Whine & Cheese

Monday (Monster) Mash

Just a mish-mash of stuff today...

Well, Happy Halloween... not my most favorite "holiday" as time has gone on... but as you have probably figured out if you have read W&C for a litte while, one of my character flaws is that I am really not a big fan of children.  Ok, not all children... but a lot of them... so you can see why this day is not my favorite.  Picked up some extra candy over the weekend although we likely will not need it... when the "rush" comes through, I always feel as if we will run out... but by the end of the night, we usually have a decent amount of left-overs.  Selfishly, I will probably try and keep the good stuff for us!   I'll let you know if we get told off again by some snarky kid that we don't have about our lack of Halloween decor.

************************************************

Over the weekend, we did a big purge of a lot of the crap that has been in our garage pretty much ever since we moved in over 3 years ago.  The garage clean-out did have a purpose, but I should not be the one to tell you why (bug someone else, okay? haha!)... we filled up Todd's SUV and headed over to our city's Solid Waste Transfer Facility, which is a nice way of saying "the dump"... ok, it wasn't exactly "THE" dump, as the facililty name suggests, you do dump your junk off, but then it is "transferred" somewhere else... it is all very euphemistic....

************************************************

Finished my latest book over the weekend...Oprah's latest selection, A Million Little Pieces... James Frey's harrowing account of his life and ultimate triumph over every kind of drug and alchohol addiction known to man.  It was a pretty compelling read, though it kind of bugs me how Frey could have possibly remembered detailed conversations that occurred in the treatment center ... I can't even tell you what I said to my Mom over the phone this past Saturday... and I was clean and sober!    UPDATE:  Watched the Oprah book club episode last night (and thanks to Chad for commenting as well), but apparently Frey did keep a journal and was able to gain access to his detailed records while in rehab... so that explains it!

************************************************

Saturday night we watched The Manchurian Candidate on TiVo... the Denzel remake, not the original (though I have seen that one...many eons ago)... pretty creepy political thriller and a virtual feast for those who want to engage in some political conspiracy theories! 

************************************************

Are you seeing my new birthday studs?  When I swap out my pics, I am noticing they do not always load up with the current crop.  I quickly figured out it is a cache issue, in that when I re-load W&C, may times the sidebar is holding onto the older stuff.   Anyhow, today (October 31st) you should be seeing Dermot Mulroney -- who just happens to one of my other half's very favorite stud celebs.  So let me know if you are seeing/not seeing Dermot... and if anyone has advice to get around the caching issue.

************************************************

Finally, this will be a short week here at W&C ... we are headed off to Vegas on Thursday morning.  I do not know what is exactly going on... but apparently a lot of folks are headed out of town and/or to Vegas.  Our regular kennel was all booked up this weekend, so we had to go somewhere else... and it was tough finding a room in Vegas, let alone getting a reasonable room rate. Pretty much all of us who are meeting up there (remember this is a "business" trip), got hit with at least one $300+ night (and, for us, that was even at a preferred customer rate).  I think with the ownership consolidation in the casino industry (basically three companies now control most of the Strip), decent room rates, especially on the weekend, are a thing of the past.

Miered, It's The New 'Borked'

I am a little surprised that there is not much talk in the blog-land about Harriet Miers today...

I guess it was not a big shock to anyone on either side of the political fence... and it is certainly not something that many of use on the left side are finding much to celebrate about (other than it being a "victory" against the incompetence and cronyism of the nomination in the first place)... for sure, the new nominee will clearly be someone who will appease the current president's "base" and that is not going to be a good thing. 

I have a feeling many of us will ultimately think Miers was the lesser of two... well, you know. As I hinted in my previous post about this subject, when the Limbaughs and Coulters have problems with a person you have to start looking at them in a better light!

I borrowed my post title from this AP article via Yahoo!... they say that "getting Miered" is to be "unscrupulously torpedoed by an ally," while being "Borked" (after the failed SC nomination of Robert Bork in 1987) is to be "unscrupulously torpedoed by an opponent."

So it should be interesting to see how this all plays out... and how much lasting, if any, damage this does to the administration (not that they don't have something else to worry about)...

Personally, between this withdrawal and the death of Rehnquist, I am just thinking it is a sign from God that he wants Sandra Day O'Connor to remain on the bench

Route: Canal

Thoughts on last night's episode "We're Getting Out of the Country, Girls"

Ok, this week I will try to temper my lack of enthusiams over the TAR: Family Edition... though seeing the flashback scene with Colin & Christie and The Bowling Moms certainly made me nostalgic for the good 'ole days of The Amazing Race.

