Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Cancellations

Okay, I'm in right now reading this year's list of cancelled shows. Some of them are no-brainers.

Kitchen Confidential - sorry but I found the show pretty repetitive and dull.

Threshold - I didn't mind the start of the show, but it's up against tough competion. I think the 10pm time slot sucks for those of us on the east coast anyway.

Reunion - I can't say I've ever watched it. There is no way I was giving up CSI for this show. But even before that - you have a murder mystery spanning 20 years time in one season? Had the show survived it would have made for a pitiful second season unless they had brilliant writers.

Martha Stewart's The Apprentice. I won't even go there. I hate those shows and couldn't do enough justice to bashing them.

Alias - I can actually see that show fizzling out. It's gotten pretty lame recently.

Night Stalker - why remake a classic only to change and ruin it?


In general, my favorite shows are staying - Cold Case, CSI (the original one that even I will admit is losing its luster), LOST, NCIS and Without A Trace.

I'm happy to see the show that most critics started out panning - My Name Is Earl - has become a huge hit. That show amuses me.

Other than that, I'd like to see an end come to The Simpsons. Yes it is the longest running cartoon, but it's grown very old. And how about no more reality tv for a while? I think many of us have shown a lack of interest!

Monday, November 28, 2005

The world is going mad

Okay, last week I ran into the most absurd issue. I was asked to pick up donuts before going to my parents' house. I was going to stop at the local grocery store, but decided instead to go to Dunkin' Donuts. So I drove into the drive-up line and asked for a dozen donuts, the woman told me they were out of donuts. Absurd... So I instead drove to another Dunkin' Donuts where they heard my store and then proceeded to tell me that the Milton location has fryers and the equipment to make the donuts on site, so there was no reason for them to be out of donuts. Yet, they were...

I thought I'd heard it all until today. I went to my local post office - they close at 5 and it was a little after 4:30. The clerk refused to take my packages. She claimed she'd been too busy to accept any packages and that I'd have to drive to another location or come back another time and hope she is less busy. The post office REFUSING to take more packages? I swear the world is going insane...

Food for thought

Before I continue, let me state that a convicted child molester did move down the road from me about 10 years ago. As soon as word got out, via the school, I was outraged that a sicko of this nature was out and living in a family neighborhood. Nothing has changed, I still think it is absurb.

So with this, I sat down and watched Kevin Bacon's THE WOODSMAN last night. If you've never heard of the movie, Kevin Bacon is a man convicted for molesting two young girls, he's served a 12 year sentence and now he's back on the streets fighting the odds. He doesn't want to be one of those offenders who commits the same crime. Okay, so I'm finding his character admirable, but I have no faith in him.

What bothers me - Kevin moves into an apartment across the street from an elementary school. Enter one of those WHAT WERE THEY THINKING moments. That's like putting a plate of chocolates in front of a chocoholic and telling them not to touch. Yes, so maybe his character has gone through, no is still going through therapy, but to place him across the street from a school. That's insane, yet I also know it happens - hence the child molester who moved down the road from me a decade ago. (And in this case, he molested again, so he's back in jail. Unfortunately, the school didn't get the warning out in time. In their defense, I'm sure they didn't know. The laws protected the criminal back then.)

So anyway, there is an interesting twist. Kevin knows the tricks a molester uses. He watches the behavior of a man who parks in front of school every day and Kevin knows it means trouble. I did appreciate that. It made me like Kevin's character--almost.

In the end, I can't tell you what happens. It is a little corny, but possibly realistic. It's not a bad movie and I can say it was an interesting role for Kevin Bacon to have taken on. I've always found him to be a little creepy - now I find him even creepier, but that's not a bad thing. :-)

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Happy Thanksgiving

So we've had our first really good snow storm at my house. The yard is white. My deck needs shoveling-anyone want to come do it?

My daughter finds snow magical. However, I just feel the chill in the air and want to go right back inside.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and there's supposed to be another snow storm. I'm not sure what this means for us now - as we have to do some driving. The bigger issue is that the weathermen are all over the place trying to predict how much snow we are going to get, when it's going to hit, and how long it will last. I have a feeling it's going to be another of those years when they can't make up their minds, so they don't do a forecast until it actually starts happening!

Anyway, have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving. And I'll end with a recipe that we tested out last night. If anyone drinks Sam Adams beer - there are two bottles of their Cranberry Lambic in the mixed box. Now, I like beer but Cranberry Lambic is more like fizzy cranberry juice with a dash of hops. Not very enjoyable. So I'd set aside the bottles to use in cooking. Yesterday, my son (he's 12 and just getting into cooking) asked if he could make something. So I pulled out my trusty cranberry nut bread recipe and made a few alterations. This bread came out very nicely!

