Squee!! Nom Nom Nom

Big foodie announcement everyone!
My favorite cooking blog "A Year in the Kitchen" (we've spoke about it before here) just announced that she is releasing a cookbook of her recipes! How exciting is that!?!!? Here is the link to all the info-she doesn't know when she will have them for order but I can't wait! I know I'm getting one!
http://ashleescooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/announcement-year-in-kitchen-cookbook.html

Love (food),
Carrie

The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we have of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us.

FRIIIIIDAY! Uh! Working on a FRIIIIDAY! Ow!
Hey all! Man can you believe we made it here? I swear this has been the longest week yet. I know I say that almost every week, but this is especially true this week!

SYTYCD
I TOTALLY CALLED IT. Did I not? Check yesterdays post. Totally. But WAY WAY WAY more exciting was seeing last seasons favorite dances! Oh! Oh! Joshua! Twitch! Bleeding Love (I still do the head banging they do in that routine in the grocery store if the song comes on, Seth runs as fast as he can. Ask Pam, I've done it with her too) It made me realize what a much better season last season was compared to this one. There really is, like Nigel said, no superstars. I'll be sad when they don't have an excuse to bring back Season 4's dancers anymore, because they are phenomenal. Seriously. I'm sorry to all of you who are watching this season for the first time because if I had any wish for you, it would be that you watched last season first instead. Even Seth (last season was his first) agreed with me. But you know, it kind of goes in cycles. The season that Sabra won (3?)-I can't really remember anything about that season. But man, if you didn't know, Joshua (the one who did the Emmy nominated Samba dance by Dimitry) is completely UNTRAINED. He's a hip hop dancer from Houston. He used to be a football player and really liked his ballet class he had to take for football. He is AH-MAZ-ING. The end. He's my favorite dancer of all time. If they had an all stars show, I'd vote for him CONSTANTLY.

The Philanthropist
This was another good episode. It looks like it is expensive to shoot, but I'm hoping they renew it. It's a nice little summer show, like Burn Notice. I've really enjoyed it. And I think Jesse L Martin and the guy who used to play Marc Anthony in Rome are great in it. I like watching them. Next week they do a show together so I'm excited about that.

Torchwood
I totally started watching the fourth episode and almost had to turn it off because it was so good and I felt bad about watching it without Seth. But I kept going because I couldn't imagine waiting to see how the episode ended. If I'm by myself tonite-I'm totally finishing the series. I can't believe ***** died!!!

Weekend
This weekend we have Cheeto and Whitney's wedding. I just remembered I have a hair appointment at 12. ( I thought it was at 11) so I'll have to grab a quick lunch and then get my hair done and hopefully by the time I'm done my in laws will be in town and I won't have to worry too much about being alone. Even though I totally planned on sleeping in the car, I don't think I'm going to have that kind of time. So tomorrow will be a LONG day for me for sure. Hopefully I have enough energy Sunday to get to the picnic, my Dad said we could ride together, which I hoped he met he would drive, but I think it means he wants to ride in my new car! Which is fine, as long as he drives.
I'm not going to get home in time to go the rehearsal with Seth, so I think I'm going to make coleslaw and relax. That's a weird combo, isn't it??

Succubus Garden
Guess what!?!? We have been getting tomatoes out the kazoo! I'm so excited. I'm going to try and make tomato sauce to freeze this weekend. Here's hoping they turn fast enough and I find the time. I'm going to use Gordon Ramsey's recipe from the meatballs I made Seth because that junk was good! It also looks like we will get two big yellow peppers and some banana peppers before all is said and done. The pumpkins are going crazy and the watermelon is stretching out. The cucumbers seem to be mostly done, but we will see. I gave a bunch to Pam who came over on Monday. They were huge!

Everybody's free to feel good
Alright people-go and have a great weekend! I hope it's whatever you want it to be-quiet, fun, relaxing, high energy, productive-whatever's clever! See you all Monday!

Love (to be able to go home RIGHT NOW!),
Carrie

Rock and roll is the hamburger that ate the world.

Oh Thursday, you are finally here. Thank goodness. Although like I said, I have a pretty stressful weekend ahead, so hopefully tonite is enjoyable with my hubby, at least I'm going to try and make it that way!

Family ROCKS!
So last night after my tearful pleas, my family showed up to help me clean my pit of a house. My mom and brother swooped in, did all the nasty work while I found cleaning supplies, moved tiny things, and held garbage bags, and left as quickly as they came. It was a very Amish moment. And it took less time then I think even they expected. We didn't build a barn, but we got my trash to the curb for pick up today, which is monumental to me. My mom even scrubbed my husband's shower from top to bottom, which I don't even do. Thanks guys, it means a lot-I love you!

SYTYCD
Here are my couple reviews:
Melissa/Evan-Meh, it wouldn't surprise me if they go home tonite. Melissa for sure. She totally is lacking that star quality that Nigel was talking about. I honestly can't even comment on their dances because I can't seem to remember either one of them really.
Janine/Ade- This was better, but Ade just came out with a huge naked picture scandal, I read on mediatakeout.com so it wouldn't surprise me if he got the boot tonite instead of Evan. I like Janine, I thought she did really well.
Brandon/Kayla-This was obviously the top couple of the night, I agree with Lil C that they were two powerhouses coming together. I loved the Stacy Tookey piece and I was surprised it didn't get more praise or reaction. I'll bet it gets nominated for an Emmy next year or something.
Men's Group-I LOVED this piece, I was surprised it didn’t get a better response from the judges.
Women's Group-I thought this was terrible.
Judges-I fast forwarded thru most of what they said. Mostly because I wasn't agreeing with a lot of what they said and I was pressed for time.
Cat-I love her, she looked fantastic tonite and she is just the sweetest thing ever, I'll bet she is like that in real life too.

My husband is stressed
My husband is about to have a nuclear brain meltdown. I wish I could help him, but it's mostly mathy stuff, so really I can't. I try to tell him jokes though. I hope that helps, and do things around the house that he used to do. Being a wife to a stressed out husband is hard! But I'm sure I'm not easy most days either. Have a clean house helps LOADS though.

On the DVR
Here are some shows on my DVR that still need to be watched:
The last two episodes of Torchwood (which I love)
The Philanthropist (more Jesse L. Martin please!)
The F Word
The last two episodes of Top Chef Masters
Obsessed
Design Star

It looks as if they may be there a while what with the busy weekend we have ahead.

Pain in my butt
My butt hurts. Like the top half of my right cheek. It hurts to sit and it hurts to walk. It's almost unbearable sitting here in this moment. The two positions I have that don't hurt are laying on my side with a pillow between my knees and laying on my stomach. Neither of those which I can do at work. Nuts. How many more hours in this day? Crap.

Ole' Ole' Ole' Ole
I feel like nachos. I gave my mom a coupon for a Mexican restaurant last night because I had 2 Mexican restaurant coupons! That's random. I'm not sure why I told you that.

Crazy Town
I'm obviously losing my mind, because of the pain. I'm going to go now before I start pulling down my pants to take a picture of exactly where my butt hurts for you all.

Love (to not be sitting in pain),Carrie

People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.

Happy Hump Day everyone! The weather is LOVELY in Nebraska right now, it's just perfect and I couldn't be happier! I want to go get my heavier duvets out and sleep like a monster under them. It also makes my after work naps just divine because I'm not sweating up a storm. The sheets on the bed however, in desperate need of a change, and if Seth makes it home early from his test tonite, like he says he will, I'm going to ask him to help me (he lifts the mattress for me-it goes much faster)

TV
Okay I didn’t really watch that much TV last night. I spent a while on the phone (boo) and then I did laundry and made dinner for myself and watched some Intervention while I did that, but I don't think the story was all that interesting, the dad creeped me out. I didn't watch Obsessed because I only watched TV while I ate dinner and I didn’t' want to watch someone who was afraid their teeth were going to explode or someone who pulls all their hair out while I tried to shove food down my gullet.

DVD making machine
Instead of watching TV, I have been working on our family videos-transferring them to DVD. Last weekend I did our wedding and reception and this week I have been working on our Orlando trip. I actually think it's kind of fun, although it sucks to have to sit there and watch the same video over and over to mark the chapters. I'm trying to figure out if I can get photo slideshows on there…I've been using Roxio's Project Creator and it's actually really simple to use!