But alas, the show finally leaves the country!  The contestants seemed to be as happy about it as us viewers... even little Carissa did a sigh of relief.  Best of all, it was to a primarily non-English speaking country... Panama. 

So we finally had a chance to hear the Racers use their multi-lingual skills... this season's Racers did not disappoint... knowing the key to success is yelling at your cab/boat/bus driver those words that everyone understands... rapido and arriba!  Though there is always one contestant who manages to even mangle that up...I forgot who it was but "el speedo" I am guessing would likely not get the desired results of going faster.

Mom Weaver took the week off as being the geographically challenged as one of the Linz boys thought Panama City meant that they were going to Florida and not the country with the famous canal.  But perhaps her knowledge of Panama as a foreign country came from above... after all the Lord did lead her to clue-holder Ricardo Diaz.  Though the Godlewski sisters took a minute to figure out a bus would not get them off an island.

The detours were kind of lame... picking up and delivering instruments... but worst yet, looking for fake wooden birds in the tropical locale.  Now, I know they couldn't spend the time actually looking for real birds... but it was pretty cheesy.

Still loving the Paolos... I have read things calling them obnoxious and annoying, but I still find them quite endearing.  Sure they are mean to each other, but that is how they show their love for each other! Was just shocked that they went for the Fast Forward, but kudos for Mama for being the one who didn't blink at the bungee jump.

So I think the show got a little bit of its mojo back last night... as I said last week, one of the most appealing aspects of TAR is foreign travel... it adds a whole new level of unpredictability.  And with the emergence of the Weavers as the "villians" of the season has added some spice as well, who woulda thunk that the "widow and kids" team would have taken on that role!

Oh, remember how Bransens won "free gas for life" for coming in first place at one of the recent pit stops? Well, TV Guide (btw, liking the new format) reports that technically it is not true (especially if gas prices double or triple in the future)... nevertheless it is still a pretty sweet deal...  each family member will receive a BP gas card worth $1200 every year for 50 years.

Lastly, I am realizing my post title might not be as punny as I intended... it all depends on how you pronounce the word route... quick poll: do you say "root" or "rout"?   Giving it some thought here, I say it both ways... but primarily "root."

Top 100s

Well, you know I am struggling for things to blog about if I do a babbling post about TiVo Season Passes and have to dub Adam Goldberg a "birthday stud"... I guess some days it is probably best to skip a day! ;-)

But I won't let that stop me... so today, I will get some inspiration from a couple of Top 100 lists that I stumbled across recently. The first is Time Magazine's Top 100 Novels.  I thought I would do pretty well with this list, since there are a couple of limitations working in my favor... first, the novels are English language... second, they were published after 1923 (when Time came into existence).

Alas, I only managed to scratch 14 of the 100 novels off the list... so not exactly a point of pride for someone who thinks he is reasonably well-read... here are the titles I have read:

Are You There God? It's Me Margaret - Judy Blume
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Beloved - Toni Morrison
The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
1984 - George Orwell
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
White Teeth - Zadie Smith

So pretty sad, that one of my fourteen is a Judy Blume book... and that of the above titles there are probably only a handful that I can say I honestly enjoyed reading (many were from high school English class).

I did fair better on the British magazine Total Film's 100 Greatest Films of All Time... proving that it is easier to watch than to read something, I have seen 46 of the 100 films on the list.  I won't list them all out there.. but here is their Top 10 (with the films I have seen in bold).

1. Good Fellas
2. Vertigo
3. Jaws
4. Fight Club
5. The Godfather Part II
6. Citizen Kane
7. Toyko Story
8. The Empire Strikes Back
9. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
10. His Girl Friday

If you haven't guessed, this list is causing some conversation.  It is not often you see Martin Scorsese's Good Fellas heading the list (heck, let alone even ahead of Raging Bull -- which is ranked #28).  But there is plenty else to argue about... Gone With the Wind absent from the list... Sideways ahead of such 'classics' as The Graduate, Wizard of Oz, Psycho, and Casablanca?  Die Hard nudging out Blue Velvet (and heck, even any of the films just mentioned)?

