Posts categorized "Television"

Friday, July 18, 2008

::chuckle::

I guess we've been married long enough that anniversaries are a bit passe; the 17th wedding anniversary of our civil ceremony was on Wednesday and we utterly forgot until late last night, in the middle of a trivia game with friends. We were a bit chagrined, to say the least. I mean - I forget these things all the time - I have forgotten my own birthday (though it happens less now that I have a Palm)... but our anniverary? Somehow I missed entering that into Outlook or something and I didn't get a reminder, and the French exam completely flummoxed me. In my defense, I remembered it last Friday. ::chuckle:: I know. That doesn't help one bit! Happy Anniversary, Crash! I love you to pieces! At least we have a second chance in September with the anniversary of our family ceremony... which nobody else remembers, either! We're up against impossible odds! ::heading over to Outlook to do some entering of data::

Crash is practicing, and it is lovely to hear the sounds of his violin - I miss that during the school year, when he practices at school and on campus before and in between teaching and never at home. He has also been SUCH a trooper and has been out in the yard digging up a path for me to brick in (I can do the brick work of laying the path, but I can't dig up the old lava rock and bedding - it throws my back out badly), and pulling weeds in our central garden area. It looks SO MUCH BETTER. Kudos to Crash!

Was watching CNN earlier today and they had a real goof: they were talking about the weather system off the Atlantic coast bringing torrential rains and severe weather to the southern Atlantic states and that they may take quite a battering - really harping on the point that there could be a battering and Bad Things Could Happen... all the while showing Jesse Jackson on the screen with a caption on the screen to the effect of "Bad Tidings" or something like that in relation to his comments on Obama and use of the n-word. I couldn't help but laugh - and their attempt at recovery from the obvious goof was hilarious. OH - and what makes it even funnier is that Jeannie Moos had just parodied John McCain' goof with the Viagara / birth control fiasco of last week and used footage from The Daily Show to highlight the inanity. I really do hope that Jon Stewart picks up this gaffe.

It is really odd to see the DJIA and the NASDAQ so far out of whack with each other - the Dow gained reasonably, but the NASDAQ dropped substantially - by some 30 points or so. Usually they move fairly in tandem. Odd. Yeah, I've been reading Barron's lately, and am paying a little more attention to things like that. It's interesting reading, but as with everything, you've got to take it a bit cynically or you'll go crazy. Alan Abelson's weekly column is pretty good, though, and worth checking out - you can get it free on the Barron's website, if I am not mistaken, at http://online.Barrons.com (if that doesn't work, try www.barrons.com). I know, I know. It's really weird to see me, of all people, talking about the stock market. Go figure.

Played trivia last night with a group of friends - and we won! It was great fun! I was designated driver, so I had sodas and played along, having a ball... I think we missed one, maybe two questions, the whole night, and on the last wager we bet all the remaining 20 points and scored a decisive win over all the other teams in the bar. Rock on! I'm not usually someone who even enters a bar - I don't like smoke at all - but this was fun, and I went willingly. Took a monster bath when we got home and the clothes are in the wash, and all is well with the world. ::grin:: I needed to get out of my shell; I've been hiding at home for nearly a month since we got home from Colorado.

This weekend we may be going to Kaleigh's house for a party (K and her husband were the ones to get us out for trivia)... I hope to continue to be in an outgoing mood; I have been having to force myself to get out and do things lately due to an ongoing depression thing. Summers are tough, and focus is hard to come by sometimes. Well, a lot of the time. We're working on it therapeutically, and I hope to be in a better place in the next couple of weeks. Have to be: school starts in about four, five, weeks.

Wish I had the time to read some "for fun" books - I have a pile a foot high on my bedside table, and another foot-wide shelf full of them in the underside of the bedside table as well. Maybe when I get to the point of doing lesson planning next month I can sneak in a few. That would be such a delight; they've been stacking up for about a year now, and these are the best of the best.

Am getting rid of my library school books. Most of them, anyway, and have offered them to my grandma's library up in Ohio since they just experienced a devastating set of floods that destroyed a huge part of their collection. I am waiting to hear back from their director to see if they want them - they're some terrific books, and I want them to go someplace where they will be appreciated and needed. And, needless to say, I don't have any desire to keep them anymore. That part of my life is closed.

