The Next President Wears Blue Jeans

I want a President who wears blue jeans. Maybe SOMEDAY blue jeans will be an acceptable item to wear to my office....

live blogging from the train

To do list:
Download new songs to my ipod and remember to bring it with me to work so I don't have to hear the random conversations that people have on their cell phones while riding the train.

Case in point: lady sitting across from me on the phone with her husband just talking about her day - blah blah blah - and before she hangs up says " ok, well, I'll see you in an hour when I get home."

That whole 15 minute conversation didn't have to happen until she got home. That is what I call environmental noise pollution.

Acceptable phone conversations include:
Making dinner/going out plans
Determining grocery list
Plans for pick up at destination

These calls should not last for more that 2 minutes.

I was never a fan of text messaging - and still really not - but if a situation called for it - riding the train is the place for it.

That is all.

A recent pic of my baby....

Taken a few days ago... never looked cuter! ;-)

Worst Movies Ever: The List

I am only listing movies I have actually seen.
A quick brouse of Rotten Tomatoes' list of 100 worst movies ever has shown me that there are many really bad movies that I have not seen. Thank god.
You will notice that many movies on my list have "A list actors". Just because you won an Oscar doesn't mean that you can't make bad movies....

The Talented Mr. Ripley (Matt Damon, Jude Law)
Fallen (Denzel Washington)
The Happening (Mark Wahlberg)
Anything with Madonna (except Desperately Seeking Susan)
Catwoman (Halle Berry)
Spice World
The Beach (Leo DiCaprio)
Galaxy Quest (Sigourney Weaver)
Die Hard 3 (Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson)
You've Got Mail (Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan) - yes, this movie is worse than "Joe Versus the Volcano" also starring these two actors....
Look Whose Talking and all sequels (John Travolta, Kirsty Ally)
Michael (John Travolta)
Phenomenon (John Travolta)
OK - i need to stop here... i am sure there are more that i can add to the list if I keep going further back in time. i am going to work on a new list. "Bad Movies I'm Willing To Watch Again."
Coming soon.

Movie Review: The Happening

One of my top 5 WORST MOVIES I HAVE EVER SEEN. Don't spend any money to see this movie! Don't even bother spending 2 hours of your life watching this movie for free on HBO. It is 2 hours of your life you will never get back. You would be better off watching reruns of "Designed to Sell" on HGTV for 2 hours.
Seriously. D and I spent the entire two hours simultaneously laughing and cringing at the horrible dialogue and acting by John Leguizamo, Mark Wahlberg (no disrespect), and the chick that plays his wife. I think the only decent performance in the movie is by the little girl - and i HATE kid actors. Not sure what else I can say about it. Just stay away...
Maybe it is time for a "Worst Movies Ever" list... i'll get to work on this right now.

2:23:13

i made it! Yea! pretty tired right now and i need a nap.
my time is about 3 minutes longer than last year. oh well. my goal was to at least do the race in the amount of time as i did it in last year. this year the course was a bit different and the weather was about 10 degrees hotter. that might have been a factor. Like last year i ran the entire time only stopping for water. i felt pretty good most of the race until mile 10. My ankles were killing me for the last 3 miles - and they still kinda hurt right now.
ok - that's it for now. gotta take a nap.

a-holes aplenty

On the MARC train today. Every kind I've ever mentioned are on the train today. I got to my seat 15 min before our departure time and it began with a lady in a wheelchair and her entourage of 3 people arriving on the train at 602 - 3 min before departure. This group not only displaced me and the 3 people sitting in my area but the other 4 people sitting by the door so her fat entourage of 3 people could sit and take up seating for 4 people.
The second a-hole appears as I begin to look for a new seat with 2 min left befor the train leaves. Now I'm the a-hole thinking I can get a seat this late in the game.
So... I start looking and immediately I find 2! Seats "available". In quotes because one seat was holding this guy's newspapers and the other seat was holding another guy's briefcase and starbucks iced coffee. Wow! 2 a-holes at once! I said excuse me (kinda loud on purpose so the other people in the car knew these guys were a-holes for taking up 2 seats each) and the news paper guy moved his papers so I could sit. Starbucks guy - now across from me working on his laptop - gave newspaper guy a look like "ha ha you got screwed" then a few seconds after everyone has settled in a guy from my car who was also displaced by wheelchair lady walked over and said "excuse me" loudly to starbucks guy who proceeded to grudgingly move his crap. Dude has like 8 bags and a big piece of luggage in addition to the stupid laptop he is working on. Thanks asshole.