TiVo Musical Chairs

TiVo definitely is a life-altering gadget for die-hard television fans... but lately it seems as if I am having a brain melt trying to figure out how to get everything to "work" between our two TiVos (which btw, we named "Mary" and "Rhoda" ... Mary of course is our "main" TiVo, Rhoda is the back-up).

So here's the latest:

Monday night we have a conflict between Las Vegas and Prison Break.  I will be the first to admit that Vegas is a sucky piece of television... but Josh Duhamel is still worth looking at for an hour and I do enjoy some of the other characters.  So, we ended up recording Vegas on the main, Prison Break on the backup.  However, then we got that "bug" where Fox shows were/are red-flagged on our TiVo... so we could not transfer PB to our main set (and the episode was deleted in one week's time) and, on top of that, the 4th episode of PB failed to record... so we just stopped watching/recording PB. 

But then this weekend, F/X did a marathon of all of this season's PB episodes... so we decided to try again.  We shifted Vegas over to "Rhoda," PB back to "Mary" (to avoid the red-flag issue that only plagues "Rhoda")... and then I found out that first-run episodes of Vegas run on TNT one week after they air on NBC... so while I do have the "Rhoda" pick up the Monday night airing of Vegas, I plan just to have "Mary" record the TNT repeat.  Got it?!

Well, Tuesday is more of an ordeal... we have Amazing Race vs. Commander In Chief vs. My Name Is Earl/The Office.  We decided to go with TAR on "Mary," CiC on "Rhoda"... and just pick up Earl and Office when they re-run.  What has been nice is that ABC has re-aired a couple of episode of CiC on Saturday night (so no need to transfer) and NBC did a mini-Earl marathon recently on a Saturday night (so we got our first look at that series and kinda liked it).

So I ask why can't/don't the major networks regularly re-air their shows on one of the other dozen or so networks that they own?  I'll answer my own question... I know it is all advertising related... the networks don't want you viewing their shows as a second-choice on a basic cable network.  But I would love it, if say Earl and Office aired again (even a week late) on Bravo or CiC was shown on ABC Family.

To add even more chaos... our cable shows shift this coming weekend thanks to the end of Daylight Savings.  While we don't change our clocks here in AZ, our non-major network TV shows do shift!  So, for example, on Sunday nights we have been watching: Rome, West Wing, and Desperate Housewives ... which start airing at 6 pm.  But with Daylight Savings ending, Rome (the East Coast feed) will shift to 7 pm... thus conflicting with West Wing... so TiVo won't record Rome until 10pm...  and there is no way we are staying up that late on a Sunday night!  So we are going to keep our Sunday viewing order intact by intentionally getting a week behind... so the "new" Rome will record at 10pm and we'll watch it before a "new" West Wing the following Sunday... got it?!

While TiVo is pretty smart, it is only a smart as the person that is behind the remote... and sometimes that can get pretty challenging!

Remember Rafa?

Well, it has been almost two months since I posted some new pics of Rafael Nadal... sigh

Is there any way we can age-advance this kid like they do on soap operas (you know one day the character is a toddler and the next week they are going to high school)?

I'd feel much better about my 'lil 'ole obsession if he was just a bit older than 19 years old.

Have a great weekend... pardon me, I have a cradle to rock!

Call Me Mr. Cooper?

Ok, before you get too excited this has NOTHING to do with that guy who hosts that 360 show on CNN? (I realize this is likely a first for a gay blogger).

Nope, remember that "big splurge" (or impending/imminent mid-life crisis) I was talking to you about earlier this week... it is time to fess up...

I am thinking of getting a new car.

Todd has been shopping around for a new car for awhile now.  I, for reasons that I will describe below, have NOT... but last Saturday as he was looking online at cars, on a whim I asked him to look up a particular car that I MIGHT consider IF I was looking.  I always this particular car would be totally out of my price range... but much to my surprise it was not (though certainly not "economical" by any stretch).  So that afternoon, we were up at North Scottsdale at a dealership looking at new cars for ME!  How the heck that happened, I don' t know... but I went from 0-60 mph faster than any car out there?!? 

Waking up last Saturday morning, pretty much the last thing you could have convinced me of was that I would be contemplating a car purchase.  Here are the arguments:

Reasons NOT to get a new car:

(a) I don't drive all that much - my car sits in the garage most of the time, to give you an idea my last oil change was in June and I have driven it approximately 1,000 since.