SAM ADAMS CRANBERRY LAMBIC NUT BREAD

3 cups flour
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups chopped cranberries
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 tbsp orange zest
3 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
12 oz Cranberry Lambic Beer

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Sift the dry ingredients together. (Flour, sugar, & baking powder.) Add the remaining ingredients into the bowl and mix thoroughly.

Pour/spoon the batter into 2 greased loaf pans (or I used a bundt cake pan) and place in the preheated oven. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes (depends on the type of pan used).

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Holiday Shopping

My favorite time of year - NOT - is upon us. This past weekend, I went out and got as much Christmas shopping done as I possibly could, the rest I'm going to do online.

Even now, the stores were horrific. We're talking people so frantic to get a deal that they are willing to mow children down with their carts. I am certain this is why I hate the holidays. People forget all about being neighborly and go out of their way to be first at everything.

So this blog entry is dedicated to the woman who hit my daughter with her cart and then proceeded to look at me like it was my fault that my daughter got in her way. Jess and I were alone in the toy aisle, there was room to go around her, instead you pushed your cart into her to make her move. I watched you, where you were going became an important quest for me. You were in a huge rush to get to the section where they had the boxed set of Disney books and CD's on sale. I proceeded to follow you --there is the potential for stalking there, but I had something else in mind after watching how you shopped, you were one of the push it aside and come back for it shoppers-- you set aside the collection of Chicken Little books, it was the only one, and then you proceeded to look for others. I reached over and snatched up that box of Chicken Little Board books, before you could react. I tossed it into my cart and walked away while you were yelling you'd planned to buy it. The devious side of me could have cared less what box set I picked out for my neighbor's little girl, but because you'd hurt my daughter, I felt an urge to be evil. Maybe two wrongs don't make a right, but this time I'd had enough.

A little tip to others - if you are contemplating buying something, put it in your cart while you decide. Usually, and I'll say usually because I have had people snatch something out of my cart while my back is turned, if it is in a cart, the item is then off limits to others.

Meanwhile, enjoy your holiday shopping this year. All I can say is that I'm glad I'm done!

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

I have a new reality show...

And it is called WHAT ARE AMERICANS THINKING???

Suffice it to say, I've been watching that VH1 show - But Can They Sing? That show is like a train about to encounter a deadly wreck. No one can sing, Morgan Fairchild makes the best stab at it, and usually she's tolerable, however the rest of these saps are being told they are wonderful when the truth is they really, really, really suck.

Bai Ling - whoever told her she can sing and whoever keeps voting for her really need to have their hearing checked. When she was talking about wanting to sing in a lower tone, she was right, I could actually tolerate her then. I decided today that the only reason people vote for her is to keep laughing at just how tone deaf she is.

Carmine Gotti. As much as I hate to agree with that guest host - "Cat caught in a muffler" is just about correct. He's horrible.

Michael Copon's performance of You Give Love A Bad Name was awful.

I wasn't much fonder of Antonio Sabato's remake of Robert Palmer's Addicted To Love.

I'd like to see these actors/actresses given a chance to pick their own song. Right now, the vocal coaches aren't doing a very good job with selections.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Can a house choose its owner?

Recently, I've been watching an "event" going on in a local household with semi-interest. You see in the past, the owner of this house was a really nice guy stuck in kind of a bad situation. He ended up refusing to speak up for himself and it led to a very unhappy second marriage, fall-outs with all of his close friends, and I think lost a good piece of himself. It's all hear-say from here on out, but I've heard his daughter from his first marriage took off to live with mom because she couldn't stand her new step-mom and then he eventually lost his other daughter when his second marriage fell apart. Had he stuck up for himself many years ago, I do think things would have turned out differently.

So now the new owners - he tries to stand up for himself, but often, in my opinion, gives in too easily. He's a great guy who is in another bad situation. And that leads me to wonder, can a house draw a certain type of person to it? Is it the area? It's just odd that this one house draws people who do not have the self-esteem to stand up for themselves.

So this leads me to wonder - did my house draw me to it? Am I destined to pick houses with sinks that LOVE to leak? Leaking sinks is a whole other issue though. ;-)

Friday, November 11, 2005

Nano Writes Cont. Part 2

So, I have a little more than 20,000 words done now. 5,000 more and I'm at the halfway mark.

I'm amazed at how much I am dreaming about these characters. I'm not sure if I enjoy it or not, waking up at 1am and fighting an urge to turn the computer on is a major issue at this point.

I've gained a new respect for those who have published a book. It's a lot of fun, but boy does it eat away at you at the same time!