SYTYCD
A few more spoilers-
Judges are Lil C , Nigel and Mary.
Two group dances by Sonya, solos, and 2 paired dances per person
Sonya did the Top 3 guys group routine it was Willy Wonka inspired. She also did the Top 3 girls group routine and it was superhero inspired, Jeanine was Wonder Woman and she was freaking awesome and they all had cute belts with the first letter of their names.
Samba for Ade and Jeanine - Jeanine got rave reviews (Nigel was slightly gross), Ade not as much; Lady Gaga music
Broadway for Melissa and Evan - Tailor made for Evan; wedding theme; source and judges liked it okay
Contemporary for Brandon and Kayla - she wants to end the relationship theme; judges liked it but there was some negative critique (not over the moon about it); mostly Kayla was highlighted and did well but Brandon played his part; source said one of the best three performances of the night

Hip-hop for Ade and Jeanine - eviction theme; awesome routine; Ade proved himself here for the source; Jeanine was great as well; Lil C loved the dirtiness; rave reviews; one of the best three of the night
Quickstep for Melissa and Evan - started strong and lost some of it in the middle; Melissa was better in expression but couldn't hold form; only Lil C really liked it but the other two not so much
Disco for Brandon and Kayla - awesome routine; really difficult and energetic; one point they looked exhausted but got it together; rave reviews; probably best dance of the night according to the source
Solos: boring except for two; Kayla was great and Brandon got a standing O from Nigel and Mary, and deserved it according to the source; source doesn't even like him and thought it was amazing

Those are from Televisionwithoutpity.com by a poster who went to the taping last night.

Oh! Oh! Oh!
So I just learned that A&E is going to introduce (in Obsessed time slot on Monday's) a special on HOARDERS! HOARDERS! Yayy!!! I guess they ran out of OCD topics. Exciting! I wonder exactly when it starts, I know it's not next week because I just double checked the DVR recording schedule for next week.

Seriously week, seriously?
It's only Wednesday? In my head its Thursday. I need this week to be over already. I have a long weekend ahead with Cheeto and Whitney's wedding and I'm trying to prepare myself for that. Part of me wants to forgo my hair appointment I made and rent a hotel room and nap and then do my own hair and make up and have a place to get ready. As of now after I get my hair done I'm getting ready in the back of the car in the church parking lot. Seth's family probably won't stay long because Janet found out something she volunteered for at church is actually this weekend, so he has to be up the next day at like 5 am to go help with that. So I'll be by my lonesome most of the night. *sigh* At least I get 2 guaranteed long car rides with my honey.
Sunday my side of the family is trying to have a family picnic in Nebraska City, but I'm really doubting I will have the energy to make it. Seth has a HUGE project do on Monday so he's out, I'm currently trying to bum a ride for it that doesn't leave at 9 am-which is when my mom is going. Maybe I don't want the weekend to get here!

Sleepy
I'm sleepy. Seriously. I spent all last week plotting on how to leave early everyday and I'm already starting it again this week. If it wasn't sunny right now, I'd be gone because it is like the most perfect day ever to sleep. I keep telling myself, just make it to noon! Just make it to noon! At least then you've worked half the day!

Goodbye!
That's all I really have folks-hope you have a good Wednesday!

Love (cooler weather),
Carrie

The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents, and the second half by our children.

So I totally slept in today. Don't judge me, just be happy I'm here, I spent all 20 minutes of getting ready trying to talk myself into going back to bed. I don't listen very well.

SYTYCD
I thought it was important to get you all these SYTYCD spoilers-I know you are chomping for them!
Evan/Melissa - Broadway by Tyce and Quickstep by Louis Van Amstel
Kayla/Brandon - Contemporary by Stacy Tookey and Disco by Doriana Sanchez
Jeanine/Ade- Hip Hop by Napoleon & Tabitha and Rumba by Louis Van Amstel

Spoilers for the top 6 results episode:
*Musical guest is Sean Paul.
*Dance guests are Jabbawockeez.

If I get more info tomorrow, like who the guest judge is and how particular people did, I'll let you know!

Random
It feels like this has already been THE LONGEST WEEK EVER! And it's only Tuesday, I have to keep reminding myself. I seriously need to get it into gear.

House
My house is falling apart. Would anyone like to come clean it for me? Seriously? I'll make you lasagna. I'm available next weekend. It's starting to give me an anxiety attack and we have just been so busy…

Harry Potter
Can you believe I seriously haven't seen this movie yet? SERIOUSLY! I have another grand plan of going this Sunday-but Seth's already talking about how much work he will have to do on his project since it's due Monday. And I like to avoid epic meltdowns of my husband. He's completely useless to me once that happens.

The Closer
This was a great episode last night. I really liked all the twists and turns, although I knew from the get go who the killer was.

Secret
Secret shout out to Pam and Jason who are the sweetest bestest friends ever. They know why. You made me cry-enough said!

London Calling
Actually it's work. Sorry this is so abbreviated, but like I said-I slept in. Hee.

PS
One of the igoogle quotes (where I get the subject line quotes) was Eddie Izzard! I wanted to use it but it was too long! Dang it!

Love (to work from home-how do people get those jobs?),
Carrie

Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.

Oh Monday-what a nice nice Monday. There is rain in the air, things went more then well at our special appointment, and I'm just chugging along at the day.

Let's talk about TV!

Kendra
This episode had me in tears the whole time. I can't believe her mom's reaction-how selfish and awful. Like I get that you have fears-but how can you say that to your daughter? I kind of hate her mom now. A lot. And I love Hank even more.

Law and Order CI
YAYAYAYAYAY Someone is listening to me! They did a episode where the detectives interacted. Now I would have loved to seen Jeff Goldblum's detective and Goren work together, but I'll take what I can get!
It was a really good episode too! I didn't get bored or anything. Seth had to work all night last night so I just sat upstairs and watched on the living room tv and snuggled on the couch with the kidtens. There needs to be more Law and Order!

Entourage
This was also a nicely rounded episode about everyone growing up. I loved Ari's father figure role in all of it. It's nice to see Turtle manning up too. I hope he moves in and marries Jamie.

Torchwood
Like I said Seth worked a lot this weekend, so I got to watch a lot of "my" tv. I watched the first three Torchwood's. I forgot to tell you all that the British do sci-fi monsters really badly. They are like a guy in slacks with a monster head. But still, I really liked the whole storyline and I look forward to finishing it up.

Burn Notice
What a great episode! Did you all catch it? I really like when he helps random every day people. Its fun all the tips you pick up.

Weekend Review
We had a pretty low key weekend, since Seth spent most of it working or doing homework, but it was a nice one. We had dinner at Dan and Kathy's and that was super nice because we sat out on their new deck and just talked. I totally can't remember what we did Friday. And Sunday we went to church and then had Summer Kitchen and then I relaxed and watched tv.

The week ahead
Seth has class Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week (boo) because he has another test on Wednesday. Friday starts the beginning of activities for Cheeto and Whitney's wedding. They are getting married in Fremont on Saturday and we have rehearsal stuff all over Nebraska on Friday. I'm going to try and make the dinner, but it's in Yutan and that's a hike for me from work. I'm hoping Seth can bum a ride to Fremont with Cheeto and then I can pick him up from the dinner. But we will see how it works out.

Hug it out!
Alright everyone, since I got in a little late I'd better get to work! Have a GREAT day and let's hope this week flies by fast!

Love (everything about everything right now),
Carrie

When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him.

Happy Friday everyone! Wow this week has flown by. Let's get down to business!

SYTYCD
Whoa, I did not see that coming at all. I thought for sure Evan or Ade would be going home and Melissa or Kayla would be. I wasn't even close. But I wasn't really affected by all of that because I spent most of the episode squeeing and pausing to point out to Seth how my favorite dancers were there. Joshua, Twitch, Ivan, Mark, and Travis!!! (hmm, all my favorite dancers are dudes) I'd love to tell you that I enjoyed Katie Holmes dance, because it was for charity and everything, so I can't judge at all, but honestly I spent most of the clip watching Joshua and cheering at what he did. Hee hee. What did you all think!?!?

Space!
So last night we went out into the yard (thanks Mom!) at 10:21 to watch the International Space Station shine across the sky. It was AMAZING. I totally teared up. I was like, that's SPACE and we can see it. That's people living in space that we can see. I know most of you don't get my obsession with space, but it's kind of like being a rock star to me, it's something I'll never do-but the act of doing it seems SO COOL and extraordinary.
Don't judge me, I'm sure you like really boring stuff too.

TV
We were busy trying to make Chet look decent for Cheeto and Whitney's wedding next weekend, so we didn't get to anything but SYTYCD. I plan on watching The Philanthropist, The F Word, and Top Chef Masters tonite though. And if Seth is up for it, finally checking out what Torchwood is all about. I finally gave up and deleted all of the Ice Road Truckers, I'm never going to catch up, and I'm not really that interested anymore.

Weekend
We only have two big plans this weekend. One is we are going to Dan and Kathy's for dinner and the other is going to see Harry Potter (for real this time!).