Well, it's time to start considering what's for dinner. I think we are having blue-cheese-stuffed burgers and sauteed carrots... at least that was the plan two hours ago. I'm not hungry, but since I really haven't eaten today I really need to remedy that. The weight is coming off too quickly, and I am a little nervous about that - no appetite and nausea worries me - and I see the gastroenterologist on Friday next week. I have now lost 80 pounds since my highest weight in 2003, and nearly 15 in the past two months alone, after gaining back over the past year what I had lost in the hospital. I'm not trying to lose weight, but it is just falling off me... and while the weight loss is welcome, it does bother me that it is coming off this way, and that I really don't enjoy food anymore for the most part. Every so often Crash is able to tempt me with something I love, but that is few and far between these days. Wish we could come up with some answers.

I'm off!

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Trying to Get Over the Crabbies

My usual bouyant mood is somewhat marred by the really lousy feeling that I am coming down with the flu. However, it would appear that this feeling is also one of the potential side effects of the Rifampin I am taking for the sinus infection, so I am taking Tylenol and trying to grin and bear it; only ten more days. However, I am calling the doc tomorrow and making sure that this isn't a bad side effect, just annoying. The Cipro has never made me feel like this, so I am assuming it's the Rifampin. Nasty stuff.

This morning was a comedy of errors involving two of our animals, the house-flipper next door, and a colleague of Crash's - and the whole fiasco began at 5:30 - so I didn't get too much sleep last night on top of the flu-like feeling. Needless to say, I didn't make church today, and I was really planning on it to the point that I had picked out what I was going to wear the night before; usually I just throw something on the morning of. I am really sorry to have missed this morning's sermon - we had a guest pulpit leader - Rabbi Micah Greenstein - and he was talking about why America needs liberal religion. I can't wait to hear the details from Crash when he gets home this afternoon. The Rabbi always gives a good talk, and I am sure this was no exception.

Watched Casablanca this morning/afternoon on TCM - I had forgotten how much I love that movie. But, now the television is off and I am hunkering in to study hard. Mostly French, but some history in there, too.

Don't know much else, but I am going to try to stop biting people's heads off and recognize that I am the one who is really off right now.

Mea maxima culpa to anyone I have really snapped at lately. ::hugs::

Monday, April 07, 2008

Live Blogging THE GAME

1ST HALF:

Where've I been? Holding my breath through the first part of this game with my laptop in my lap, just coiled in a knot. I'll live blog this, though I'm not much help. Remember me? Out of touch since the invention of the three point line??!

To go:

5:00: OMG... 28 all... and I am in a knot

3:50: TO... still tied at 28. Maybe I shouldn't have had that last cappuccino... I am shaking. Terrifying game... so hard-fought. Nobody is willing to give a millimeter. THIS is a game.

Random comment: Every time Memphis scores you can hear cheering throughout the neighborhood... it's really eerie.

2:31: KS up by 2, now three (31-28)

1:02: Memphis down by five... with a TO or a foul, Memphis possession now? Couldn't quite tell... CBS went to break and we have the sound off. I've switched to water, straight up.

Random comment: Where's the FedEx sponsorship of this game? UPS is all over it...

AT THE HALF: Damn. Down by five. Helluva game, though. 33-28, I think. I dunno... I was just holding my breath on the buzzer shot. It almost made it. Almost.

Commercial: VW: What's Bobby Knight doing these days? No pension or something??

Ugh. I just turned on the sound. The paid commentators are worse than I imagined. Off with the sound again.

::chuckle:: Folks are outside doing makeshift cheers, hooting and hollering.

That's terrific!!

But if I hear Eye of the Tiger one more time tonight I may just start throwing things. While I was at school today, the music alternated between blaring sounds of that, and the carillon on the clock tower playing the fight song every hour, on the hour. By 5:15 I was ready to pull my hair out.

OK... the guys are back on the court, warming up for the 2nd half. :::rubbing hands together::: C'mon TIGERS!!!

2ND HALF:

19:29: NICE!!! DUNK! And another possession!

18:51: 3pointer! We're tied!

18:14: 36-35 Memphis UP!

16:30: 38-37 Memphis UP!!

SCRAPPY-ASS game!!

15:15: We're down by one (39-38), but dang... this is a tremendous effort on both sides - I am really enjoying watching this play out.

13:59: Dang... steal and TO after steal and TO...

13:59: HOW DO YOU MISS TWO FREE THROWS IN A ROW? (not that I could do any better)

13:11: Two points... we're down by one.. crap... down by three... my mad typing skilz ain't so great.

