It's the most wonderful time of the year....

Well, I don't know about that, because it's DAMN cold outside. Bone-chilling cold. Can't shake it cold. I hate cold.

BUT

I did take a "mental health day" off yesterday and go shopping with the girls. We took off to the premium outlets lighthouse edition or whatever they're calling it these days. We started the day off right with mimosa's in my girlfriend's kitchen. Hooray mimosa's! And then off to MC. There were 8 of us altogether, and once we got there it was a frenzy of shopping to be sure. We all had places we wanted to go, so we separated and met up at various places...talked about deals here, deals there - stopped for coffee. We loaded up the cars several times over...I got a lot of people knocked off my list. Hooray shopping!

And because we were in MC, some of the girls wanted to go try their luck on the Blue Chip. Now I am not a gambler, by any stretch of the imagination. If I have money to burn, I'd rather burn it on shoes, or good wine, or a cocktail...not risking it to *maybe* win something. But off to the boat we went. The brilliant part? We signed up for their card and got a free lunch buffet - a $12 value!! Ummm, free food? Yes please. It was good, too.

I had $20 to waste, and I put $10 in video poker...I was up, I was down...and ultimately...I stayed down. Boo poker.

I moved on to slots and put in $5 - I ended up with $16.25, so overall, I was up a whopping $1.25. Hooray winning! But I forgot to get cash before I got there, so I had to pay a $3 fee to their ATM. Boo fees! So I guess I ended up down $1.75. Boooo!

But I got a lot of shopping done!
And free lunch!!
And I think a good time was had by all....

Hitting a little close to home....

OMG - so the hubby and Julie and Tiffany and Amy and Tony and I all went to a wine tasting on Sunday. It was in Chesterton, so I suspected I might run into a few old classmates. I did.

One of them was a bit freaky.

Do you remember when I mentioned way back when last year that I was raising a drummer? And that I said it must have been karmic payback for breaking up too many times with my high school drummer boyfriend? Bill Trowbridge? Well, Bill was there on Sunday. And he said "I've got a bone to pick with you." Umm, you do? I haven't seen you in like 5 years...and then he says "I googled my name and found myself on your blog."

GULP.

You did. Oh. I must have looked panic-stricken because he quickly said it was nothing bad. I was mortified. Holy crap. Was it bad? I didn't think so. I didn't ever remember typing anything truly bad about anyone (save for Festivus) and certainly not about Bill. But my brain was spinning. Did you guys know that my blog is on the INTERNET and therefore ANYONE can read it? Did you? And I want to all to know that I purposely put his full name in the blog again so that if he ever googles himself and finds this he'll know that he totally freaked me out! (Hi Bill!!)

Julie just laughed at me. "Maybe you should just say Bill T. or Julie B. when you refer to people"

Maybe I should.

I very quickly started thinking about everyone I've ever blogged about and whether or not they could have stumbled onto it and thought I was horrible. I guess if I do blog badly about people I don't really care if they stumble onto it...do I?

OY. It makes my head hurt.

So it's Thanksgiving Eve...biggest party night of the year. I'm gigging with Jon&Laura&Bob&Cousin David and who knows who else...good times. I'll wake up with mimosas and cinnamon rolls...mmmmmm...cinnamon rolls.

Happy Thanksgiving bloggers!

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall...

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall...
And all the great surgeons
and all the great nurses
had to put humpty dumpty back together again...

So my dad was cleaning the gutters and fell off the ladder. He probably free fell about 9 feet straight onto the asphalt driveway. He broke his femur. Way up high by where it connects into his pelvis. Two hours of surgery later and he's the bionic man. Well, not bionic...but titanium. I wonder if he'll have to carry one of those cards to get through the airport?

It's going to be a long recovery for the man. That is not a good bone to break, what with it being large and weight-bearing and all.

We're very fortunate that that's all that happened. A man went hunting the other day in Valpo and never came home. They found him at the bottom of a tree. He fell out of his stand and broke his neck. I'm so grateful he was able to somehow, army crawling, get himself into the house to call 911.

I had other things to blog about, I know I did...but for the life of me I can't remember what they were. It'll come to me.