Hellbusch, out.
Alright babies, I'm off. Not that I don't have anything to do, but I really have run out of interesting things to say. Maybe next week I will be more prolific.

Love (for food pills of the future to have been invented already),
Carrie

What's another word for Thesaurus?

Thursday! Where did you come from you sneaky little minx?

Comic Con
So Comic Con is going on today in San Diego and I'm reading all the blogs and the news updates about it and I'm so very very jealous my lip may be stuck in a permanent pout for an unspecified amount of time. As may have slipped out before, I secretly want to go to Comic Con more than like 20 other things on my list of things to do in this world.

SYTYCD
Did you watch last night? How about that Tyce piece? For the first time ever, I actually was moved by a Tyce piece. FINALLY, I've been wondering what the hullabaloo was about. Also-Laurie Ann (Boom Kat) ROCKS. Let's have her on all the time. I kind of heart her, mostly because she used my new jam-"Battlefield" by Jordin Sparks. I LOVED Ellen as a judge though. Can she come back every week? Did you all watch? It's getting down to the wire!! Don't forget tonite is going to be the 100th episode and it's going to be SO AWESOME with all the favorite moments. I can't wait to see Joshua again!!

President's Speech
The other part of the evening I watched the president's speech. Nothing horribly exciting to report there.

This weekend
Hopefully this weekend stays quiet again. We have a big day Monday morning so I need it to be restful. Just know I may not blog Monday if the morning doesn't go well. Saturday we are going to the Lockheed Martin picnic and then to Dan and Kathy's for dinner (yum!). Sunday we have church and HARRY POTTER. Seriously my Mom has officially seen it before me, she also has Netflix and downloads them to her PS3, I feel like I'm in the dark ages, next thing you know I'll be writing letters on typewriters while she sends me emails from her blackberry.

Tonite
Tonite we are supposed to go to Kohl's to help Seth's brother Chet pick out something to wear for Cheeto and Whitney's wedding in less than a week. I really don't want to go, I just want Pepperjax afterwards, but they need my card so they can use the coupons. Nuts.

Once again
I'm leaving you short. Sorry guys, I'm just not that eloquent this week. Hopefully next week I will have TONS OF AWESOME to write about. See you tomorrow!

Love (red and yellow bell peppers),
Carrie

Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance.

So the good news is its Wednesday, Happy Hump Day! The bad news is I've been farmed out to another building away from my computer so I don't have long to write.

SYTYCD
I wanted to make sure you all got these spoilers before tonite! Don't forget Thursday is the big 100th episode full of awesome!
*Ellen DeGeneres and Mia Michaels are guest judges.
*Travis Wall is doing a group number this week (for this episode) to "Let It Rock".
New couples:
Ade/Melissa - Contemporary (Tyce Diorio), Cha Cha (Tony Meredith & Melanie LaPatin)
Brandon/Jeanine - Pop Jazz (Laurie Ann Gibson), Waltz (Hunter Johnson)
Jason/Kayla - Broadway (Tyce Diorio), Hip hop (Shane Sparks)
Evan/Janette - Jazz (Sonya Tayeh), Rumba (Tony Meredith & Melanie LaPatin)

First off, yay Sonya is choreographing and Shane Sparks! Also yay for Boom Kack (Laurie Ann), some of you may know her from Making the Band, she's the one who got in a huge fight with Diddy and left. (Or if you are sane and have a life, you may not know that.) What are we going to do this week without NappyTabs? According to their Twitter account they are at a "battle" in Nashville with Quest from ABDC (America's Best Dance Crew-All the guys in Quest were on SYTYCD too.)

New show!
So I was flipping thru the channels and I stumbled across a show on BET called "Tiny and Toya" which is all about TI's girlfriend and Lil Wayne's ex wife and I kind of love it, even though I can't understand half of what they are saying (thank GOD for closed captioning) anyway, it's kind of like Kendra, fun to watch.

Intervention and Obsessed
I watched these two and I wasn't impressed with either story so I'm not going waste time talking about them.

Torchwood
I haven't watched it yet, have any of you?

Alright, so sorry, but that's all I have time for!
Love (for the week to go by faster),
Carrie

There are two types of people--those who come into a room and say, 'Well, here I am!' and those who come in and say, 'Ah, there you are.'

Hi Blog Readers!
Sorry I missed you yesterday, but I GOT A NEW CAR!!! Yay!!! *does dance* It's a Honda CRV 2007 EX-L. Fully loaded. It's white. I kind of love it a whole lot right now. I have XM radio for 2 months and I'm am awed and overwhelmed all at the same time. There are too many stations! Around 250!
Oh and there is a sun roof. Now let me tell you about sun roofs-I'm terrified of them. I'm afraid I'm going to be caught in the middle of a horrible hail storm and have it the glass above me shatter and cut into my brains. Luckily Kathy and Seth convinced me I could pull that little protective cover over to keep my brains from being shredded. The only time I like it now though is on cloudy days because it gets too hot when the sun is out. But I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. The best part is that Seth did all the leg work and I just showed up and signed papers. It was lovely and I have the best husband ever.

Yay Space!
This week (day?) is the 40th anniversary of the MOON LANDING! How friggin exciting is that? Also if you live in the Omaha area tonite something special is happing where you can see the space station…or something, I'm not sure, I heard the end of it on the radio this morning while I was switching around the XM and the radio.

TV
Not too much to report here, we watched Burn Notice, Design Star, Kendra, Law and Order: CI, The Closer, and lots of Kings. I loved all of them. I'm especially excited that Design Star is back, I forgot what a clusterfuck this show can be. Did anyone else watch it? I don’t have any front runners yet, but it is early.
I'm excited because I have lots of good stuff on my DVR for tonite, the Torchwood mini series, Intervention and Obessesed. Yay!

Sorry!
Sorry this is so short, but I missed work yesterday so I have to catch up today! Maybe more tomorrow!

Love (rainy cloudy days off),
Carrie

I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you had a good week! And I hope you doing something super great this weekend. It better be going and seeing Harry Potter's new movie because that's what I'm doing!

SYTYCD
I FINALLY CALLED THE VOTE OFF! Yay! Honestly, I've never been happier to see two people go. Now it's really a popularity contest, I'll bet the next to go are Melissa and Ade. Then probably Evan/Jason and Jeanine, then maybe Kayla and Jason/Evan. Leaving Brandon and Jeanette in the final. That's my call. Yours? What did you think of the show? I can't wait for next week to see all my old favorite dances (except the Hummingbird one from Season 3-blech, that was horrible) but the Bench Routine? YAY! I hope they have a group dance too with everyone. I'm also super excited because Ellen DeGeneres is going to be a judge next week-YAY! Too fun. The Black Eyed Peas, as predicted, were horrible, what was that thing Fergie was twirling? A French Tickler??

Eli Stone
We watched the last Eli Stone ever and I'm sad to say I was disappointed-there wasn't even a musical number! And not knowing who he ended up with? What a crock. Boo ABC for futzing my show! Now I'm afraid to watch the last couple of Kings.

Interesting
I'm trying to think of interesting things to tell you, but I've got nothing. I mean I don't even really have any good crazy cat lady stories! Man, I'm worthless today. Here are is a random list about things I've created for you.
1. There was a shooting on I-80 this morning and the police had blocked it off for like a mile. There was a big white van there that said "Crime Lab" and a bunch of cops looking down a ditch, I was very confused, but more impressed that Omaha has a Crime Lab Van. I thought for sure it was going to be the coroners van. Anyway, it was an interesting thing to drive by this morning. The news said it was an act of road rage. You must have done something pretty fucked up to get shot because of road rage at 5:00 in the morning. There aren't a lot of people on the road around here to tick off at 5 in the morning.
2. I drink peppermint green tea every morning at work.
3. Once while trying to impress Seth on one of our dates, I turned the radio up really loud and jammed out-all while backing down my roommates Cadillac. I still feel bad about it, and Seth still teases me about it.
4. I need the following type of friends in my life, someone who can fix cars, someone who owns a boat, someone who has a medical degree, someone who loves to clean, someone who owns a bookstore and will give me books for free.
5. I'm seriously considering wearing my fake Harry Potter glasses to the movie on Sunday, if I can find them. I run the risk of sitting by myself because Seth won't sit with me if I wear them. I'll have all the snacks though so his loss.
6. I spend all day thinking of lovely restaurant food to eat and getting excited about it and then I'm disappointed when I go home and have to like eat leftovers.
7. I'm still secretly disappointed we didn't drive out and see the space shuttle launch when we were in Florida.
8. I dream about going back to DisneyWorld, especially Epcot. It's weird. That place truly is a happy place, it's like a drug, everyone is so nice and everything is so clean. They should rent like rooms there or something.

