Whine & Cheese

Friday Free For All

As occasionally happens, seems like there are a lot of little (and unrelated to each other) thoughts... so we'll just go with it.

Labor Day - Which in Arizona is kind of like Groundhog Day... only 6 more weeks of summer!  It usually takes to around mid-October for it not to feel like what most folks think of summertime... and it's been an extra hot one this year, Phoenix broke the record for most days over 110 degrees... 29 days (and counting).  The average is 10 days per year.

Plans - Not a whole lot planned for the holiday weekend, beyond sitting in front of the TV and watching hours (and hours) of tennis.  Let's hope there are more thrills like last night's Blake-Santoro match and less of Sharapova winning matches 6-0, 6-1.  On Monday, we get Lucy the Pug for a few weeks as Todd's parents are headed out for a big road trip of their own. 

Big Brother - Ah, the show will not be as fun without Amber.  Though even I was starting to feeling a tad uncomfortable that the folks behind the scenes were encouraging her (What do mean by "encourage"?)  to do things that would make us laugh at her (and not in a good way).  This also means no more prayers where she God blesses God.   My favorite line about that line was on Fox Reality's Reality Remix...  Kennedy pondering, "Well, what do you say to the Almighty when he sneezes?"   Easily the line of the night was the ChenBot's questioning aloud Eric's romance or "show-mance" with Jessica... "Is America's Player really America's Playa?"  Ah, Jules!

Blogs - It seems like there is a " back to basics" renovation trend on many blogs lately.  I have to admit to not being immune to it.  I am kind of tired of the look of my blog.  However, it took quite a bit to get this "design" to work... so not really wanting to go 100% back to a ready-to-go template, I am sticking with this one.  In the spirit of "simplifying," I have tried to de-clutter the sidebar.  Likewise, I am heavily considering deleting my Kiva blog.  I am thinking I bit off more than I wanted to chew with it.  Now this is pretty typical for me... a big initial burst of activity and interest about something (in this case... the blog, not the organization!) that trickles away.  Which only makes that fact that I will start my 5th year of blogging in a couple of weeks a truly amazing accomplishment.

Tags/Categories - In an act of blog un-simplification, I'm going to use categories more like "tags"... so you'll see things get a lot more specific, though I will try to make sure they have (or will) have more than a handful of mentions.  For example, some of my first new additions are things like:  Dancing With the Stars, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal.   Again, I'm not sure if it matters... but something a little new and different. Apologies in advance to Bloglines and other feed readers if these category changes make my older entries show up new/updated.  On a few posts I changed yesterday, some of them showed up while others did not... so who knows!

Hope everyone has a non-laborious Labor Day weekend!

The Man In Black

You know I love the guy, but it's turning into "Bash Roger Week" here at W&C!

It was Federer the Fashionista debuting an all-black ensemble for his first night match of the 2007 U.S. Open.

Pictured above is Oscar de la Renta chatting with Roger's girlfriend/manager, Mirka... while Vogue editor Anna Wintour is likely annoying the people by following cell-phone non-etiquette... informing the call-ee she is at the U.S. Open watching Roger Federer. 

But what were these fashion icons really thinking?!?

Roger was almost downright giddy about it... noting the black satin stripes down the sides of the shorts were "a little bit of the tuxedo look, it's something special."

Having recently caught The Devil Wears Prada on HBO, we found ourselves in a fairly dismissive "fashion" spirit.

The phrase "a bit silly" I am sure was uttered, along with "the only proper place to wear black socks and shorts is at a  retirement village."

...in the immortal words of Devil's Miranda Priestley (inspired by Wintour herself -- allegedly!)...

That's all.

What Dunder-Mifflin Did This Summer

Not that I feel like I should be hawking stuff for NBC, but this extended promo (3 minutes!) for the upcoming season of The Office was just too good not to share.   

Shameless "borrowed" from EW's PopWatch blog.

What was your favorite line/moment?

Dancing Queens (and Kings)

I was tempted to blog about the rumored celebs for the new season of Dancing With the Stars 5, but I am glad I held off as a handful of the "leaked" contestants proved to be wrong.   

Here's the official cast for the new season and their professional counterparts -- who are probably more of the "stars" these days...

Melanie Brown (aka Scary Spice of The Spice Girls) with Maksim Chmerkovskiy

Sabrina Bryan (Disney Channel's "Cheetah Girls") with first-timer Mark Ballas

Helio Castroneves (2-time Indy 500 winner) with defending champ, Julianne Hough

Mark Cuban (NBA Dallas Mavericks owner) with Kym Johnson

Jennie Garth ("Beverly Hills 90210") with first-timer Derek Hough (Julianne's brother)

Josie Maran (Model/Actress???) with Alec Mazo

Cameron Mathison ("All My Children") with Edyta Sliwinska

"Pretty Boy" Floyd Mayweather (Boxing champ) with Karina Smirnoff

Wayne Newton (Singer/Vegas Icon) with Cheryl Burke

Marie Osmond (Singer) with Jonathan Roberts

Albert Reed (Model) with Anna Trebunskaya

Jane Seymour (Actress) with Tony Dovolani

My initial thoughts....