In the meantime, think good thoughts for my pops. He's in the hospital now until at least Thursday.

Supastar!!!

So, Lordy hasn't posted a review yet...but there are pics out on his Chicagobluesbeat.com website to be seen:

Go check out pics of me and Delores and the boys at Blues Island!

Good times...

*Guest blog by the Jimmer: Opinions expressed here and in any corresponding comments are the personal opinions of the original author, and do not necessarily represent that of the blog owner. So there. This is a GUEST blog written by the Jimmer. Not Rebecca. The Jimmer. Got it? K.

It’s been so long since I started this that I’m not sure where I left off. So, here I go. I’m heading North on Hwy 49 and it’s about 5:45pm. 1 hour and 45 minutes till womanhood. The entire drive I am breathing like a mother prior to birth. Not to mention that I smoked 4 cigarettes during a 15 minute drive. That would be a cigarette every 3 minutes and 45 seconds. I get to the Church – yes, St. Patrick’s Catholic Church – and pop the trunk. I retrieve my dress and wig and head down to the dressing room. I walk in to the dressing room and there are about 7 of the 15 already there getting ready. However, even stranger, all of their wives were there. Now, I’m thinking, I’ve got to put a dress on in front of these ladies? I don’t want them seeing my little package rolled up into a super ball. But then I saw my savior. Oh yes, a wash of relief rolled across my mind. There, in the corner of the room were 4 coolers. I walked over to them and my expectations were confirmed – The Miller Lite, Coors Light and MGD were all whispering Pick Me Pick Me. Naturally, I chose the Miller Lite. I drank that first beer in 7 minutes. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of a mirror brushing my wig and actually worrying about how I looked. After I was satisfied with my hair I began concentrating on my boobs. I blew up two balloons to what I thought was an acceptable size. I would estimate them being somewhere in between Calista Flockhart’s and Rebecca’s. I was not wearing a bra because the dress was so snug so I placed them inside making sure they were not too high up. I then began to glitter my “cleavage.” The glitter got a little out of hand and I think I looked like a disco ball by the time I was done. Mind you, at this point I’ve had 6 or 7 beers and 3 Jager Bombs. Oh, did I mention there was liquor there too? In fact, one of the participants brought his own moonshine, Mason jar and all. I put my pink lipstick on and I was ready to go. However, the event was running way behind because people were running late (attendees) and the ones that were there had congregated around the two bars. So, this meant more time to drink beer. By the time we got ready to go, I asked the Emcee 5 times if my lipstick looked ok. The fifth time he said, “Bitch, your lipstick looks fine!” All in jest of course – I think. Anyhow, the night moved pretty quickly from there. We all walked the runway individually and I really worked it. I was blowing kisses to the crowd and making my “oops did I do that” face. On the walk back to the dressing room tragedy was avoided, barely. I must have started walking a little faster but my heel slipped out of the wedge heels I was wearing and I did that side step thing that people do when they can’t walk in heels. I felt like Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality. As for the swimsuit competition, I was saved because I was able to borrow a sarong. I wore Nicole’s bikini and stuffed my balloon ta-ta’s back in. I even sprinkled more glitter for good measure. Went to the mirror and fixed my hair and asked one of the other guys if my lipstick was good. We were then lining back up and I decided I needed one more beer in me, which, I grabbed and drank while waiting for my turn. I guess I was a little quick on the stage because I began walking back before they were finished talking about me. Also, there were a few other guys wearing sarongs and they decided to strip them off and prance around in bikini bottoms. Not yours truly. The sarong stayed firmly tied around my waist. You know, didn’t want to show the little Jim and the twins…

I didn’t win anything but overall it was fun. We rose between $20,000 and $25,000 for the YMCA. Again, it was fun, but I’ll never do it again….Well, not in public anyway.

Jim

5 years of wedded bliss?

Okay, so maybe not every minute of every day is bliss...but we rewarded ourselves anyway.