(b) Money, money, money - On top of the lack of real "need," why spend the cash and get saddled down with a monthly car payment and down payment (to get a reasonable monthly payment!)?  My checkbook has increased very, very nicely thanks to NOT having a car payment for the past 5 years or so.  Also, there is the increase in insurance and yearly registration (based on the value of the car) fees.

(c) The car I am considering is not very practical - the back seat is pretty non-existent as is trunk space... certainly not all the convenient for taking a dog to the vet or driving around visitors.

Reasons to GET a new car:

(a) My current car is 8 years old and just not running as smoothly.  I don't think there are any serious problems, but something just doesn't seem "right" with it... and I am starting to have reservations about taking it on longer road trips.  And why not trade it in while it still has some value left?!

(b) Business has been good and I am financially sound... so why not reward myself for the hard work of the past couple of years?!  Last time around when I got a car, I didn't even have the money in my checking/savings accounts to cover the price of the car... that would not be the case this time (though I am certainly not going to wipe out my bank accounts and pay cash).

(c) So who need to be practical?!!  Isn't it time for a "cool" car... and I would estimate only 1-2% of the time do I have a human/animal that would need to use the back seats.

Okay, ready for the unveil...

Though I already blew it in the title...

The car I am thinking about getting is...

Mini Cooper Convertible

And this is what I hope it will exactly look like... on the MINI website you can "build" your own vehicle and even have it spit out a price after you select all of your add-ons... they do have a very cool hard-top model, but I figured if you can't do a convertible in AZ where else can you?!?!

So I will keep you posted on my progress and when (if!!) I finally decide to take the plunge and plunk down some money.  I have a feeling this is going to be a very looooong story!  MINI Cooper production is fairly limited. I have read one of the MINI's "rites of passage" (yes, I think I am joining a cult if I get this car) is the "wait times"... I have read it can take anywhere from 6 weeks to 15 months (yes, that is not a typo... 15 months!) to get one built to specification... but it is not like I am in any rush... so why the heck not!

So I ask the blog-world if you (or anyone you know) has any MINI Cooper experiences (JD? Bill? Don't you have one?) please please please let me know... and the sooner the bettter... though I am not sure how soon I will get back to the dealership (the good news/bad news scenario is that the dealership is about 30 miles away from our house).

From all I read the car has a very high customer satisfaction rating and it certainly has a attention-factor out on the road... heck, I haven't seen one since I got this crazy idea into my head!

Nice splurge or mid-life crisis?  Foolish decision or "go for it"?  Discuss.

Odd Pussy Behavior

Can't wait to see what kind of Google hits I get on that title!

Anyhow, our felines have started to exhibit rather odd behavior of late...I don't know if it is a result of our recent trip when they had the run of the house... or the onset of autumn here in the Valley.  But this is what is going on...

Lola is getting into drawers/bureaus, removing clothing items and randomly leaving them around the house. Now I am not surprised that Lola is getting into drawers... she has show remarkable strength before.  For some time now, we must lock our sliding glass doors since she is able to pull it open enough to get outside... so a measly wooden drawer really poses no challenge. 

This new "game" has occurred nearly every day this week... and sometimes multiple times a day.  Good thing we don't get a lot of surprised guests here... otherwise they would probably wonder why there is a pair of underwear (Lola's item of preference) in the middle of the kitchen!   She has also managed to drag around heavier items (like t-shirts) as well.

Lola also like to go outside... this has happened since nearly day one... but as an ex-stray, again no big surprise.  She doesn't really run off... just sneaks her way out and wants to chew on some grass... or make that strange chattery sound at the birds... but the good thing is she doesn't wander off and offers little resistance in getting picked up and brought back into the house.

We thought (prayed!) that our younger feline, Elvis, would not get into this habit... and until this week, he has shown no interest in going outside... but as you may have guessed, that changed this week.

Unlike Lola, Elvis loves to take off... just bullets across the yard... and has no interest in being picked up and brought back inside.   When approaching him, he'll quickly hop away like a rabbit... and it ends up being a chase around the yard until he is cornered.  This happened about 3 times yesterday... and also this morning.

This morning was particularly frustrating.  After a 5:30am potty break, I was letting the dogs back in and Elvis escaped... since it was still dark, he was particularly not happy to be caught... so it was a somewhat extended chase around the patio.  It is a good thing that our backyard is fairly private... while the chase would certainly be comic to anyone not trying to catch the damn cat, our neighbors certainly would have got an eyeful given my state of dress (or undress) at that time of the day!