Have a good weekend!
Alright that's all I have. See you all on Monday! Stay safe this weekend, the weather in Omaha is going to be FAN FREAKING TASTIC!!

Love (when this weather),
Carrie

Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.

Hi Friends! Last night was a LONG night. Seth caught an error after class, so he didn't get home until 12. I have this real problem where I can't go to sleep unless I know I'm in for the night, otherwise I am just laying there waiting to be woken up again. So needless to say we didn't get to bed until around 12:30, and 6 am comes early!

NPR
So I'm old, we know, but lately if the radio is playing crap music or I don't want to listen to stupidness (like why someone should win a Bud Light BMW or how much a particular radio DJ who is OLD and FAT masturbates) I flip it over to NPR-something my mom turned me onto. I like listening to the talking, and learning things, yesterday they had a recap of the new supreme judge hearing, but WHAT is with the lame ass elevator music in between every talking bit? It is SO annoying, it's like smooth jazz. Yesterday I heard the Mission Impossible theme song. Seriously.

An email to my husband-
"OMG! OMG! I just dropped my cell phone in the toilet at work! Like fully submerged! WTF do I do? WHAT DO I DO? PS-Does this mean I get a new cell phone?" He is going to kill me. Don't worry, it was a fresh bowl, stupid pants, I knew I should have listened to my dad and used my clip.

SYTYCD
What did everyone think of the new partners? Here's my review:
Jeanine and Jason (Contemporary by Travis Wall) AMAZING. Wow Travis, just WOW. Come back any time and make beautiful things like that, I officially changed my stance on Jason after that, learned my lesson! Bravo Travis.
Melissa and Brandon (Broadway by Tyce) Meh. It was alright, nothing super exciting, Melissa kind of scares me, she looks like she could crush me doing bicep curls.
Randi and Kupono (Paso Doble by Tony and Meredith) Booo, look for these two to go home, although Randi has the huge Mormon base that won Benji the title in year two (and beat out TRAVIS?? How is that possible? Did you see choreography?? Wow oh wait we are talking about Pono and Randi..) so yeah, I didn't dig it-at all. I'm glad America finally got to see what I've been whining about with the Randi and Evan duo, she is just awful.
Kayla and Evan (Waltz by Tony and Meredith) it was okay, the height difference was detrimental but I think the lifts were beautiful. And Kayla was beautiful too, the judges comments were right. Evan sometimes makes this face in rehearsals that looks like he is stoned or drunk or that he just woke up or something and it makes me want to shake him, like be CUTE-that's what's going to help you win! Stop looking like a tool! I had to vote for him twice just in case. He reminds me of some famous movie star, but I can't put my finger on who…
Janette and Ade (Hip Hop by Napoleon and Tabitha) this piece was really good. There was some buzz on Twitter (I follow most of the choreographers on Twitter) that NappyTabs didn't like the piece or the people they drew, but I think it came off nicely-I hate that they play to that whole pick bit though, boo get rid of the shtick.

Women's Bollywood Dance- I thought this was really well done, I love the group dances of Bollywood, it makes the movements seem that much more impressive!

Men's African Dance- I thought this was good too, although not as impressive as the Bollywood. I also kind of thought it was inappropriate that they pointed out Evan was white over and over again, dance, as they have said MANY times before is supposed to transcend race and culture. They don't point out when the African American dancers have to do the waltz about how good they thought it was even thought they were black. Ugh.

Debbie Allen was surprising NOT annoying this week. Kudos. I wonder who is doing the group dance this week. I'm also not too excited to see the Black Eyed Peas perform. Unless they bring out old SYTYCD alum. Then I'm down. They should have that in the performance contract, you have to use STYCD alum in your performance on the show. If you guys missed anything www.sytycdism.com always has clips.

The F Word
Did you guys see that Gordon went noodleing in OK? That's where you catch a catfish with your bare hands. It's apparently very dangerous (and stupid). But it was fun to watch. The spiced chicken dish he made looked really good, if I could get my tomatoes to turn I would try it! Also the spicy chicken soup he made looks like something my brother and dad would LOVE. But where do you get star anise in Omaha?

Intervention
Whoa. Angry dude died. That Intervention was AWFUL. I rarely watch the actual Intervention part-but those kids throwing themselves on their Dad and begging them to get help was so dramatic. Something about the Mom bothered me too. It's sad that he died though. He reminded me of a lot of guys I knew in college, no really reason to excessively drink, other than the normal pressures of life and school, but they took it as an excuse to get shit canned constantly and practically live in the bar. This guy really had no reason to be drinking like that besides the general pressures of being a husband and dad. No one touched him, no one left him, he was the golden boy of his family. I'm of course going off what the show gave me. I'm not his therapist or anything, but I know a lot of guys like that and it just bugs me.

Mad Men
Okay Mad Men season one is OnDemand now, I realized I hadn't seen a few episodes so I watched those instead of Bridezillas last night. Aren't you proud of me? It is such a great show, so well done. Congrats on your Emmy nods guys-you deserve it.

Weekend!
The weekend is almost here-HOORAY! I can't wait! There is nothing too exciting going on, probably lots of sleeping. Saturday night we are going to Dan and Kathy's for pasta dinner, we are bringing salad (I have to keep telling myself that so I don’t forget) and Seth's parents are coming Sunday. MOST IMPORTANT-We are going to see the new Harry Potter movie on Sunday and I'm very, very excited. We finished our Potter Movie Marathon and I'm so ready for the new one! Also my Dad mentioned maybe starting our tile project this weekend, you need like three days to do it, but we really don't have that so we might do it in bits.

So long! Farewell!
Alright people of the blog-I'm going to work. Hope you all have a great day!

Love (a not soggy phone),
Carrie

All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.

It doesn't feel like Wednesday does it blog readers? Here's hoping we make it thru the rest of the week happy and full of life.

TV tonite
Tonite I have a TON of things taping, thankfully since Tuesdays' are dead now. Some of those things are SYTYCD, The Philanthropist, Top Chef Masters, The F Word, and a few other's I can't remember. Yay good TV night!

Bridezillas
Since I didn't tape anything last night and I wasn't in the mood for Intervention (I know I'm going to fast forward thru most of it because I don’t like loud yelling drunk guys) I watched Bridezillas OnDemand. Okay serious, who scripts this show? How do they find these people? I mean you they know they are going to be on a show about being the most revolting bride on the face of the planet, right? I only watched two episodes, but I totally remembered why I don't DVR it, because it makes me remember planning my wedding and that makes me crabby. This one girl in one of the episodes was terrible, she was manipulating her vendors, and when they questioned her she threw a fit and smashed things, like wedding cakes and centerpieces. Sorry but where I come from, you have that kind of attitude, people call the police and terminate your contract, not just sigh and say, that was bizarre, but she's the bride! There's a certain level of professionalism and respect expected. I can't even IMAGINE having to have lied to my cake lady and trying to convince her I said chocolate when I signed a contract that says vanilla. That could be because our cake lady was from the church and my mom's friend, and my mom was her daughters confirmation mentor. But still. Yikes. That's why I think a lot of it was staged. The other girl in the episode was this large African American woman (her whole wedding dress was designed around her ample breats and her need to show every inch of them). She went on this whole rant because she scheduled her pictures only a half an hour earlier then when her wedding started, and people had shown up (she was late to the church) and were sitting in the church while she was trying to get her pictures done. She went on this whole rant about how she thought people would know she meant four o'clock Colored People Time-or CPT, I was watching it with my mouth open, like can they show this on TV? Wow. I'm not even going to get into the Asian girl because she bothered me the worst of all.

SYTYCD
Time for spoilers! Are you excited to see the new partners tonite??
*Group dance for the men is an African dance.
*Group dance for the women is Bollywood.
*Solo performances will be done by each contestant
Jeanine and Jason - Contemporary by Travis Wall to Jason Mraz 'If It Kills Me'
Melissa and Brandon – Broadway by Tyce to Age of Aquarius
Randi and Kupono - Paso Doble by Tony and Melanie
Kayla and Evan – Viennese Waltz to Seal's 'Kiss From A Rose'
Janette and Ade - Hip Hop by Napoleon and Tabitha to "love, sex, magic" by Ciara feat Justin Timberlake

*Debbie Allen is the guest judge
*Black Eyed Peas will perform on the results show.

What do you think? I'm hearing that everyone but Randi and Kupono got outstanding praise. I wouldn't be sad to see them gone at all.