We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary at the Herrington Inn & Spa. And lemme tell ya - this place rocks. I mean ROCKS. The room was gorgeous, the bathtub was huge, the champagne was cold. What else could a girl need? Oh, a spa on the floor below ours? Perfect...I'll take it. It's always fun to go somewhere new and have it actually be better than you imagined. Sometimes you look at something on the web and you think "could it possibly be that awesome?" And in this case the answer is yes. Double yes. Triple yes. I highly recommend this for anyone celebrating an anniversary, birthday, or absolutely nothing...just go...now...GO. But make reservations early. The inn only has 61 rooms. We stayed a river premiere room, so we had a view, and that was great. We also had a fireplace, which was nice, and the king size bed was fantastic.

In-room bath you say? YES! The spa delivered the relaxing bath essentials to our door, and it was a great way to start our weekend getaway. The people in the spa were wonderful - I had a body polish...and I'm pretty sure my skin is better than the day I was born. My massage on Sunday morning was just what the doctor ordered, and considering I literally crawled out of bed, into my robe and slippers and hopped the elevator down for my treatment...brilliant. I was greeted with smiles and herbal tea.

The town of Geneva has great shopping...and a winery outlet for the Galena winery. They actually had some great offerings. (and we purchased some of them to share!) I also picked up one of these, because, well, you know I had to have one!

And then when we went down the street to find some Fat Tire, the Savway was having a special 18-hour sale and wine tasting. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? Who has this kind of luck. We tasted only a few as we did have to drive home and pick up the kids, who were eating my parents out of house and home. I called to check in a couple of times, every time I did Alex was sleeping and Owen was eating. Do you all know what this means? Yep, I'll be buying them both new pants and shoes soon. Damn kids will not stop growing no matter what I do!

We had dinner at Foxfire, and not only was the food yummy, but the service was amazing. My husband and I have been in love with St. Charles for a long time, but now that we've found Geneva? I think we may be looking at weekend getaways there.

How was YOUR weekend?Happy couple after a weekend at the Herrington

Getting in touch with my feminine side, part 1

*ETA: Per Sugar Snap Pea. The following is a guest blog by the Jimmer. I do not possess a "twig and berries", unless you count the set on my husband.

As most of you already know, I did in fact participate in the WomanLESS Beauty Pageant. This was a fundraiser for the Duneland Family YMCA and I’m proud to say that we raised some where between $20,000 and $30,000. I was approached about this approximately 2 months ago because our Father (me, Jbrave, and Eggo) threw me under the bus and nominated me. I didn’t think much of it at the time but Saturday afternoon I was a wreck. There where a couple of times where my girlfriend Nicole that I was going to puke but it was just the nerves. Enough about that stuff though and on to the “meat” of this blog. It was rather interesting preparing to be a woman. I borrowed a cocktail type dress from a woman in our office and it was very tight, black velvet dress; very form fitting if you know what I mean. At 4:30pm, after watching the Irish lose to Navy (oui vey) I jumped into the shower. I then shaved cuz I had day old stubble. I preceded to cut myself a number of times so that wasn’t good. Then, I put on the bikini bottoms. Yes, there was an evening gown portion AND a swimsuit competition. They were so tight on me that there was no room for underwear. (Not that you would wear them with a suit.) I looked at my ass in the mirror and then said to Nicole, “why didn’t you tell me my ass was so big?” She laughed and replied that I was really on my way to being a woman. Then it was time for the panty hose. Yes, I said panty hose. Jet black, Queen Plus. Well, let me tell you that is not an easy thing. It took me every bit of 10 minutes to put those suckers on. Not to mention how tight everything was on my twig and berries…Very tight and very constricting. So, I’ve got these things at my waist and Nicole tells me that they have to go higher. What, what are you talking about? She said that they were control tops. I don’t know even know what that means. Anyhow, I rolled them all the way up and then went up to my nipples. I left them at my waist…Anyhow, it was very difficult turning into a girl. I know have a little taste of what most of you go through on a daily basis.

More to come later about the actual event…
Jim

*sniff* oh honey, look! Our baby is all grown up and doesn't he look so beautiful in drag??

Ahhhhhh, yes, bloggers...this weekend is a very special weekend for none other than our very own JIMMER.

