Time off

I'm taking a little time off. Click here if you want all the details. See you when I return!

Oil spill worsens off Gulf Coast

Photo courtesy Yahoo News

I am really upset by the oil spill that resulted from an oil rig explosion last week. I'm upset for obvious reasons. The effect on the environment. The loss of wildlife. The loss of human life.

I'm also upset because we were told one thing, that the well was leaking 1,000 barrels of oil a day into the ocean, when in reality it is much worse than that. The well is leaking 5,000 barrels of oil a day. That's 200,000 gallons of oil. Every day. 

According to the story I read today on Yahoo News, the spill is expected to surpass the disastrous Exxon Valdez spill that WAS the worst oil spill in history. That 1989 spill off Alaska's Prince William Sound leaked 11 million gallons of oil into the ocean. 


What they are saying about THIS spill:

The oil slick could become the nation's worst environmental disaster in decades, threatening hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast, one of the world's richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life. Thicker oil was in waters south and east of the Mississippi delta about five miles offshore.

I am literally sick over this. I just don't know what else to say. I'm praying that they get this under control NOW. I'm so scared that they will turn this into some sort of we're-doing-what-we-can-but-really-not-doing-anything deal. I hope they DO really do something. I'm just scared they're taking too long already and that doesn't look good for our future.

Dorothy Provine dies at 75

I read this morning that actress Dorothy Provine passed away at the age of 75. She had emphysema. She was in the movies It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and Kiss The Girls and Make Them Die (1966) as well as others. I found this TV Star Parade cover that she was featured on in June of 1961. May she Rest In Peace.

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The toilet paper thief

I bet you think this is going to be a story about someone stealing toilet paper. Or maybe someone using all the toilet paper and not replacing it. Nope. But it is about toilet paper.

A man in Lincoln Nebraska decided he wanted to rob a local convenience store. Of course to do that he needed a disguise. What could be better than toilet paper to disguise your identity right?

He wrapped his head in the toilet paper, armed himself with a knife and robbed the store on Saturday night. He then ran away on foot with his loot. He hasn't been captured yet. You would think they could follow his paper trail...  

Food Recalls: Salmonella

There is a LARGE recall of products right now that contain Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein because of salmonella contamination. The list contains Walmart's Great Value products, Dean's products, McCormick products, Publix products and Kroger products just to name a few. FoodSafety.gov says the following:

Salmonella Associated with Foods with Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein

• Hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) is a flavor enhancer used in processed foods. 

• HVP manufactured by Basic Food Flavors has been recalled because of Salmonella. See the consumer alert. 

• No illnesses have been reported. 

• HVP is used in a wide variety of food products. Only products made with HVP from Basic Food Flavors are being recalled. 

Please click here to view the list of food products that are being recalled. It's a very long list (17 pages) so look carefully to make sure you don't have any of the products!

The ugly truth

So most of you know that I no longer have a TV. Well, I have a TV, I just can't watch anything on it except movies. I still watch my Survivor and The Amazing Race online (by the way, Amazing Race was pretty good last night but no one got eliminated...boo! I was so ready for it to be the final three!) but besides that it's movies. Lots of movies. Lots and lots of movies. 

As a matter of fact, my movie collection is reaching into the 100s. Truly. Which is cool because I love movies but a little on the scary side when I look at the huge pile of them just sitting there waiting to be watched.

I finally got around to watching The Ugly Truth. This movie came out last year and stars Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler. Let me just say...GREAT MOVIE! I loved it! If you haven't seen it you're really missing out. It's too funny! Here's the trailer for it that I found on YouTube:






Best scene to me: In the restaurant with the little boy playing with the remote. That's all the details you're getting from me. You'll have to watch the movie to see exactly what I'm talking about!

My other favorite picks of movies I've watched recently: Date Night with Steve Carell and Tina Fey, The Bounty Hunter with Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler and Everybody's Fine with Robert De Niro, Kate Beckinsale and Drew Barrymore.