Vegas Shows: Fall '05 Edition

With our Vegas trip coming up in just a couple of weeks, figured it was time to get down to buying some show tickets.  It is an especially nice trip since it is a "business" trip for me... so hotel & gas (and at least one meal) are not directly coming out of my checkbook...  best yet, the only commitment (meeting an East Coast business partner) is Thursday evening... so the rest of the weekend is free (ssshhhhh!).

So after some discussion with my other half... we decided to go to a couple of shows (though Todd will be "officially" finding out about this along with the rest of you!)... and btw, Happy Birthday!  (Todd's birthday is week we are going... how convenient!)

Since we enjoyed her show so much the first time.... on Friday night we are going back to see...

Gladys Knight at the Flamingo... it is really a nice and cozy venue that harkens back to the Rat Pack days of Vegas (I think Gladys may have even said that they did play at this particular showroom)... and there is not anyone much cooler than Gladys!   I will just have to start practicing my "woo woo!" back-up singer moves for "Midnight Train To Georgia"... or, umm... maybe not.

On Saturday night, we will get our first look at the relatively new Wynn Las Vegas Hotel & Casino.. and be seeing....

Since Wynn has an exclusive contract with Avenue Q, the only place you can see the Tony award winning musical is in NYC or Vegas (no touring productions!).  We ended up with seats in Row P... I guess it would have been cool to be in Row Q... but I take seats one row closer!

The World's Largest Office Chair?

So it did not go unnoticed (hi Gail!) that I have not done an Amazing Race re-cap in the past two weeks... well I had some excuses... two weeks ago I was back East visiting the parents and last week I was recovering from it all and trying to catch up with things on the home front.

But I guess I have to admit another reason for the lack of updates is that I am just not really enjoying The Amazing Race: Family Edition.  A lot of folks (myself included) had concerns about this family format, so it was almost a losing proposition even before the first episode ever aired.  Now, I still like the show... but it is definitely lacking ooomph!

With the USA-ony locales (alas we are leaving the country next week, but I am guessing we are not going terribly far), I agree with one critic who called this season "claustrophobic."  One of the fun aspects of the show is "where are the going next"... you're in Peru and the next thing you know you are off to South Africa... so ripping open the envelope and hearing they are off to Alabama, just isn't quite doing it for me. In the past, TAR has been fun showing off all the places that are pretty cool... and likely places I will never get a chance to go to... but let's just say I have no desire to see the world's largest office chair in Anniston, Alabama... and no language barriers, what fun is that?!

Okay... onto the actual show...

None of the families are really doing much for me... here's my order of preference:

Paolos - From what I have read, this is not the most liked team... but I find them terribly entertaining. And they have far exceeded my expectations... almost being Team #1 in last night's episode.  At nearly the halfway point of the show (last night was the 4th elimination of the 10 original teams), I never would have thought they would have made it this far.  That said, I still don't think they stand a chance.

Linz - The siblings are probably my favorite team to win.. and they should... but I have a feeling this Race won't be decided by physical prowess (unlike most previous seasons)... but I like how they joke around with each.

Bransen - Like the father and daughters combo... again the Dad is ultimately going to be the downfall of the team... but it has been nice to see them do well in the past couple of weeks... again, pretty darn likeable... all of them.

Godlewski - At this point, we are heading into mild dislike territory... the screeching sisters are just pretty annoying... I think they have turned it down a notch in this past episode (not including the one crying sister).

Weavers - As always, all the God stuff turns me off... but I will give them kudos for dealing with having to go to a raceway and face their demons.  I thought it was particularly touching when the Mom tried to prop up the kids by telling them their Dad loved racing... but I am stubborn and can't get past the God stuff... and then the Mom saying stuff like Lake Ponchatrain a Great Lake... I am really hoping she meant "great" lake and not "Great" Lake...

Gaghan - Apparently this is America's family... I read somewhere where they are topping the popularity polls (I am too lazy to confirm)... but I just find them so sweetly perfect that I really have a hard time watching them... and again, I just don't think the Race is for children... they pretty much couldn't participate at all in last night's detour (the blackjack or wood-cutting) and the Dakota Fanny wannabel couldn't even reach the pedals on the party bike.  A. NOY. ING.