Yes...for charity, the Jimmer will be donning a wig, makeup, ball gown and heels and walking the catwalk. That's right...our baby will be in drag. Isn't just the sweetest thing you've ever heard?? The saddest part is that because I didn't mark the charity event on my calendar, I'm not going to be there...I'll be in Chicago dining on some fabulous food here, and then going to see this. I had a friend say she liked Shear Madness...and then someone else told me it was dreadful. Two very different opinions, from two very different people. I hope it's at least entertaining, or my hubby will kill me. The last time we went to the city, the performance was less than satisfying for him. Oy.

So that means I get to drink great wine, have great conversation, hopefully see a fun show, and stay overnight in an overpriced downtown hotel. YIPPEE. But still, Jimmer will be dressed up like a woman, toes painted, makeup on, wig in place...and I won't be there.

I told him yesterday that there should be before/after pics...and pics of him getting ready, like a bride on her wedding day. He didn't seem to think this was necessary. I clearly need to have a conversation with Nicole.

Jimmer -you know I'll need pics for the blog on this one...I'm just sayin. Do you have a name? A chick name picked out for your debut?? What should his girl name be, bloggers?

Just a couple of nitpicky items...

One...Halloween apparently should be renamed to skankaween. Seriously. Do they even MAKE costumes for little girls anymore? Why in the HELL do they have a French maid costume for 8 year olds? Excuse me? Whodawa? Does it come with fishnets and condoms? I started noticing this last year, when I was looking for a costume for me...that I basically had two choices: sexy_something or medieval looking costume that covered every inch of my body. Nice. Thanks. And now they're doing the same for kids? Bullshit. BULLSHIT.

Two...When the shit is the time change? This weekend coming up or did I miss it. I'd like to think I didn't miss it. But they're really screwing with me here.

Three...Kids clothes. Holy mother. Alex? Alex is easy - he could care less what he wears as long as it fits. Actually...as long as it fits and it's black. Hmmmmm, I wonder where he gets THAT trait? Owen on the other hand is my little clothes hound. Very particular. And right now he needs new jeans. And new shoes. And well, new everything because he won't stop growing no matter what I do. We measure our kids on the laundry room wall. Owen has grown almost 2 inches since March. Oy. I asked him where he wanted to go shopping. The mall. The mall? Yeah...they have cool clothes at the mall. Ummmm, okay. Why in the shit do you know this? The thing about the "cool stores" is that they're really for teens...not for preens or tweens. The one store that did have jeans in his size? Ummmmm, yeah...$60. SIXTY DOLLARS for a pair of jeans he probably won't be wearing in 4 months. I can't do it. I just can't do it. I have no problem spending $60 on a pair of jeans for me. If I wear them like I've worn my other pairs, I'll have them for 5 years easily. That's what, $12 per year? Divided by 365 days in the year...that's....ummm...365 into 12.00...well...pennies a day. PENNIES. But $60 for Owen...can't do it. Same with shoes. He's got high dollar taste when it comes to shoes (hmmm, wonder where he gets THAT?) and I get it. I do. BUT...his feet keep growing, too - and I just can't do it. We solved the jeans problem last night and got him some shirts, and a Colts hoodie which he loves. At least he's reasonable. When I tell him that we just can't afford to buy him things that expensive while he's growing, ultimately he's fine with it. And when we found him some great jeans on sale for $21..."Mom, these are really cool jeans. Why would anyone pay $40 more for jeans?" Yes, dear...that's right. Why?

So today my youngest son left the house in new clothes looking quite spiffy and NOT wearing two different colored socks.

I love the change in the weather.

The kick is up and it's..........NO GOOD!

It's a sad day for us - Alex did not make the pep band. He's fine with it - what we now know is that there are only 5 kids in it, and that they had a lot of drummers audition, but not a lot of guitar players. WHAT? Since when are there too many drummers?? It's always been my experience that there are never enough drummers. Ever. EVER. Especially at this age when parents usually don't want to buy their kids a drum set - don't have the room for it - don't want to listen to it. Although, I think in retrospect, if you talked to my dad, he might have actually preferred the drums to my early clarinet endeavors. Oh how he hated when I would squeak and sqwak my way through various concertos like Mary Had a Little Lamb, Somewhere over the Rainbow and the theme from M*A*S*H (which Julie and I learned all on our own without ANY sheet music. we were truly gifted.)