Face On

You've seen the movie Face-Off right? I always had trouble believing in that movie. If they only switched faces then Nicholas Cage should have had John Travolta's body and vica versa correct? Anyway, I digress.

A Spanish farmer accidentally shot himself in the face five years ago and has undergone nine surgeries but still had to breathe with a ventilator and eat through a feeding tube. Basically his whole face was gone from the eye sockets down. He could still see but the rest of his face was blown off in the accident. 

Today 30 doctors in Madrid made history during a 24-hour surgery in which they gave him an entirely new face. 

During the 24-hour surgery, doctors lifted an entire face, including jaw, nose, cheekbones, muscles, teeth and eyelids, and placed it masklike onto the man, Dr. Joan Pere Barret told The Associated Press on Friday.

That is totally amazing to me! They say he should be able to eat and breathe on his own in about a week. The only danger is his body rejecting the new face. I hope that doesn't happen and he gets to have a normal life again.

Say it ain't so Russell!

Photo by Monty Brinton/CBS©

I know Russell is a bully on Survivor. I know he's scheming and manipulating and sneaky. I know most people hate him. I'm not one of those people. Unless the story I read on E! Online is true.

Russell Hantz was allegedly arrested in Lafayette Louisiana for battery. Against a woman. 

According to a spokesman for the Lafayette Police Department, Hantz, 37, was partying at a local nightclub during the street festival when he allegedly got into an altercation with an unidentified woman, then shoved her to the ground.

Dammit Russell. Don't tell me you're one of those men. That makes me so mad. In the comment section there's this comment:

Melanie Hantz: (on facebook) Of course but I know what really happened, he didn't hit anyone police heard that by word of mouth. The person they say he supposedly hit said she don't know what the **** that came from cause he didn't do anything. There are witnesses. He didnt' even go to jail,they took him to the station and them let him go.

Of course that's what his wife says. Every wife of a low-down, wife-beating husband that I've ever met wants to defend her husband and talk about how great he is and how much he loves her and how it's not his fault.

The story from The Daily Advertiser out of Louisiana says this:

According to Cpl. Paul Mouton, spokesman for the Lafayette Police Department, officers were working downtown when they were flagged down in the 500 block of Jefferson Street about a disturbance between a man and a woman.

The 18-year-old woman and a witness told officers that the woman was in a verbal argument with Hantz, during which he allegedly pushed her to the ground. The woman suffered minor injuries, Mouton said.

Hantz was arrested a short time later and was cooperative with police, Mouton said. He has since been released from the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center.

I'm torn between believing the story and thinking that maybe the 18 year old made it up thinking she could get something out of it. I can't wait to see what the outcome is and what the truth is in reality. REAL reality...not reality TV.

Now, how....um, maybe...yes!

I wanted to share this video with you today that we took last night. When you get yourself stuck somewhere just keep trying and you'll find a way out!

Happy Earth Day!

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. It's up to each one of us to protect our planet. No matter who we are, where we live or how much money we have. Together we can do it.

Visit the Earth Day Network

My Earth baby

Twenty years ago today at 17 minutes after midnight, my life changed for the better and it changed forever. 


An angel was born. I named her Christina Marie. She weighed 8 pounds 5 ounces and was 21" long. 


She grew..

And grew..

And grew...

And grew up...

And fell in love..

She got married and now...

They grow up too fast.

I love you Christina! Happy Birthday baby ♥

In the directors chair?

Yes, I'm team Jen. Always have been. Always will be. I don't think she should be with Brad Pitt though. He already proved that he's not good enough for her in my eyes. Hush now. Don't yell at me all you Angelina/Brad fans. I just have issues with married men being with other women and that killed my love for Brad. Sorry.

On a less controversial note, I found this video from E! Online talking about Jennifer Aniston trying her hand at directing. I think I'd be interested in seeing what she could do. 

Oh, and if the ad at the beginning is still for the new Iron Man movie...that looks good! I'll have to watch it. 