Torchwood: Children of the Earth
Now I know enough of you aren't watching BBC America because if you were we'd be talking about it all the time! I'm going to give you a heads up to a five night miniseries event that is getting RAVE reviews. Next Monday at 8 on BBC America is a cool sci fi show that reminds me a lot of the 4400 that used to be on USA. You don't need to know any background of Torchwood the TV series to watch it, but if you do get into Torchwood too, let me know, I might be doing the same if I like the writing and style here. Here is the website if you want to watch trailers or learn more http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/262/index.jsp

Mad Men
Seriously people, this is the first warning. August 16th at 10/9 central you must be in front of your tv, on the AMC channel getting ready to watch Mad Men. Trust me you will LOVE it. I watched both seasons (there have been 2 so far) On Demand last summer and I AM OBSESSED. I can't wait for it to come back! Any other Mad Men lovers out there? Also, Banana Republic is introducing a clothing line based on it- Man how I wish I could afford Banana Republic…

*snooze*
Lord almighty I'm tired, I can't even focus or concentrate on finishing this blog post. Sorry folks! Hope you have a great day and let's pray this week flies by!

Love (naps),
Carrie

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.

Hey there blog world! I'm a little late to the post today. So it will probably be shorter than most. Let's talk about TV!

Intervention
I only watched the first one (for some reason my DVR has been taping two of them even though only one is new. Whatevs-way to look out for me DVR. This one was about an alcoholic heroin user named Trent who used to be a four star chef. Now I diverge to confess-I have a crush on all chefs. Because I am a hard core foodie-I ADORE anyone who can make food taste magical. So there is always a curiosity for me for chefs because as hard as I try, I can't find that seemingly magical balance that chefs find to make everything seem so harmonious on your plate. So anyway this guy I really wanted to succeed. His ex girlfriend was the one pulling for them, as well as his sister who I SWEAR fell out of the 80's. Her whole interview she had a side crimped ponytail. For serious. She looked like Tina on Napoleon Dynamite. Anywhoo-the girlfriend who was enabling him hard core was a THERAPIST. Or getting her masters to be one. And I'm not sure if I missed this or not, but they met in rehab, and he had been to like 13 rehabs before that. WARNING! WARNING! The black screen of updates said at the end that he relapsed when his mom died but he had been sober since like 2007. So good for him, I hope he's cooking again.

Obsessed
The first guy I recognized from MTV's True Life: I have OCD. It took me a minute to be sure it was him, but when he did the huffing in his hand I was like AHHHH REALITY SHOW WHORE!! He had classic OCD symptoms of counting and checking. He had a baby on the way (on MTV she was his girlfriend) and he ended up doing really well with the treatment. I really think it is all based on your therapist. I also think cognecent behavior therapy is the coolest thing ever. The second girl I had problems with. Something about her bothered me. It wasn't the fact that she picked at her face with earrings and blah the picking was totally gross, but her attitude. Something wasn't right there, and it went beyond the OCD. And that buffet that they therapist made her eat at? Totally gross, I wouldn't have eaten there either-blech. But like, if you are afraid of the way food is cooked, especially meat, then be a vegetarian. I think a lot of it was for attention's sake. It was sad thought that her and her boyfriend broke up in the end, but you could see it coming.

Kendra
I liked this episode, minus the beginning. I loved that Bridget was in it-did she lose weight? Her arms looked like Barbie doll arms. I kind of love Hank's parents a lot. I loved that they showed up to the playboy mansion and treated it like it was the bridge club or something. Don't judge me for watching this show-its way better then Jon and Kate plus 8! Remember when we used to have to talk about that?

The Closer
I liked this episode, but again I found myself fast forwarding thru some of the stuff at the end. I love when Fritz showed up for the show by the fake detective. Ha. And that whole pick up artist type stuff totally sleazes me out. Does that crap really work? Do they have a gay and lesbian pick up artist? Because they should. If only to be fair to the amount of sleaze we all should endure. I'm all about equality.

Hung
This episode was kind of meh. I liked the whole concept of the beginning being the end of the story. I kind don't like his pimp at all. She bothers me. His wife is a great character though and played very well. His kids kind of bother me too-is the girl twin really a dude?

The Succubus Garden
Seth spent a good part of Sunday weeding and planting our watermelon, pumpkin, and cucumber seedlings. I went to check them out yesterday and it was like a frigging JUNGLE. The cucumbers are already growing fruit. I have enough cucumbers-anyone need some??

Speaking of veggie preservation
My mom is throwing together a group in late August/September to learn how to can. I'm super excited because with my garden coming to harvest then-I have no idea on what to do with all my veggies. I want to make salsa and tomato sauce. And I want to can them, but the art died in my family, with my Dad's mom. So I'm excited to learn how to can and then hopefully next year when our garden is a little more…fertilized and learned, I can can up a storm. Ha. If you are interested in attending the class let me know and I'll let my mom know what kind of numbers to plan for!

TV tonite
I don't think there is much taping tonite since Hawthorne got the ax. I do have another Intervention (yelling drunk guy) to watch and I think there is something else on there that I'm forgetting. If anything I have a secret desire to watch Bridezillas OnDemand. Woot!

Willow Twitterpated
Willow started SCREAMING-literally SCREAMING at two am this morning. We both jumped out of bed and went running (well Seth turned around a couple times in place and went Huh? What? And then started screaming "WILLOW!" and went hauling out the door) I was worried because she LOVES this lei that Pam got us for my bacholerette party that she has commandeered as her own. It's red, and she wraps it around herself and carries it around the house and snuggles with it. Literally puts her nose in it and snuggles. It was the last thing I saw her doing before we went to bed. I started FREAKING because I was sure she hung herself somehow. That's how primal and scary this screaming sounded. Even Bags, who sleeps at the foot of our bed in between pillow mountain came hauling after us to see what was wrong with his big eyes and poofy tail (he spooks when Willow farts when he's sleeping next to her). Anyway, so we run and find her and she's at the back door all puffed up and there is this big grey and white tom cat on the other side of the glass and she is just making a FUSS. Seth turned on the light and spooked away the tom cat and Willow settled down and we all went back to bed (even Bags who was VERY grumpy after that) but the moral of the story is Willow is a FREAK and now I have to close the back door curtains at night lest Tom kitty comes looking to woo my Willow again. This morning she totally acted like nothing was wrong and we were all freaks for even talking to her, she just paraded her red lei around the house and snuggled into it when we asked her if she was okay or why she was so loud last night. Almost as good as Baggy coming in this morning to announce we were lazy butts and it was 7AM! WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE AWAKE AND PETTING BAGGY RIGHT NOW! Ahh cats.

Off to Neverland!
Alright friends! I'm off to work hard! I'll probably have to stay late tonite since I missed some time this morning. Sleeping in is divine, it changes your whole outlook on the day, I highly recommend it!

Love ( naps, cats, and canning planning),
Carrie

Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch.

Happy Monday blog world! I trust you had a good weekend? Mine was very quiet and relaxing, just the way I like it.

Books
I thought it was time to update you on some books I have been reading or have read since the last time we talked about books. I'm going from memory here, so some grace is requested.
Currently I'm reading:
Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy by Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt, and David L. Weaver-Zercher
The Secrets of the Chess Machine by Robert L'Ohr
The Liars' Club: A Memoir by Mary Karr
I've just finished reading:
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris, I enjoyed this book right up to the very end, the last chapter on smoking, like my mom said, is kind of meh. The rest of it though is hilarious. As usual for Mr. Sedaris.
Thornyhold by Mary Stewart and Meg Cabot, this book was a great little short book my Grandma gave me. I'm currently looking for more Mary Stewart to read because apparently she has tons of books and if they are all as good as this one, I'm going to be very happy.
The Book of Air and Shadows: A Novel by Michael Gruber, this book was great. I'm going to loan it to my Dad next, it's just his style. A lot like Ken Follett, although not as…well the guy jumps point of view between three characters and it gets a little confusing at points, but really, a great book.

So that's my books I've been reading and have read. I just started my currently reading list, which is why I could remember what I was updating! J

Weekend
I'd tell you about my weekend-but it was mostly this "zzzzzzz". Which was the best kind of weekend. Seth worked in the garden, I literally sat in a lawn chair and watched him. We pulled up all our shallots to make way for the watermelons. We had 31 shallots, so that was exciting. I think next year, we are going to downsize significantly to the stuff we know that works, like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, watermelon, pumpkins, and garlic. We might try our hands at onions or shallots again. Our soil needs hella fertilizer though, it's so tough and not forgiving at all. It's like cement. I know that it's not good because my Mom's garden is like Eden and her soil is all loose and black.

