading

The Last Week or So

I haven’t posted in a week so here is an update on what has been going on.

Race- So the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile race was great. The race was pretty easy actually. I think I really noticed the difference in altitude. It was distracting to run past all the monuments so that helped get my mind of the fact that I was running for 100 minutes. I was able to finish in 1:41:40. So 10:10 minute miles. When I first started running I thought I would run it in 11 minute miles so I am pretty happy with that. Barb and Kristen did really well too so it was a good day.

DC – Was beautiful weather and it was great to see all our friends and meet a bunch of Barb’s friends and family who live in the area. The city is really interesting, very historic with all the US monuments and museums. My favorite monument was the FDR memorial. It is very serene with water features, quotes and statues of FDR all along the monument. I like it because instead of just being a attractive structure, it actually traces the events of his terms in office and brings to mind the era he was president. We also went to the Holocaust museum. It was very depressing but so well down, I would recommend it to everyone.

Condo – The condo is on the market and we have had about 8 showings in the first week. It’s a good sign that people are looking so hopefully we’ll hear have an offer before too long. We have been looking at neighborhood that we would potentially like to move to and it has been a little depressing. I can’t believe how expensive some of the neighborhoods in Denver are. People are asking so much money for little, dirty, dinge homes in questionable neighborhoods. If I didn’t hate it so much, I would say we should just move to Highlands Ranch and get a big, new house for less money.

Home Repair Part II

So I have reached the point of diminishing returns when it comes to fixing up the house. Last night, after 2 hours of painting smudges and nicks all over the house, I thought we were finally done with the home repair. Nope, I just had to keep going. First, I went to screw in the face plate on the light switch and broke it by screwing the screw in too far. Then I went to try to fix a crack in the drywall, ended up ripping off a chunk of the wall. Luckily with some superglue it’s back in place :)

We leave tomorrow for DC and the big race! I think I am ready for it. Beside the race, DC should be fun. We’ve never been there and this time of year is supposed to be beautiful with the Cherry Blossoms. I am excited to see some friends from college that live out there now. Should be a good time!

Caulk This!

I am so sick of fixing up my house. I have spent all of my spare time the last 3 weeks getting my house ready to sell. This is frustrating since before I started I thought it was already ready. To date I have:

• Replaced the carpet
• Re-caulked all the windows and the bathtubs
• Painted over scuffs on the doors, walls and trim
• Scrubbed the outside of the house
• Cleaned the inside at least 15 times
• Packed and moved out many, many boxes of crap
• Re-arranged the furniture at least 5 times

I don’t think I can do anymore to fix it up. The house goes on the market on Thursday so hopefully the effort will help to sell it.

Wine, Wine, Wine

Apparently, I have an acute sense of smell and taste. For instance, I can taste things in wines that most people can’t. I’m not sure if this is just my imagination or if I can really taste these things, but as I have become more attuned to it, I really enjoy tasting new wines now. Below are a few really good wines that are cheap and great for drinking with dinner….or after work……. or as a 7am morning drink (ok, that might be a sign of a problem). Does anyone else have any recommendations on wines? Having spent most of my drinking years consuming Keystone Ice, I am a novice when it comes to wines. Anyway, on to the wines:


Maribeau – This is so cheap and good. Barb’s parents turned us on to this one. It has a really clean taste, yet has enough body to not feel like you’re drinking . It’s really good with anything and is so cheap! It’s about $6 a bottle and comes in a liter bottle (a standard bottle of wine is 750ml). Both the red and white are good.



Twin Fin Pinot Noir – This is a good pinot that Barb read about and found. Again, it’s not overbearing but has more flavor than the Maribeau. It’s from a small vineyard in California whose motto is “We prefer sunny Days over dark cellars”. The name “Twin Fin” refers to a type of surf board. It’s $9 for a bottle of pinot noir that is better than the more expensive, larger Kendall Jackson type brands. If you don’t want to finish a bottle you can just screw the lid (no quark) back on. They also have Cab, Merlot and Chardonnay which we haven’t tried.

Evolution – Our local wine store, Marczyk’s, recommended this white. It is a bit more pricy but is so good. It’s very crisp and you can definitely taste the pear in the wine. It’s great with dinner, but at $15, it’s a little pricier. Worth the cost though
Strawberry Boones – Ok, just seeing if you are still reading at this point. If you are an 18 year old freshman girl rushing Kappa Kappa Gamma, this is your drink. Otherwise watch out for the wicked hangover the next morning. If you would like to go down this route, like me, you may be fooled into thinking there is only one flavor of Boones, but oh is that wrong. They have many revolting flavors, a sampling of which includes blackberry ridge, sangria and melon ball. Mmmmmmm Yuck!

Oh Brother(s) Where Art Thou?

I’m beginning to think my brother, Danny, doesn’t like his family or Colorado anymore. He moved to New Zealand last August for a year and has decided to stay for, at least, another year and move to Melbourne. In fact, in the last 3 years he has spent more than half his time out of the country. Prior to the trip to New Zealand he spent 6 months in Melbourne.

Maybe it’s all the family functions… birthdays, holidays, anniversaries. With 3 parents, 4 brothers, 3 girlfriends and a dog I guess it can get a little overwhelming. Maybe it’s that he doesn’t jive politically with our amazing President……..unnecessary wars, deficit spending, cronyism out the ying, yang…… I don’t see the problem there. Maybe it's that Australia is amazing and I’m sure New Zealand is just as beautiful?

No, I don’t think those are the reason.

I think there is another, more pressing motive for staying in the Southern Hemisphere. I think that he and his Kiwi girlfriend, Charlotte, who happens to be a great person…….I’m sure she’ll read this………are hiding their love child from the rest of the family. That’s right, I think they have given birth to a beautiful bouncing baby boy…..who’s name is, I assume, Matthew.

On a side note, it’s easier to figure out why one of my other brothers, Joey, moved out of state last summer. I know he likes the family and Colorado, but he just likes money much, much more. Hence the move to Las Vegas.

Run Matt Run!

So tonight I did my last big run before the Cherry Blossom 10 mile race that's in two weeks. We ran 8.25 miles and it was a tough run. It was really cold and very, very windy. I ran a little under 10 minute mile pace so I am psyched about that and think I may try to run the CB at that pace. I figure I will be able to since it is at sea-level.

Tomorrow is NCAA Tourney Day. I am picking UW-Milwaukee as my upset team. This is because they are an underrated team and are going up against an overrated team, Oklahoma…………apparently overrating runs rampant in all Oklahoma sports….