11:35: Ooof. 43-42 in favor of KS and another damn commercial.

10:28: 45-44 KS

We've been fighting this three point deficit all night. This is just really infuriating!

8:06: 49-46 WE'RE UP!! It's going to have to be a hard fought THREE POINT game for Memphis. Cool, calculated shots... we can't fight them in the paint like we usually do - these guys are too tall, too aggressive - but from the three point line, as long as we take our time and sink them, we can do it. We've got a much better scoring record in this game from the outside. C'mon Coach Cal - get them to take cool advantage of it! Yeah, we've got to fight for the rebounds, and how, but those three pointers... dang!

:::nibbling nails:::

7:52 to go and we are in a TO... man... all that caffeine earlier has me just WIRED. Nah. Couldn't be THE GAME!

7:02: 51-47 Memphis

5:10: 53-47 Memphis

Odds and Ends: I can hear cheering on campus from here. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET IT BE GOOD

4:11: 56-49 Memphis

3:36: 56-51 Memphis

2:13: 58-51 Memphis

2:12: 60-51 Memphis

1:54: TO ... 60-53 Memphis... things are at a dull roar, and I have just given the dog a benadryl so she will doze through the fireworks if we win... it's going to be noisy in about 10 minutes if things go our way.

1:39: 62-56 Memphis

1:23: WTF Dorsey???? Fouled out???

1:23: God.. they're going to take this down to the VERY LAST MOMENT

1:15: 62-58 Memphis

44 seconds and a time out... 62-60 Memphis... my heart is racing. Holy moley. There is a hush over the city... :::holding breath:::

16.8 seconds .... Rose with two free throws coming to him after the TO...

10.8 seconds... ROSE... DO IT!! PLEASE...

GOING INTO OVERTIME!!!!!!!! HOLY CRAP!!!!! 63-63

OVERTIME:

4:21: 65-63 Kansas, TO Memphis

I am absolutely breathless.

3:37: 67-63 Kansas

2:35: 69-63 Kansas

SHIT!

2:24: 69-65 Kansas

56 seconds... 71-68 Kansas ... :::panting::: We need one more three point (what did I say earlier??), then another OT.

45 seconds ... 73-68 Kansas

29.9 seconds... Kansas possession... I think we've had it.

28 seconds... Memphis possession.

18.2 seconds... it's over for Memphis. Great game, though! Really, really great game. Best I have *ever* seen.

Final score: 75-68 Kansas ::smile:: Great game, y'all!

Cinderella Don't Do Tats

You have simply got to read this article by John Walters of NBC Sports. He says it better than I can why I am rooting for this team, for these guys, at this time.

Every one of you players has your own Cinderella story, and I am so very proud of you for making it this far!

Cinderella DO do Tats!

Go Tigers!!! RAWR!!!

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Random Update

OK, so I'm a little jot and tiddle late with the news and wanderings:

Men's basketball at the U of M advanced to the finals last night!!! We're playing Kansas on Monday night. Oh my! GO TIGERS! RAWR! The neighborhood burst into absolute lunacy when the final buzzer went off, and there was a strong police presence around the University District, including MOUNTED POLICE! They were so cool! AND, I am not certain about this, but at least I haven't heard of any reports of outbreaks of violence in the area following either Final Four game. Now it's wait-and-see until Monday. ::biting nails:: I just never expected to turn into a hoops fan. ADDENDUM: The undergrad class for which I am grading has just been canceled for tomorrow - the prof is wise, knowing that NOBODY will be there - at all - and we are scheduled to be covering the run up to the Civil War - crucial material. YAY, though!!! Means I only have two commitments tomorrow - spread out by one at 8:45 in the morning and one at 2:30 in the afternoon.

Charlton Heston has died. All I am wondering is: can we pry his guns from his cold, dead hands and turn them in to the police for destruction now?? And, as one of my dearest friends said, his best ever line was "MOSES! There's a man among the sheep!"

Another friend and lovely, sweet, dear person (all our friends are that way! Love it!) M stopped by midway through the game yesterday and watched the second half of the game with us. She may be moving into the n-hood - we are so excited and hopeful. It would be a WONDERFUL thing. Anyway, we went out to dinner (yeah, we found someplace quiet, with minimal tv and lunatic fan interruption - a favorite Chinese/Japanese restaurant), and had a terrific time. I had the best egg drop soup *evah* - this is the kind of chicken-broth-egg-drop-and-corn-soup that I crave when I am sick... it's even better than my own homemade chicken noodle stuff, and I am blatantly and hopelessly and egotistically biased toward my homemade soups. Too bad we didn't have much of a cold winter - I would have made so many more.