So anyway - there are 3 seniors and 2 sophomores in this year's ensemble, and Alex is content with garage band 101 and the blues jam for now. There's always next year.

It's report card time, and both boys are doing very well. Alex took it tough at the beginning of the year, but now he's humming right along. I can see all of his grades online, so I already know what to expect there. Kathy and I had a long talk about looking at grades online. She contends, that now, as a parent, she thinks this is brilliant. But as a student? She would hate every minute of it and feel very violated by her parents looking up her every quiz score. I try to use this information for good and not for evil. I think it's been a catalyst for conversation...but I know he hates it that I know his test scores before he does. HA! Sometimes it's GOOD, though - like after his unit test in Bio - he totally nailed it and when I picked him up after school I told him so. Made his night...

Owen did fine - he actually got a B+, something that hasn't happened in like 7 report cards. He was a little bummed to break his all A streak. But he had perfect attendance, so he bounced back. He loves receiving perfect attendance certificates. Don't ask me why. It's just Owen.

The air is cool and crisp, kiddies...
The Sox put a whoopin' on the Rockies last night. Fenway does have magical powers, I think.

Pray for rain in SoCal...

She ran calling wiiiiiiiiildfire...

So Southern California is LITERALLY a hot mess. You can hardly look at any news source and not hear something about the devastating fires out there. On a fortunate note, I think only one fatality and some injuries. How odd to be saying that one fatality is actually a fortunate situation. The people are evacuating. They are listening and getting out.

This morning they interviewed a couple who was in Las Vegas when the fires started. The husband's mother was staying in their house watching their dogs. She's 81. Neighbors came pounding on her door and told her to get out - at this point she could actually see the fire. She called her son to ask him what he wanted her to take. Can you imagine? You can see fire and you actually call your son to see if there's something you can grab before you literally run for your life. His response - NOTHING. Get out. Get out now. This couple, sitting in Vegas while everything they own is going up in smoke, what do you do? Put it all on red and pray?

They had moved into this house 4 years ago - because they were living in the mountains, and the wildfires were getting too out of control up there. They decided to move where they felt it was safer, and now, here they are with nothing. Whatever clothes they took to Vegas, and two dogs. That's it.

So on this topic...if you had enough time to respond...a fire is coming and you have to get out. What do you take? What are the things that are irreplaceable to you? Kids, spouses are a given here. If you're about to lose it all, what do you grab on your way out the door? Your wedding album? A sweater your grandmother knit for you?

I know what's in my heart and my soul tells me to sing

I'm gonna be thankful for this feeling that music brings
Ohhhhh it brings...

WHAT a weekend...what a weekend...I went out to Blues Island with Bob Mandarino and the Undercover Blues Band. What a great place, what a great crowd! Lordy who runs chicagobluesbeat.com was there and took a ton of pictures. Eventually he will also write a review, and I think he'll have good things to say about all of us. He's also going to come out to little Roselawn on Sunday and partake in our Blues Jam, so that will be a blast. IF you live locally, you should all make a point to come down this Sunday, the 28th. Killer Ray will be back, and he puts on one hell of a show! Sunday, 4-8 - be there or be square!

I've had an offer, of sorts...to potentially sing with a new band. A funk, blues, jam type of deal. They think I would be a good fit for them, what we don't know is if they are a good fit for me! They're local, and it could be fun, but who knows. I think I might go and sit it with them for a rehearsal and see what comes up.

So it's very exciting, everything that's happening. I'll keep you all posted!

Still no update

He talked to some girl, who said it should be posted somewhere. Where? Alex has no idea. When? Alex has no idea. He's not the best on information gathering, that one. BUT...his grades are looking good. He has been working his ass off and it shows. I'm so very very proud of him, for so many reasons...

I got him into a class called Garage Band 101 - you get together once a week for 8 weeks and learn as many songs as you can. He's playing with kids younger than he is - the bass player is 11, a 5th grader named Will. One guitar player is 12, the other is 13, and Alex on drums. After 8 weeks of learning what they can, they give a "concert." Should be fun. Alex liked the first session, the kids seem nice, the instructor seems nice. It's a good activity for him...better, maybe, than playing with the "old farts" on Sundays. :)

I'm eating California Roll and fried rice right now for lunch...mmmmmmm...