Songs I'm ashamed to admit I like:
Good Girls Go Bad-Cobra Starship feat. Leighton Meester
Battlefield-Jordin Sparks
Boom Boom Pow-The Black Eyed Peas
Halo- Beyonce

Songs I'm NOT ashamed to admit I like:
Knock You Down- Keri Hilson feat Kanye West & Ne-Yo
I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)- Pitbull
New Divide- Linkin Park
You Found Me- The Fray
D.O.A.-Jay-Z

Entourage
Did anyone watch the season premiere last night? To be honest I forgot it was on, but I went to bed early (like 9 o'clock) and Seth came to bed to code while I watched TV in bed and I was channel surfing at just the right time. I thought it was pretty good. Some of the pop references were a little behind the ball, like the fact that Vinnie was on Leno and that the new guy signed "My Name is Earl" which just got cancelled, but maybe they will write that in to that guys demise later. I'm glad E is back with Sloan and that Turtle and Jamie are still together. I know this is vaguely drawn on the life of Mark Wahlberg, so I'm always trying to correlate which movie is the real life Mark Wahlberg movie they are talking about. I think "Gatsby" is "The Departed". Although I don't know that Mark has ever won a Oscar.

Law and Order: Criminal Intent
I only watched the first 30 minutes of this before I went to help Seth cut the salad lettuce for the week, but the first thirty minutes were kind of snooze. I'm not even sure if I will watch the rest, since I DVR'd it, but I might fast forward to the end to see who did it because I have no idea. But the characters involved weren't engaging at all.

If you need a work break
I'm currently obsessed with this blog: http://www.lovelylisting.com/ and finding bad real estate photos, because I'll never forget when Seth and I were looking and we found one that looked like it had been stuffed to the brim with crap and if you looked really hard you saw a creepy old man who looked like a bum. I wish I still had that picture because it was GREAT.

Goodbye Dinah, Goodbye! *falls down the rabbit hole*
Okay everyone, that's all out of me today! Hope you have a great day and pray it goes by SUPER FAST for all of us! Obsession, Intervention, and The Closer are on tonite!

Love (for it to be Thursday afternoon already),
Carrie

Man has to suffer. When he has no real afflictions, he invents some.

Yay! Friday all! It came quickly this week for me, but that is because I was home sick Wednesday.

SYTYCD
I was glad with the girl they kicked off, I think that was right. And I was okay with the boy they kicked off, all though I think Jason should have went. It's going to cause an uprising though because the guy that they kicked off has a HUGE cult following, which is why they announced that he was coming on tour. They know he will bring in the money. You're thoughts?

The Philanthropist
While I didn't think this episode was stellar, I thought it was good. A lot of unnecessary tense moments of will he make it out of the burning building!?!? I fast forwarded thru those parts. The funny thing was though, I was watching this show and Seth came in and goes, hey, isn't that they guy from Rome? Mark Anthony? And I was like, OH MY GOD! I never noticed, I remember thinking, I've seen that guy naked…but where? And it just clicked and exploded for me when Seth remembered. Muhwahahaha, I'm slowly turning him over to the dark side! (PS I totally spelled philanthropist without any help from spell check and I'm pretty fucking pumped about it)

Weekend
I'm trying to embark on a quiet restful House filled weekend but Seth keeps screwing it up, he has to go to Old Chicago tonite for a goodbye party. I told him to bring me nachos and a calzone and maybe I will forgive him. And Sunday we are going to Public Enemies. And Saturday we have to go to the store and he has to get his haircut. My mom is going to Jesus Camp. Maybe I can convince my Dad to entertain me.

I wish
I had more to say. But I'm leading a relatively boring life at the moment! How about this, how about you ask me things in the comments and then I'll comment on them. Open book people!

Trots off
I'm going to work a little bit, I'll check back to see if you have any questions!!

Love (to never ride Mission Space again),
Carrie

Nothing is as simple as we hope it will be.

Hello world! Happy Thursday!

Foot, meet mouth
So after I go on a mini rant on my last blog about the lack of my favorite bloggers blogging, I get sick, stay home from work for a day (hence the lack of blog posting yesterday) and come back and BAM! There are tons of blogs posted. So my lesson here is to whine more, or stop checking my blog roll every 45 minutes.

SYTYCD
Sorry I didn't get the spoilers up for you yesterday!! I hope you watched anyway. Here are my thoughts on the night:
Brandon/Janette - Argentine Tango (New choreographer) & Pop Jazz (Wade Robson) This couple is always impressive, and they did a great job with their pieces. I think the Tango was my favorite, but it was nice to finally watch a Wade Robson piece and not go, WTF just happened here? I voted for them.
Kupono/Kayla - Contemporary (Mia Michaels) & Broadway (Joey Dowling) LOVED the Mia piece, like bawled hysterically and rewound it four times. I'm about over that broadway chick though. I voted for them.
Phillip/Jeanine - Russian Folk Dance & Jive (Tony Meredith) *meh* it was alright. It's hard to top Twitch and Joshua's folk dance from last year, there was just so much energy. I love Jeanine though.
Evan/Randi - Hip Hop (Nappy Tabs) & Samba (Pasha Kovalev and Anya Garnis) I'm sad because I love Evan, but this wasn't the best last night. I voted for them just to keep Evan safe, but I'm glad they are getting split up next week, that Randi girl just seems like a bitch. PS YAY bringing back old contestants to choreograph!
Jason/Cailtin - Foxtrot (Tony Meredith) & Jazz (Mandy Moore) SNOOOZE
Ade/Melissa - Disco (Doriana Sanchez) & Waltz (Ron Montez) The disco was fun, but they weren't the best of the night.

Tyce was surprisingly quiet which made him tolerable as a judge tonite. I still want to know what the choreographers think of the dancers performances. Cat looked ADORABLE last night. What did you all think? Are you excited to see new partners next week?

MJ's funeral
I watched some of it online on mtv.com a little bit before lunch. It was pretty anticlimactic. When I got back from my other building business, I saw the part with his daughter and I just BAWLED. I was heartbroken for her. And I was mad because it seemed like her aunt and relatives were really pimping her out there. I'm waiting for someone to do a comparison to see if those kids really look like MJ. Like pre surgery old school MJ. Because they look more like Johnny Depp's kids to me.

The weekend
This weekend we are trying to keep it low key. Speaking of Johnny Depp we are hoping to see his movie on Sunday. Our usual matinee. I forgot it came out! I've been so focused on Harry Potter coming out!! (Which LORD I'm excited for that.) Seth needs a haircut before Cheeto and Whit's wedding on August 1st. I find that if he does it a couple of weeks in advance it doesn't look so bad. So I think I will try to get him over for that this weekend too.
I wanted my dad to come do the tile, but it looks like he will be tied up with another project. Its okay, he does more than enough for us as it is! I'm trying to encourage him to start his shop rebuilding project so Seth can help him with that, a little pay back or help back, since Dad helps us.

Gordon Ramsey's The F word
Man I LOVE this show. Seriously. It's on BBC America if you guys aren't watching it, I don't know what you are doing instead. Last night was hilarious, and a couple of the dishes looked like real possibilities! Some of my best recipes come from that show.

HawthoRNe
I've given up. Sorry. It officially got the delete last night.

Intervention and Obsessed
Man that Nikki girl on Intervention was a WRECK. I was surprised that her end screen didn’t say she was dead or on the methadone again. I'm confused as to how these people get so many pills. Like doesn't insurance track that you have 6 of the same prescription from 6 different doctors. My pharmacist knows EVERYTHING I take, she even recommends what cold medicine will be more effective with the prescriptions I have. But I heart her, shout out to Tiffany at the Target Pharmacy on L-You are the BEST! I get panicky when I pick up my scripts and she's not there. I'm like Tiffany still works here right?
The people on Obsessed were meh. That one girl I can't believe her boyfriend didn't leave her, or why couldn’t they move out. That's half of her issue, I can't believe her roommates didn't kick her out or leave. Dude if there were SIGNS berating me on how to wash dishes…LORD. Also if she had such a problem with it, why didn't she just say, I'm in charge of the kitchen, I'll do the cleaning. It's kind of something you establish BEFORE you move in with a bunch of people. Like when I lived with Pam and Jason, it was just a given that I didn't shower in their shower and we kept the kitchen as clean as possible for the next person. Dishes weren't left in the sink, you pulled your weight. I think her final challenge though should have been to do the tower of terror though, since she was afraid of elevators. The horder pissed me off. She wasn't like the other guy who had NO ONE and was all alone, her kids came to see her. It was almost like she was lazy, if she was that worried about how people would look at her hoarding. Is it so hard to buy some rubbermaids? If it looks organized at least people won't question it. Well unless you are like Mel Gibson in that movie where he's a taxi driver obsessed with Julia Roberts. That was an organized hoarder.

Catch up!
Alright lovelies! I've got to catch up from my day out of the office. I hope you have a great day and HANG IN THERE!! The weekend is almost here!!