Cheryl Burke finally gets a crappy partner, I am sure much to the delight of former old-guy clunkers, Edyta and Kym. 

I predict Marie Osmond will be the wacky contestant ala Lisa Rinna and Leeza Gibbons.

Dancer-wise, happy to see the spunky Anna Trebunskaya (only on the show once and partnered with Jerry Rice) back and she gets a young male model, never heard of him before... but a quick google and here he is:

Cameron and Edyta should make for a hot couple, though it all depends if Cameron can move... for those not familiar with him as Ryan Lavery on AMC, here's a picture of him:

... and I am guessing Maks should be able to hang around for awhile with Mel B, ever the modest guy, Maxsim is offers up this screensaver on his website:

The season begins with a 3-night "event" ... the ladies on Monday, September 24th... the men on Tuesday, September 25th... and the results show, with Dolly Parton as the musical guest, on Wednesday, September 26th.   Future musical guests announced are Avril Lavigne and Gloria Estefan.

Ok, So He's Not Perfect

Last night at the U.S. Open, the late Althea Gibson was inducted into Court of Champions on the ground.  50 years ago, Gibson was the first African-American, male or female, to win the U.S. Nationals.  The night featured a parade of African-American female "firsts."  Gibson is often thought of as "the female Jackie Robinson" (his widow was also in attendance), breaking tennis' color barrier just three years after Robinson did it in baseball in 1947.  After the tribute capped off by Aretha Franklin belting out "Respect"... it was a rare all-female nighttime double-header as Venus and Serena Williams played (and won) their first round matches.

As Roger Federer continues to re-write the record books (this week's record-breaker: passing Steffi Graf's longest consecutive streak at #1 -- 187 weeks), he has come across as a historian of the game... but perhaps, his knowledge is limited to the records he has broken or plans to break.  Check out this exchange in his post-first round match press interview on Monday.

Q. What do you know about Althea Gibson?
ROGER FEDERER: I don't know. You're putting me on the spot. I don't know what you're talking about.

Q. She's being honored tonight.
ROGER FEDERER: Nothing, to be honest. It's before my time. Isn't much I can really say about it. I don't know, I'm sorry.

Now, I'm willing to cut Roger a little slack.  To say the Gibson tribute was overdue is an understatement.  In its 5th year of existence, Gibson becomes the 15th inductee into the Court of Champions.  Last night's ceremony also marked the 10th anniversary of the dedication of Arthur Ashe Stadium.  While not knocking Ashe's status as one of the sport's most beloved figure and the first African-American male to win a Grand Slam and the U.S. Open, Gibson pre-dated him by over a decade... and prior to the civil rights movement.

So while I don't think Gibson's story is out there/known as much as it should be in this country (heck, before last night I admit to not knowing much beyond the very basics) let alone Europe and beyond, I still would have thought that Federer could (or would) have danced around this one a bit better.

Michael Tolliver Lives (#25)

Before even opening this next book, I could pretty much guarantee you that I was going to love... Michael Tolliver Lives.

I have such affection for the Tales of the City books as well as the three television mini-series, that Armistead Maupin would have had to something seriously wrong for this book not to be one of my most enjoyable reads of the year.

Nearly everything I read early on (even from Maupin) warned that this was not a sequel/book seven in the series.  I can kind of see the point -- the narrative is focused solely on the now 50-something year old Michael "Mouse" Tolliver, not the slew of characters and storylines dished out in small and addictive doses that was the hallmark of Tales and beyond. 

Maupin has relaxed the non-sequel chatter and now refers to the book as "a continuation of the sage" which seems a fine assessment.  As always, I will try to keep this spoiler-free... but say that all the principals from Tales (and even some of the dearly departed ones) make some kind of appearance in Lives. 

In order to explore the life (and love life) of an aging gay man, 63-year old Maupin didn't have to look too far for inspiration... perhaps just across his bed.  In Lives, we quickly find Michael settled down with a boyfriend 21 years younger... not too terribly dissimilar to Maupin's 35-year old husband, who he married in British Columbia earlier this year.  Now, whether or not Maupin's sex life is as good (and active) as his fictional counterpart, that I do not know (nor am I sure that I would want to)!   So while aging is no fun (at least physically), there is a hopeful quality to the book.  While HIV/AIDS was the "real world" dark cloud that ominously hovered over the otherwise pretty escapist entertainment of Tales... times have changed and in Lives, Michael starts facing the realization that old age is what may kill him... or at least slow him down a lot more than what was considered a death sentence just decades ago.

While the perspective and pacing may be different, this book is as compulsively readable as the earlier books.  I consciously tried to slow down while reading it... "slowing down" ultimately meaning that I finished it in all of 7 reading sessions.