 

Toys have come a long way

I found this video of a commercial from the 1960's. According to Wikipedia, The Swing Wing was sold in 1965 and was recalled "due to injury suffered in the necks of children caused by the continual jerking motions required to use the toy". Ya think? And really, were kids this easily entertained back then? My kids would have laughed in my face if I'd tried to give them this toy!

Not the best disguise

I was reading a story on E! Online about Charlie Sheen and his mustache being the worst celebrity disguise ever. I had to agree. It wasn't that great. As a matter of fact it was pretty sad...

Photo courtesy E! Online

I would recognize him. How about you? I think Lindsay Lohan did a much better job of disguising herself. That's her in the second picture.

Blah

I'll be back as soon as I can. For now I'm just hanging out in bed and hoping that whatever this is passes. If you are participating in my Hooray for Saturday! meme here, I'll be around to visit you it just might take me a little bit.

Bad day

Sometimes it doesn't pay to get out of bed. I think we've all had bad days. This guy will probably never forget his bad day. 




I hope y'all have a GOOD day. I'm going to try to figure out why Blogger has taken away several of my blogs. Wish me luck!

Don't mess with me!

I have a snake and I'm not afraid to use it!

Sounds ridiculous doesn't it? Well a South Carolina man didn't think so. After an argument over his music being too loud in his hotel room, he decided to show the complaining man that he meant business. He hit him in the head with his 4-foot python. You've just been snake slapped! 

He was arrested but not before making sure his snake was safe with family members. Shouldn't the snake be in police custody too? It was the weapon after all. That makes it evidence. At least I think so.

You're busted!

I've always thought it was funny that people think policemen and women do no wrong. Not haha funny. Peculiar funny. I mean, they are people. They do make mistakes. Nobody is perfect. 

A Colorado State Trooper makes my point on this subject. He makes it perfectly. 

Photo courtesy CBS/KCNC

Can you tell what the picture is of? It's the previously mentioned Trooper being arrested for drunk driving. In his squad car. In his uniform. While armed and on duty. I think that's a bit scary. Quite a bit.

Irony

Dixie Carter passes away at 70

I was so sad to read about Dixie Carter passing away on April 10th. She was an actress most notably known as Julia Sugerbaker on Designing Women. To me she was always a lady. According to her husband, actor Hal Holbrook, Dixie passed away from complications of endometrial cancer. She was 70. She will be missed. May she rest in peace.

I'm including in this post my favorite scene from Designing Women courtesy of YouTube and the news announcement of her death, also from YouTube and Associated Press.

Oh my aching head

The skies have been yellow here recently. Along with the car, the bbq pit, the dog, the grandchildren...basically everything that is outside. It's pollen and it's everywhere. 

I was reading a story that's headline was Achoo! Pollen at its worst in years in many areas. Yes it is.

I was shaking my head in agreement as I read along. Finding myself seeing our yard in the descriptions they gave. Finding myself seeing my head, nose and throat in those descriptions too. It's pretty bad. 

Here's part of the story from Yahoo News:

The words "pollen" and "allergy" are among the top 10 trending topics on Twitter in several U.S. cities. Everywhere, it seems, is covered in a fine yellow dust that irritates our lives. Experts say it's the worst they've seen in years in many areas.

"It's wicked bad this year," said Dr. Mona Mangat, an allergy specialist in St. Petersburg, Fla., who can't recall a worse year in the six she's worked there. "We're just overwhelmed with patients right now. We're double- and triple-booked with new patients, trying to work people in because we know how much people are suffering."

This year is especially bad in the Southeast, weather experts say, likely due to winter's unseasonably cold weather.

"That may have helped delay some of the plants from blooming as early as they may have wanted to," said John Feerick, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather. "It's the fact that everything is coming out all at once."

Do you see the words I made bold? ESPECIALLY BAD IN THE SOUTHEAST. You don't have to tell me that. We live in Georgia. That's on the Southeast coast just in case you didn't know that. 

I went to pollen.com for an allergy forecast to see how much longer it's going to be like this. This is what I found when I clicked on Georgia and then entered our zip code:

 

Lovely. I guess I better buy some more Benedryl.