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Human Control Experiment

I've decided that at the heart of LOST is a small group of madmen who are trying to see if they can manipulate humans to do things they would never dream of doing. Shannon chasing after the ghost of a boy.

Sayid falling in love with a white woman.

Jack being forced to save the life of an enemy.

Michael realizing the importance of fatherhood - a kid he barely knew is now his driving force.

A number of people pushing in numbers and the enter key because a video tells them to.

I do think Shannon is dead, though we'll find out for sure in the future.

I really don't care about that chick from the tail section who disappeared.

I'm still iffy on Sawyer, he's a hottie, but in reality his home was robbed and I'm sure that violation of your privacy would put thoughts of moving away in your head.

I can't stand this Ana. She just annoys me.

Terry O'Quinn (Locke) has been one of my favorite TV actors (Millenium though the network idiots cancelled it) for a while. So I'm happy as long as he is in it!

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

What are they thinking?

I got a notice from our health insurance agency yesterday--they are no longer paying for certain types of birth control pills--mainly all Ortho pills. Now this really doesn't affect me, thank God. But I wonder about the thousands of women who are affected? Are they now supposed to have children even if they do not want them? Are they being forced to use condoms or have their tubes tied? I just don't see the logic in this companies' thinking.

It makes no sense to me.

Monday, November 07, 2005

Being Unbiased

Unbiased was a word I heard far too much of last week.

It started with the incident surrounding the letter I received from the school. I did talk to the principal and then the attendance committee's ringleader, and they explained their case. They used to only send this notice to parents of children who were obviously skipping school. However, those parents claimed it was biased to send the letter to the children whose parents were not calling in to report that their child was sick. Those parents feel that every child should receive the letter. So the policy changed to prevent a lawsuit over biased/unbiased behavior.

I still disagree. The reasoning per the school is that the past three years has shown an increase in the number of children whose parents are either not calling the school or whose children are skipping school without their parents' knowledge. Those are the people being targeted with this letter.

As a parent, it is their duty to call the school when their child is sick. So if they fail to do so, that's their problem. The deserve the reminder.

If the child is skipping without the parents' knowledge. Again, they need the letter.

To claim the school is being unfairly biased by not sending the letter to all students is asinine. First, it is our tax money that pays for the postage used up to send out the unnecessary letters.

Second, I know people with horrible credit ratings who are then charged higher interest ratings because of it. Does this mean it is a biased world and that EVERYONE should be forced to pay the penalty of bad credit? Can you imagine if the bank suddenly declined you a loan because you live near an area known for higher levels of debt, even though your own credit rating is stellar?

In essence, that's what these complaining parents have done.

It's just like at my husband's place of employment. A half dozen workers were abusing the ruling on personal calls. Some were spending more time on their phone than they were working, so the company decided no personal calls for anyone. It's unfair. Now if I need to get my husband a quick message, the receptionist comes on and denies me access. It has to be a life or death emergency before she will put a call through. She even admits that she has only recorded me as having called him twice this past year, while he has co-workers who were getting calls 6 times a day. Yet, phone privileges were taken from everyone.

It's absurd. I'm not sure I like the message we are sending our children. Doesn't matter how you behave, you will be punished for other people's irresponsible behavior.

Friday, November 04, 2005

Nano Writes cont.

So the competition started on Tuesday. I just finished today's writing -- I'm up to 7000 words just about. So I think I'm doing well.

So to celebrate my accomplishments to date, I figured I'd post the snippet that appears at Nano Writes....


The air around me buzzes of holiday festivities. Lavish Christmas displays are going up at a rapid pace as I walk through each narrow store aisle searching for the next item on my list. Each item on the list has been suggested emphatically, I know these items are not just suggestions, though I still question the necessity.

Brilliant reds and greens practically fly off the shelves into awaiting carts. There is no doubt about it Christmas is in the air. This is where life comes to a screeching halt. Shocked faces turn towards me as I scream the next few words, following each word with a dramatic pause – “It is freaking August.”

Yes, Christmas in August. Charlie Brown® isn’t quite as simple-minded as some may think. What happens next seems rather blurry, but this is how it goes…

Here I am trying to gather all the items from the three-page list of items necessary for my children to begin school, and I’m assaulted by Christmas displays. Half a dozen workers dressed up as elves are busy stocking shelves with glimmering lights, inflatable snowmen, and electronic Santa and reindeers. I assume that the elves are store clerks, but who knows, when you assume you make an ass out of you and me. Maybe they really are Santa’s elves straight out of the North Pole.

It should be illegal to put up a Christmas display before Thanksgiving! It is at this moment that years of pent up frustration come pouring out. “IT IS FREAKING AUGUST YOU MORONS.”