Good news for Tales fans, there will likely be more to come!   On the Lives press tour, Maupin has said "Whatever I have to offer seems to come through those characters ... and I see no reason to abandon them." 

Reading challenge-wise, this is book #25 of the year... a milestone of its own, but it also equals the number of books I read all of last year.  Granted the whole point of having a page-related challenge was to not get caught up in the number of books read.  So while it is a bit impressive that I reached #25 this early, it likely means that I am reading shorter books this year.

2007 10K Reading Challenge:  + 277 pages (Total Pages: 7618 pages) 

Weekend Update: Dos & Tres

Saturday unintentionally turned into Arizona cliche night....

... we had dinner at Dos Gringos and afterwards wen over to Tres Amigos, a mostly Arizona-based furniture/home accessory store.  I'm guessing that our Arizona Native status (you get that after living here over 10 years) may now be in jeopardy.   Not wanting to further this Spanish counting lesson, we headed home to our cuatro animales.

The trip to Tres Amigos was made in hopes of replacing a small table in our TV room.  Last week, the dogs knocked over this metal table with a glass top for the second time... and final time.  The glass broke... and a glass top table ain't much use without the glass top.   

This had to one of the cheapest, ugliest, and out-of-place pieces of furniture that made the move into this house (ala Frasier's dad's chair).  We've been "looking" for a replacement for most of the 5 years we have lived here... but it's just never happened.  So while yet another little piece of household destruction was frustrating, forcing the issue was the proverbial blessing in disguise.

We replaced it with a fairly inexpensive set of two nested wood tables... inexpensive since one of Rocky's favorite "wrong" things to chew on is wood... as in our wood dining room table, our wood dining room chairs, our wood living room table, the wood handles on our recliners... ok, you get the point.   We're probably asking for trouble... but at least that other table finally got carted off by the garbage truck this morning.

Speaking of Rocky, we also happened into a pet store this weekend.  We saw a 3-month old Boston in the window, and it looks like Rocky will be on the smaller side.  The breeder told us both of Rocky's parents were under 20 pounds (non-overweight Bostons can get up to the mid 20s)... this pup for sale (at 4x what we paid for Rocky!) appeared to be jut a wee bit smaller than our 8-month old!

.... or else eating wood stunts a puppy's growth!

Frisky Friday

... continues!  As does the letter "f" alliteration.

In this afternoon's entry, I'm leading you to a program on The History Channel. 

Yes, you read correctly.

Granted Todd is more of the history buff in the house, but this week's TV Guide had a blurb (and more importantly a photo) that tipped me off to this show Human Weapon (Friday nights at 10p, check your local listings).

I have absolutely no idea what it's all about, nor do I care... why?

Allow me introduce you to one the hosts... Jason Chambers

Mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce... wooooooo!

This certainly ain't your daddy's History Channel... though, oddly enough, the eternal question of "who's your daddy?" does come to mind...

...and at least Jason won't have to change his name if he decides to go into gay porn... haha!  (Great, I can just imagine the search hits I'm gonna get now!)

Okay, here's the description of the show:

The ultimate search of a Human Weapon, Each episode of HUMAN WEAPON charts an expedition through foreign continents, famous cities, exotic villages, back alleys and lush landscapes with hosts Jason Chambers – mixed-martial-artist and professional fighter – and Bill Duff – former professional football player and wrestler, who will learn how each individual location gave birth to its distinct form of combat and will study their form of martial art.

Hmmmm.... sounds like it may even be a bit educational... guess I'll still give it a shot!

Frothy Federer

Todd becomes a tennis widower The U.S. Open starts Monday... while 127 out of 128 chances seem like pretty darn good odds... if you are gambling on the men's field this year, my guess is that you would make more $$$ placing a bet on "the field" rather than Roger Federer.

A cyber hat-tip to Kenneth for alerting me to Roger's "ambassador" status with Jura-Capresso, a Swiss company that makes "the finest super automatic coffee and espresso centers." 

Here are the four tennis-themed print campaigns (available for closer inspection here).

Now, Kenneth thought it a bit ridiculous the image of Roger serving up a couple of cappuccinos...

... but I will shamelessly admit to finding the ads to be quite dreamy... ok, even sexy.

Now what this says about me... fantasizing about Roger Federer and premium coffee beverages (not necessarily in that order)... that I will leave up to you, my dear readers.    

Bette Bunyan?

Kudos to the person (my guess, an underpaid intern) over at USAToday.com who matched this particular picture and story about the Divine Miss M in yesterday's online edition.

(Link: Midler wrongly fells 200 Hawaiian trees - USATODAY.com)

Now all this sounds pretty bad, but even the headline suggests it is an honest mistake... particularly given Bette's pretty sincere commitment to the environment (campaigns for composting in LA and highway trash cleanup in NY).

I'm guessing the recommended $6,500 fine won't affect the 61-year old soon-to-be Vegas headliner's checkbook too badly... particularly when it's regarding your nearly 11-square mile piece of property on Kauai!