Munchkin coronor from Wizard of Oz passes away

Photo courtesy fanmail.biz

I just read that Meinhardt Raabe passed away. He played the Munchkin coroner in the movie The Wizard Of Oz. That's one of my all time favorite movies and his scene and song is one of my favorite parts. I started singing it as soon as I saw his picture.





He was 94 years old. May he rest in peace.

I was busy last night

You may have noticed something is different here...

I don't know, maybe you didn't :)

I spent last night playing around and changed up all my templates. I also got my comment form to work correctly...yay! 

My links are now across the top of this page. I'd still love it if you clicked them and checked stuff out. I hope you have a great day! I'm off to read some blogs and then watch Survivor! shhhhhhh don't tell me what happened!

Kate Gosselin....I don't get it

I'm just not a fan of Kate Gosselin. I don't get all the hype surrounding her. I don't think she can dance. I don't think she's a celebrity. I do think she's odd and not that nice. And I'm starting to get tired of seeing her everywhere I look. 

Here's a video I found on E! Online:





How do you have time for ANYTHING with 8 children? If you ask me I'd tell you that you have time for being a "celebrity" by ignoring your children and having someone else care for them. It's just my opinion. I only had three children and barely had time to bathe. 

Now I guess Kate is trying to get into Playboy magazine. Why? The women in Playboy are beautiful to me and Kate just doesn't fit that bill in my eyes. I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just thinking about what her body must look like since she was pregnant with six of her children at once. I know what my belly looks like doing it one at a time. I'm just sayin'.

Hugh Hefner says this about Kate being in Playboy...

"No! No!" Hef said when asked about the possibility of the controversial reality television mom posing in the pages of the legendary men's magazine.

In fact, Hefner doesn't understand why Gosselin is even on Dancing With the Stars…

"I don't think she's a celebrity," he said.

Way to go Hef. I agree!
 

Condensed Soup

Simon tells it like it is on "American Idol," Kate Gosselin just doesn't get it, and bike-riding irony at its finest! I ♥ The Soup!

This one's for Katdish

For those of you that don't know Katdish...where have you been??? She's really funny and a little bit crazy! Her blog is here...I tell you because you HAVE to visit her. It's a new law. I just made it up because not sleeping does that to my brain.

Seriously, go visit her. You'll love her I promise.

Recently she's been having LOTS of fun microwaving Peeps. Yes, the Easter candy. You should really watch her videos of it. It's too funny! 

Anyway, I was wandering around YouTube during my non-sleeping-night and I found another person who loves microwaving Peeps...Yep, there's more than one! Check it out...




So there you have it...another Peep killer! Now go visit Katdish and watch her videos too. Like I said, hers are super funny plus her microwave doesn't look gross like these guys did! 

Copenhagen has fun for April Fool's Day

Most of you know that I do not enjoy April Fool's Day and that I hide out on that day because people like to play pranks on me. It never works. I always get pranked anyway. Boo.

I do have a sense of humor though and sometimes even find April Fool's Day jokes funny. As long as I'm not the butt of the joke that is.

I was reading through my odd news and found this story about Copenhagen and the government playing a practical joke on everyone. It is pretty funny...

There has been a statue of a mermaid in the harbor there for almost a century. They call it their Little Mermaid and it was sculpted in 1913 by Edvard Eriksen. She is one of Denmark's main tourist attractions and is considered a national treasure. Here's what she normally looks like:

Photo courtesy Google

She has been sent away for the first time since being placed there to be the "centerpiece of the Danish pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai until October 31". I think that's neat.

Here's where the joke comes in...

The government replaced her with a skeleton. No kidding! See...

Photo courtesy Yahoo News

The mermaid skeleton sat in the Little Mermaid's spot for two hours on April 1st, delighting tourists with a statement that claimed "the Little Mermaid "had returned". The statement also said that "it was the only remaining complete skeleton of a "Hydronymphus pesci", a species said to be extinct since the end of the 17th century."

I think that's too funny!