Love (for new news to be good news),
Carrie

We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones.

Yo, yo, yo, Tuesday-what's happenin' in the 402? Or where ever your zip code happens to be? Here's what's going on in the world of Carrie's head today...

Kendra
This episode was okay, not as good because it had her hanging out with her two dopey friends most of the time, and that annoying Johnny Makeup guy who I just recently learned is the heir to the American Apparel throne. I like Hank though.

The Closer
Good episode. I didn't expect where they went with it. I'm surprised that Fritz hasn't tried to get Brenda another cat though. I never thought about donating old cat toys to a shelter, can you really do that? You know one thing I HATE about TNT is that they don't show the preview for the next episode during the credits, it's like a commercial during the next show. They think they are being clever little minxes but what they are really doing is torking me off. Shape up TNT!

Intervention and Obsessed
I only watched the first 20 minutes of each of these before I got tired and had to take a nap, but they both look like good episodes. Intervention is a woman who is addicted to pills and methadone, because apparently that's common for addicts because the methadone gets you higher. Obsessed is two women, a hoarder (yay!) and a OCD germaphobe who also is claustrophobic. Both look to be good.

Ole'
Last night I ate at Mamacita's Mexican Restaurant with my family. It was really good and I had a lot of fun, but their portion sizes are so friggin small. And they gave us smooshed chips, but my mom sent them back.

Blogstalking
Dude did everyone take the summer off from blogging? Did I not get the memo? I have about 45 blogs on my google blogroll (and google reader) and I'm lucky if I get one or two updates a day. It used to be I didn't have time to read all the updates! I'm fairly certain here though that some of them are going to get the boot and I'm going to be adding a new category of blogs soon. The people who actually update their blogs. I know I take the weekends off but I try to get my blog up before noon and if I don't I'm either sick or in morning meetings. But know I love you enough to at least attempt to get it here regularly.

Sam's Club
Tonite we have to go to Sam's Club to get cat food and laundry detergent. The kidtens are officially off kitten food! But Sam's Club is always a let down for me. I'm one of those people who can buy 100 things off the dollar menu and feel great, but when I get 100 dollars worth of stuff from Sam's Club it's like 4 things. I also live in fear that one day I'm going to go there and they are going to notice that my married name isn't on the card or my dad will cancel my membership and forget to tell me. I use that thing more than he knows! I should tell him sometime.

Succubus Garden
Yesterday I picked the giant cucumber, and it really is big. It's about the size of my arm and I can barely get my whole hand around it to hold it. I'm sure Seth is right and I shouldn't have let it get that big because it will be woody and not juicy, but it was fun getting something big out of the garden. The sweet peppers are growing along! I have 3 now and one is getting super big. I have two heads of cauliflower and my mom put this stuff on that area of plants so the bugs stop eating them and I think its helping. Grow Succubus Grow!

Auf Wiedersehen!
Alright my little lederhosen 's, I'm off to make the schnitzel! Have a good day and if you watched Obsessed or Intervention, let me know what you thought!

Love (to have the Black Eyed Peas song "Hey Mama" not on repeat in her head),
Carrie

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong.

Hello and welcome to Monday all. There is no holiday on the horizon and the next few months of work look hot and bleak. I hope you have hunkered down and prepared. I think the next holiday is like Memorial Day, right?

The weekend recap
I'm going to keep it short because I'm tired and uber busy at work. Thursday night Seth went golfing and then brought home Qudoba for lunch. We watched Eli Stone and Kings since besides Ice Road Truckers, it's really the only thing we have on the DVR. Friday we woke up late (sooo divine) and went to the grocery store and then I started cooking and cleaning and Seth worked in the yard. I used my food processor from our wedding for the first time to make the corn slaw and I'm officially in love with it. I had this theory that if I got all the food done (which I did) I could relax the day of the party. This partially was true. Let's talk about the food a hot minute. I made Fat Potato Fat Fat (also a pan with Bacon), 4 boxes of Mac n Cheese, corn slaw (basically coleslaw with corn), Cucumbers with balsamic vinegar, mustard, garlic, basil, and a little sugar, min corn muffins, corn on the grill, peas from my garden, and Seth made ribs and chicken. The food was SO good and pretty much everyone said so. My mom tried to get me to drive her over some corn slaw yesterday-HA! Also Friday my parents didn't have power so my Mom stopped by and I did her hair for my aunt's birthday party and she helped stir some things for me. Saturday the party was fun, we didn’t have a lot of people but we had a lot of people we liked. Just enough! Dad brought over the family fest table so we would have somewhere to sit (at the eleventh hour Friday night I woefully noticed that I am completely lacking in outdoor seating. That could be because I HATE being outdoors in the summer so why would I have tons of seating? Anyway Dad showed up Saturday morning and set up the fest table for me because he is the best Dad ever). Saturday they showed up early and my Mom planted the most beautiful flowers in my sad pathetic stone flower planters and they looked oh so lovely-THANKS MAMA! We played lots of fun games and Jake from work brought and gave me a set of "washers" that he had made. Jesse snuck off with it though in the roar of a firework filled night. He was told he has to bring it back whenever I want. We went to bed around one and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Sunday we literally did not leave bed for more than 20% of the day. We watched "House" on DVD and ate lunch and dinner in bed. Leftovers-YUM! We only left the house to get gas in my car and we took the Kidtens with us and Willow LOVES riding in the car, and Bagheera would not get out of his bag and looked positively green and made pitiful meows whenever the car turned corners or I rolled down the window. Then he sat downstairs and pouted in the basement when we got home. Never a dull moment with Bengals. So all and all, it was a lovely wonderful peaceful weekend and I seriously hope to spend all this weekend in bed. But then I always plan that-ha.

SYTYCD
I am still pouting about who got kicked off. At least the male anyway, I could careless about the girl. Any reactions from out in the blog-o-sphere?

Some blog housekeeping
I forgot to point out that I put a picture of Willow being eaten by the snuggie as the new picture. Seth said I needed to have something that would catch people's eye since apparently if you misspell "carry on baggage" in google, my blog is the first thing that comes up, so for all of you who stumbled here looking for FDA guidelines on your carry on's, I can't help you, but I do have a lovely picture of my cat's butt.
Also I recently removed the "What?" reaction button below. And then I got a nasty comment (which I didn't publish because I'm queen of this blog and I don't have to publish nasty if I don't want to). The reason I removed the button is because some person, probably the person who sent the nasty comment clicked every entry's "What?" button like 67 times. I get you don't understand what's going on with my blog post about the third time you clicked it dude. I further understood it when you sent me your nasty comment. How about this, how about if you are confused by my blog you either stop reading or you ask constructive questions in the comment section and we will talk about it. But I really don't have the time to delete every email I get when you decide to be an ass and click the "What?" button 100 times. Sorry. I do actually have a job and a life, you might have read about it here, if you hadn't been so quick to scroll thru and click the button. I suspect this is the creepy stalker from Carrie R's blog "Half Assed" who wrote creepy things in her comments so I made fun of him. But unfortunately I don't have a crystal ball so I can't assume that in the definitive. Mostly I can speculate and delete the obsessive "what" button clicker's mean comments. But in case the rest of you wondered, there is the story. And new picture of Willow getting eaten by a snuggie.

Alright
Well I set a lofty goal to management this week, so I should probably try and accomplish that! Hope you all have a good day!!!
Love (when mornings start out positive),
Carrie

Doing a thing well is often a waste of time.

Hallo! Happy Fake Friday everyone! I'm so excited this day is FINALLY here! How about you??

Plea Bargain
Since my father reads this blog every day I'm making an open plea to him to come "instruct" my husband on how to do our tile entryway as soon as possible. I about ripped my big toe off last night trying to do the laundry on the big boards you had us buy for underneath the tile. I'm just saying, if you love me, and my toes, you will make this magic happen. And I will make you a delicious dinner and buy you beer. Love, your slightly toe deformed daughter.

FOUR DAYS IN A ROW!!
I've done OnDemand workouts four days in a row this week. Last night I skipped the Bootylicious Buns and did the Kim Kardashian Butt work out (it had a more clever minx like name, but I can't remember it) and I can report today that KIM KARDASHIAN IS INSANE if she does that workout every night. And I might have a little girl crush on her now. I'll keep you posted.

The Closer
I finally finished it! And I actually loved it, it was a good episode, I like when they do more around Fritz and Brenda's relationship, the ones that talk about the team members I get bored with.

The Philanthropist
Did any of you watch this last week and this week? I just watched last week's episode and I LOVED it. Okay well maybe not LOVED but strongly liked, I can see how the rich guy saves the world storyline could get old so I'm excited to see if they can be creative with it. The casting is phenomenal. I love Jesse L. Martin, I have since Law and Order. And Neve Campbell? Lord where has she been? Love her! Hit up the comments and let me know if you enjoyed this one!