See GI doc in the morning. Maybe we can move forward with all this nuisance tummy stuff. I have written a LONG one-page single-spaced summary of the past two weeks in 11-point font for them - something I hope will help more than just the usual Q&A. (Heh. It just dawned on me that as a historian I can't manage to write something in less than a two-page double spaced paper. LOL) We've also been cutting out all lactose-bearing products we can think of, too, so Crash is buying me soy milk - the Costco brand - and it actually tastes great on my cereal... yay!

Reading a wonderful book right now - expressively written and extremely well researched - called No Place for a Woman: A Life of Senator Margaret Chase Smith written by dear mentor and friend, Dr. Janann Sherman. I never expected to love an academic book so much - but I do, and if you ever want to know more about the first woman to run for president on a major party ticket, you simply must read this (not to mention that she was the person who stood down McCarthy in the Senate, and she was the primary force lobbying for women's rights in the military in the 1940s-1970s, etc, etc, etc... really remarkable person). The book is academic, yes, but it reads like a really good novel... just carries you. I keep forgetting to take notes, I am THAT engrossed in the reading. Serious thumbs up, y'all. I think it's in its third printing now.

Don't know much else. There is plenty on Google News and Beacon Broadside to rant about, but I have too much to do today to sit here and rant at the moment... though I promise to get back to that in the next month or so - school's out at the end of this month. I love school, but *cannot wait* to breathe a little more.

Windows are wide open and I am enjoying the cool breeze while still in my sexy white cotton jammies. Yeah... sexy white cotton - those words *can* go together. ::giggle:: At least Crash thinks so!! Speaking of white cotton jammies: I slept like a log last night - 1:00 a.m. to 1:00 pm today and was *very* confused when Crash woke me up after church - I thought he had not yet left and was gobsmacked when he told me it was 1 pm. LOL I don't think I moved once from about 4 in the morning until I got up this afternoon... I needed the sleep, I guess!

Back to this book. I may finish it in my second sitting today - I read in bed until - literally - I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. You can only fight a sleeping pill so long when you're snuggled in comfortably. ::looking forward to THIS!::

Have a great afternoon! I may see you again after Crash's choir performance tonight (I'm expecting good stuff!) but if not, I'll catch you sometime tomorrow... quite likely after the game if not before as well.

ADDENDUM!: I FORGOT!!! I judged the finals for TN State History Day yesterday, and MY were they terrific!!! So proud of all the participants, and it was really hard judging first round - and the runoff judges really struggled over their choices. That's a *good* thing, y'all. GO, YOU BUDDING YOUNG HISTORIANS! YOU JUST GO!!!

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Buh Buh Basketball

When did I become a college hoops fan?

ANYWAY

Check out Buh Buh Basketball, which is an updated version of the 1973 rock/psychabilly "fight song" for the Memphis Tigers when we last made it to the Final Four. It's kinda cute, definitely fun, and ... I still don't believe I am featuring it on my site. But there it is. :::chuckle:::

Go Tigers! RAWR!

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Vote for Pouncer!!

Pouncer_memphis Vote for Pouncer as the Best Mascot of the NCAA Tourney!!

Go Pouncer! RAWR!!

Sunday, March 30, 2008

A Wee Bit of Bragging

Pouncer Memphis men's basketball is on to the Final Four. And since I know several of the guys on the team (a part of being a TA for courses which are an element of the gen ed requirements at our University), I am playing the part of proud den mama and cheering them on.

Note the cute and absolutely wonderful picture of our mascot, Pouncer, which can be found on Flickr - all rights reserved to the photographer. I know the guy who does Pouncer for the Lady Tigers, and he's just the neatest, most upbeat person... I love *all* our Pouncers. Who wouldn't want to hug the heck out of this cutie?

And I admit it. I have been watching the last several Memphis games... with the sound off; it's much more interesting to do our own commentary than listen to the dang paid folk.

As a side note, I don't like what NCAA athetics do to academics at institutions of higher learning... but I must shamefully admit that I am hooked on this tourney. Go figure.

So Go Tigers! RAWR!!! :-)

Memphis

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