How is everyone? Where is everyone?

No, no, no...I don't have an update

And believe me, it's killing me WAY more than it's killing you. Oy. I can't take the pressure.

FOOTBALL SEASON IS OVER!!! And I know I shouldn't sound this happy about it but I can't help it. I just can't help it. One less thing to do. Hooray. The game yesterday was pitiful...mentally, our boys never showed up. They had themselves licked before they took the field. What can you do with that? Buncha head cases that team. I knew when MC scored the first touchdown that it was over for us. Rallying is not something our boys do. In any sport. ugh. Instead of getting mad, they get defeated.

Alex jammed again last night - and this time I sang with him. Good times. He really likes going up there, now...and there's so much for him to learn! He watched Steve for a bit, and Steve could tell he was paying attention, because when he got up there to play, he started mimicking some of the stuff Steve was doing. It's all improv and great - I'm so impressed by him. I purposely improved the hell out of some of the songs I sang with him so he could play around. Fun fun fun....

Bears, Bears, Bears...tsk, tsk. How did you let that happen? Oh yeah Adrian Peterson. Your nemesis for the day.

I love Devin Hester...love, love, love watching him play...

Rockstar Alex...

So Alex was practicing for his audition last night...and his laptop has a video camera on it. I tried to catch at least a little bit of him playing. The video isn't great...and he just started playing this song over the weekend...but I think he sounds damn awesome for 5 days of practice on it. (And he's learned 4 songs in that amount of time) Wish him luck...auditions are today from 3-4pm. I've never seen him so excited about something before...

TURN DOWN YOUR SOUND - it's kind of loud.

And now for something completely different...

I want to talk to you all about something very personal to me. So make sure when you comment, that you're nice.

Lunch.

Yeah, that's right, lunch.

I'm struggling these days with lunch. I lost my work-wife to her babies...so I don't have nearly as much excitement over lunch as I used to. So a lot of times, I'm not even really motivated to eat. I'm trying to get the girls in the cubicles outside my office to get on the eating out every day train, but they're just too damn disciplined in bringing in their lunch. Now some might argue that this is a good thing. BLASPHEMY.

I am a chronic lunch eater outer. I try...I really do...to want to bring in leftovers, or bring in some heat-a-meal-with-no-flavor, or pack a sandwich. But...ew. No. I can't do it. I'm surrounded by so much good food here that it's just impossible. I have no will power.

So my struggle is that I'm typically not leaving to get lunch. At all. So apparently instead of choosing a crappy sandwich from home, I choose nothing. And that's just pitiful. I know this. What are you guys doing for lunch? Today I didn't eat. And that's not good. Because right now I'm cranky and starving and it's just too late to go eat. But I want to.

Maybe I'll go next door real fast and grab something from KFC. Ew.

Guess what city will NOT be getting the Olympic games?

Three guesses...

If you said Chicago...you'd be right. They made a nice pretty audition tape. They were a big success when the Olympic Committee came...but what they forgot is that the OC is always watching. And this tragic Chicago marathon? Yeah...that's a pretty big test to fail. Especially since the marathon has been going on for 30 years. If they can't successfully hold an event they've been holding for 30 years...how can they possibly handle the international onslaught of the Olympics?

They ran out of water. Emergency medical personnel couldn't keep up. This cannot look good for our fair city to the OC.

So who's fault is it? Kevin says it's the runners fault. They shouldn't have run it. They should have known better.

I disagree. After talking with Jen - she says that she had the run of her life. She was posting great times at the markers and felt the best she's ever felt. She took it easy at the beginning and paced herself nicely, taking necessary breaks, pumping her fluids. HAD THEY NOT RUN OUT OF WATER, she would have had a strong finish, too. Luckily she and her running partner had people to bring them more fluids. Others were not so lucky.

I think these athletes train under these very conditions and know their limitations. I don't think anyone enters a marathon thinking it will be easy, or not taking it seriously. These people train for months...years...and the city of Chicago let them down. I'm not blaming them for everything, they can't control the weather. But they knew it was going to be hot, they should have been more prepared. Handing out ice to runners finishing the race? They did it wrong.