HawthoRNe
At the final hour, this show gets a reprieve. This last episode was really good and it was nice to finally see the rhythm of the show. It even made me all weepy at the end. It gets a stay for another week.

SYTYCD
Janette/Brandon (cha cha by Jean-Marc & France to "Hush Hush" by the Pussycat Dolls) LOVED it. Did you notice Brandon singing along with the words though? Judges HATE that, I can't believe no one called him out on it. I voted for them.
Melissa/Ade (pas de deux by Thordal Christensen to Romeo and Juliet) I thought this was pretty, but not very exciting, I voted for them, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were in the bottom 3.
Kayla/Kupono (jazz by Sonya) Very good, I like Sonya's work, I just wish she would use more popular songs so I could get drawn in more, sometimes during the routine I'm like WTF is this song?? I voted for them.
Randi/Evan (broadway by Joey Dowling) even though you all know I strongly pull for Randi and Evan (More Evan than Randi-she's kind of a prude) I think there is a real chance they may have landed in the bottom 3 tonite, that routine was not very good but that is purely the choreographers fault I think, they've done Broadway before and dominated it-who was this lady? I voted for them out of pure love for them.
Caitlin/Jason (pop jazz by Brian Friedman to "Creator" by Santogold) Um…see you guys in the bottom three.
Jeanine/Phillip (hip hop by Napoleon and Tabitha to "Love Lockdown" by Kanye) When NappyTabs (that's their twitter moniker) first came to SYTYCD I thought they were the poor man's Shane Sparks. I'm very happy to say I am wrong, they are pretty awesome and you can tell they love dance and they are making some amazing routines. I loved this. I voted for them.
Karla/Vitolio (quickstep by Jean-Mark & France to "Puttin' on the Ritz") I thought this was AMAZING. I tried voting for them for an hour and couldn't get thru. Let's hope this means they are the TOPS!! Even though Karla-snooze.
I really think the announcement of the new foundation is exciting-I really think dance should be offered in the schools, maybe as an alternative to gym? Anyway I'm linking the site of the new Dizzy Feet Foundation and I hope you all take the time to check it out and help if you can! http://www.dizzyfeetfoundation.org/
I also thought the judges were spot on tonite and fun to watch. I liked Mia's apology to Brandon, it made me all weepy.
How about you all? What did you think? Favorites? Who do you think is going home?

Long Weekend Plans
Tonite we are going to try and go to the grocery store, but Seth is golfing after work so we may not make it. If we don't we will go tomorrow and then I will get started on cooking (yay! So excited!) and cleaning the house. Seth will be finishing up yard stuff. Blessedly they are predicting no rain and 80 degrees on Saturday, I can live with that! I've decided to make two pans of Fat Potato Fat Fat, one with bacon, just an experiment. I'll let you know how it goes over. Then Sunday hopefully we are resting and filled with joy and satisfaction at the wonderment that was our party.
What about you all out there? What are your weekend plans?

*waves*
Have a great, SAFE, July 4th weekend everyone!!! Hope today flies by for you!!

Love (fireworks and bbq cooking),
Carrie

I am no more humble than my talents require.

Wednesday…that's a fun one to spell. I always sound it out while I spell it Wed-nes -day. Too bad it isn't Thursday and this is my last day of work this week. Boo not owning a time machine…

Succubus Garden
I thought I'd start with a garden update, mostly because I spent an hour last night in it weeding with Seth. I say weeding but really I was pulling super tall grass, I don't think grass counts as a weed does it, more like a pain. And I say I was helping Seth but he did most of the work, I pulled the grass from in between plants rows, like the grass that sprung up in the row of garlic. But! Excitement all around because I got a handful of big long green beans and I saw the pepper plant has a pepper (okay Seth saw it first, I did the whole, Really? Where? I just looked!) and the cucumber has a big phallic fruit growing and a bunch of tiny ones getting ready to get big and phallic. Right now they are more pinky shaped. I'm SUPER excited for my tomatoes though, there are DOZENS of them. When will they turn red?? The roma ones are funny shaped and I kind of love them. Anyway that's what's up in garden land at the Hellbusch house.

TV
Last night I didn't watch much off the DVR even though I said I really needed to. The Soup was a repeat, we watched an old Big Bang Theory (we are late to the game on this show, but it's hilarious) and I watched another 15 minutes of the Closer. Then Seth and I watched the Numb3rs season finale and that was really good but it was funny because a commercial came on for Terminator Salvation and we forgot the Numb3rs season finale taped way back in May so we were like "Huh?" Anyway it was a pretty good episode, but not really something monumental I would encourage you to watch unless you were into shows about math and the FBI, that's more of a personal thing. I also watched about 5 episodes of House. I have this thing, if I borrow your DVD's, I try to watch them and get them back to you as soon as I can, one because I like to be caught up so we can talk about them and two because I get anal retentive with people who borrow my DVD's and keep them forever. (I'm looking at you IN LAWS!!!) I should really chill out on that because it's not like I'm sitting at home watching them.

Fitness TV OnDemand
Is killing me. No really. I'm STILL sore from Bootylicious Buns and last night we did "rockstar abs" or something ridiculous titled program like that with Kendall the black guy who WOULD NOT CUT YOU A BREAK. He made us do crunches during our rest period! Jerk. And he said really condescending things like-You can't just get abs by crunches, you need to do cardio and diet too-you have to burn the fat that's over the abs you are building. Or NO EXCUSES! I hate that one, I do have an excuse Kendall-my excuse is ab works makes me have to fart, which my husband hates so I'm clenching here and Willow the Wunderkitten always seems to know when we are doing workout videos and comes RUNNING to latch onto my foot while I'm trying to raise it in the air for scissor kicks. She also lays on her back when we have to lay on ours and wiggles next to us to get her belly rubbed. It was cute at first when we would joke about her doing Pilates with us and now she will swipe at you if you ignore her or EAT YOUR FEET because you are obviously swinging them around just to tease her. And inevitably, Bagheera gets bored upstairs and moseys his way down and he thinks it's a fun game too and his teeth and claws are sharper and he bites harder. So Kendell with the rock hard abs who can't be bothered to do this 10 minute exercise video with his shirt off to prove to us his stupid program works-I’m FULL OF EXCUSES.

Making lists
I'm currently trying to make the grocery list for this week and having to try and add the menu items ingredients I need. I don't know why I do it, it's fruitless. I have no idea what I have in back stock in the freezer and I probably will just buy everything I need at the store even if I do have it just because I don't want to take the time to defrost it.

TV tonite
Okay so I HAVE to finish The Closer and I have HawthoRNe's final strike on my DVR, it taped last night. And OF COURSE I have So You Think You Can Dance tonite!! Here are this week's spoilers for everyone courtesy of a poster on Television Without Pity:
Janette/Brandon - cha cha by Jean-Marc & France to "Hush Hush" by the Pussycat Dolls
Melissa/Ade - pas de deux by Thordal Christensen to Romeo and Juliet
Kayla/Kupono - jazz by Sonya
Randi/Evan - broadway by Joey Dowling
Caitlin/Jason - pop jazz by Brian Friedman to "Creator" by Santogold
Jeanine/Phillip - hip hop by Napoleon and Tabitha to "Love Lockdown" by Kanye
Karla/Vitolio - quickstep by Jean-Mark & France to "Puttin' on the Ritz"
Mia Michaels is the guest judge-WATCH OUT BRANDON!!!
Make sure you come back tomorrow to tell me what you think!!!

Mama shout outs!
I'd like to give a BIG SHOUT OUT to my POOR Mother who has been reading my blog at work but not commenting. She told me a while ago she couldn't read it at work, but now she can and has been-Ma you need to comment! My mom has had a pretty rough month, she got poison ivy, a spider bite from hell, and an upper respiratory infection. Also she had to look after the farm of animals in our family and sadly one, Sammy got put down. Also she's very lonely lately so I should hang out with her more, but driving is such a pain when you do it so much in a day that when I go home I want to stay home, but I really should suck it up and be a better daughter. So it's a new month Mom! You can only go up from here!!! I love you!!
Also it's Seth's Mom's birthday today. Happy Birthday Janet! I don't think you or anyone you know besides Seth reads my blog to tell you I gave you a shout out, but none the less-Happy Birthday!!

I'm outtie!
Alright peeps, we just have to get thru this day and one more! We can do it!!! Maybe. Hopefully. Look really I need a crystal ball or time machine or something-anyone got one?

Love (to know what the future holds),
Carrie