“Hey, lady. Tone it down or get out of this store.” Simple words muttered by one of Santa’s supposed “Little Helpers.” All they do is piss me off more.

“August,” I yell again. August. You know the month that brings an end to summer vacation. Summer’s last hurrah before the cooler fall months arrive. Christmas is in winter. What the hell do you call Christmas in August?”

“Commercialism, lady. It’s plain and simple. So deal with it.” He grins knowingly before continuing arranging things from the top of a stepladder, leaning as far as he can without falling over. I think it is the elf’s sly little grin. A facial expression that effuses evil and not tidings of joy as some might think. A grin that tells me he thinks he has won. At this point, I realize that there is nothing left to lose.

Gripping my shopping cart more tightly than ever, I watch as my knuckles become white from lack of blood flow. I’ve had enough of the elf’s behavior. I’m sick of Christmas displays in the summer. I’m tired of people telling me how easy my life must be. I’m going to show them all.

I turn slowly, my own evil, little grin now plastered on my face. Little do the elves know it, but they are about to face my wrath. One pale, blonde elf is standing in the back of a stepladder holding it with a lackluster passion. Not thrilled with her job, she seems to be going through the motions while off in her own little fantasy world.

I’m not much for bowling, at least not until today. But, this seems like the perfect time to hone my skills. I eye the ladder, aim my cart, and run like a madwoman. Perhaps, madwoman is a little too strong. Nonetheless, I am certain I am breaking all kinds of laws here, but man does it feel good.

The squeak of the right rear wheel punctures the otherwise deafening silence as nearby shoppers gaze at me with concern. I know what they are thinking—call for a straightjacket, this woman is nuts.

Cart and ladder collide solid bang. I can feel the sting of metal hitting metal all the way to my teeth, and my hands certainly took a bit of the collision, but I don’t care. I watch as the smarmy elf falls with a bone-shattering crunch to the hard tiled floor.

“Ooh, that must have hurt like hell.” It’s my turn for the evil grin, and I follow it with a full belly laugh. A laugh I haven’t heard in years. Tears come to my eyes just thinking about it. I wonder if it’s more of a sin to now run back over the groaning elf.

“Hey, lady. Will you move your damn cart already?”

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Pressure on students?

For a while now, I have been under the firm belief that some school systems push their students too hard. My son is a straight-A student. He prides himself on A's. So today, I get the mail and there is a letter warning me that my son has missed too much school this year. That the new school policy is that no child should miss more than 6 days in a school year. I'm a little steamed.

For years, the school policy was that no child could go to school if they were throwing up or had a fever. My son has always been inclined towards ear infections, even after his adenoids were removed and tubes were put in. With his ear infections come a fever, and we know if he has a cold that an ear infection will follow. He spent so much time on antibiotics that his body built up a resistance, so the doctors no longer will prescribe antibiotics unless we beg and plead.

So since August, he has missed school twice because he was throwing a fever and throwing up. The third time, he was feverish with an ear infection. I stay home, so it's not a big deal for me to care for him. I will grant that I am benefited by my working from home because it allows me the freedom to keep my kids home. I have never, and will never, send my children to school if they are sick.

His sister is never sick. When she is sick, I have to fight her to keep her home. So it's not like I push the system. I only keep my children home if they fall into the school's "never send your child to school sick"guidelines. Not many other parents do or are able to abide by that same rule, and as a parent whose has had both children come home after sitting at a table where their classmate has thrown up on their books or clothing, I'm thankful that I'm not the parent sending my very sick child to school to infect others.

So anyway, today I get this letter telling me that I am allowing my son to be sick too often. That the new school policy this year is no more than 6 days total or they will be issuing severe warnings and holding meetings to address the absent child. I am infuriated. My judgment is being questioned, and I do think I know if my child is sick or not.

So what it comes down to is now that my child goes to school and if he's sick enough to go home, the school will let me know - OR I have to send him to school with a doctor's note the next day. So I have to pay the co-pay to have my doctor write a note stating that "Yes, Chris was too sick to go to school." I find this absurd.

I think at base, it upsets me because there was no forewarning. This new "school panel" decided this year that they needed to do this. I can understand if Chris was failing, but he's still pulling straight A's. So it's not like missing a few days has caused big issues. His sister usually brings him his homework, and if he is feeling up to it, he'll do his homework in bed or the next morning if he's feeling better. However, there was no warning that the school had changed the policy, and they sent out this brunt letter telling me to call the school because he has been absent too much.

I guess it all comes down to this - Big Brother is even watching our children now. I love the new lesson my children are learning now - if you're sick, too freaking bad. Thanks, Vermont!