I'm sure Jimmer is going to have something to say about this one - he'll side with my hubby. And that's fine too...what do you all think?

I have so many rockstars in my life!

Seriously!

First - Alex is sooooooo cool! He got up yesterday at the Sunday Blues Jam and totally played the hell out of that drum set. The first song he seemed scared to death, but by the third song, he had totally and literally found his rhythm. I was so proud. His dad was there, too...so that was fun. Kevin and Ben both sitting in the front row, taking pictures with camera phones...I almost cried. I've been telling Kevin over and over how good Alex is...and now he knows I'm right. I mean, I know I'm his mom, but people, he was really, REALLY good. REALLY good. Can you feel me beaming?

Second - Jen finished the dreaded Chicago Marathon! Total rockstar!!! Even when they were telling them to stop running, and they were...like every 2/10 mile. She and her running partner had family members bring them water and gatorade and she finished. I got the report from her mom, who said Jen was amazing and feeling great. What a great personal victory for her! Everyone should be very proud.

Owen's team lost a tough one to an undefeated team yesterday. I was so proud of all of those boys. The team was bigger, and therefore could switch out full offense and defense. Our kids mostly play both sides of the ball...so our quarterback, runningbacks, and most of the offensive line are also playing defense, they never get a break. We were winning 7-6 until the 3rd quarter and then...well our little engine that could ran out of steam. We were absolutely not out-played...we held them so many times but couldn't get ourselves to the goal line. The other teams always creamed the opponent by 20 or more points...so the fact that we lost by only 2 touchdowns and never let them score an extra point speaks volumes about the heart of our boys.

So I'm a very proud mama and friend today. Happy Monday to all!

Before you bash Dan Rather...

You may want to get it all straight. Until I read this from the Huffington Post, I hadn't truly digested how BAD our TV and written news really is. There's a reason we're seeing so much Anna Nicole, Brittney, Lindsay, Paris bullshit. The corporate media has done that intentionally. INTENTIONALLY. Have you never wondered why we've never seen this much fluff/pop/hollywood shit in our newscycles before? Because corporate media didn't want to rattle the GOP political machine by reporting actual news...because reporting the actual news meant reporting the war...and reporting the war meant telling the truth that Bush shang-hai'd us into Iraq because there wasn't any reason for us to go there.

I've read a lot of articles, in fact, about how there really IS no investigative journalism anymore. Have you seen any? Aside from the "to catch a pedophile" series, if you can even call that investigative journalism. Have you? And the lead-in bullshit? And the fluff. Ugh.

Even if you don't agree with why the media has changed, you all have to agree that it has, in fact, changed and changed for the worst. And for someone as celebrated and talented as Dan Rather to be the fall guy? Well, that says an awful lot about how bad it truly is. Speak on and speak out, Mr. Rather.

Anyway, the article is very interesting, so I wanted to share.

No need for organized streaking protest...

And I think the Janet was even going to join in...

The expulsion hearing reinstated our thong boy. Thank heavens. The administration recommended expulsion, but the board decided against it. Smart board.

I have a couple of things to talk about today.

One - Asparagus. No, not the vegetable, the restaurant. It's an upscale thai/vietnamese restaurant in Mville. HOLY CRAP. You must all come. Find a way. Make it happen. Girls - we must plan a girls dinner there. The cocktails are fun. The menu is to die for. Sample:
"asparagus beef lover: beef tenderloin marinated in our exclusive steak sauce, grilled asparagus, premium japanese soy sauce and stir-fried thai basil mixed vegetables along with brown rice."

Ummmm, YUMM-O.

Two - Gamba. Stop everything you're doing and go there immediately. Ever been to Cafe Venezia? Venezia Bar & Grill? Same guy. We ate there last night for the Janet's birthday dinner. It was brilliant...BRILLIANT. Not a cheap date, but the food was well worth it. Everything was yummy, yummy, yummy.

Grab an eating buddy an head out. That's an order.

Honey, Let's Never Pass Out Angry Again