Is Nothing Sacred?

If you know me then you know one of my favorite bands is the Foo Fighters.... The McCain Campaign has been using the song "My Hero" without their permission. How dare they??!!

From USA TODAY: Add the Foo Fighters to the list of artists who want Republican presidential nominee John McCain to stop using one of their songs. Here's a statement the band just issued:
This isn't the first time the McCain campaign has used a song without making any attempt to get approval or permission from the artist. It's frustrating and infuriating that someone who claims to speak for the American people would repeatedly show such little respect for creativity and intellectual property.

The saddest thing about this is that My Hero was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential. To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song. We hope that the McCain campaign will do the right thing and stop using our song -- and start asking artists' permission in general!

My Hero is from the Foos' 1995 album The Colour and the Shape. If you're a fan, there's still a good chance you've heard it at a sports arena in recent years.

As E Online notes, other artists who have objected to the McCain-Palin campaign's use of their songs include Jackson Browne, Heart, John Mellencamp and Van Halen.

There ya go again Joe!

So during the debate last week between the VP nominees Sarah Palin kept accusing Joe Biden of pointing to the past when we need to be looking toward the future and what the candidates will do to help this country if elected. Well.... isn't the McCain/Palin campaign pointing to the past by bringing up this bullshit Obama connection with Ayres? What happened to looking to the future?
4 weeks to Election Day. Not sure if I will be able to make it till then.

Baltimore Half-Marathon: 5 days away

I haven't written much about the race this year. I feel pretty good that i will do OK. My goal really is just to finish and it would be nice if i knocked off a little time from what i did last year. we'll see. I ran 8 miles Saturday morning - kinda painful - in about 85 minutes. If i keep the same pace i'll finish with about the same time i had last year. I'll need to stock up on Aleve before the race. My knees and ankles still hurt from Sat.
Fun Times.

Random Thought: Jello

Why does Jello always have that little blob on the inside of the lid? There is no indentation in the Jello that would indicate that it was transferred from the cup onto the top...

I Heart (not) Grocery Shopping

I absolutely HATE going grocery shopping. My Shoppers Food Warehouse (also known as the Getro) is almost** the most ghetto grocery store ever. It is really hard to find a decent tomato or any produce really in that store. The deli counter workers must be on valium or something b/c they move sooo freaking slow. I've seen some really messed up people shopping in there. Often. I try to go to the Safeway across town when i can or to a store in the 'burbs if I am out that way already but it doesn't happen that often.
A new Harris Teeter is going to open but not until next year. *** I think because of the competition with HT, the Shoppers is "trying" to get better with their produce and general food selection but they have a long way to go - and honestly any changes they make will not be enough for me to continue to shop there once the HT opens.
The worse time in the world to go shopping is on Sundays. Only half the staff is working and everyone is stocking up on food for the week. Also - the worst time to go is between 6 - 8 pm on a weekday. I seriously ran in for one thing the other day and it took me 45 minutes.
Now - this morning I went shopping before work - got there at 7:15 am. It was awesome! I could walk the store at my own pace and there weren't screaming kids or people clogging the aisles. I got everything i needed - even hit the deli counter with no wait - and was out of there in 30 minutes with all the food i need for the week.
I am going to try to do this as often as i can.

More Thoughts on the Election: 5 weeks out

I am really excited about this election because for the second time in my life (the first being 1996 voting for Bill Clinton) I am actually voting for SOMEONE. All previous elections were more about party politics than the candidate themselves.
I was and still am really disappointed in John Edwards. He was my first choice during the primaries and I would have voted for him if he hadn’t dropped out by the time Maryland had our primary election. I am disappointed in this whole affair business – but I can’t even imagine how disappointed I would be if he actually became our nominee and THEN his affair was exposed. I have no idea how I would react but I am sure that it would include a lot of anger and hurt feelings because we trusted him to lead our country.
I hope that Obama doesn’t leave us with anger and hurt feelings. I am really scared b/c I am going to vote for HIM and I just feel that it is a huge commitment. I guess I shouldn’t take it too personally, but really, this is an immensely personal decision we all have to make.
I know I am rambling so I will go now… I just wanted to share….

from my new blackberry

I'm coming to you live from my MARC train on my way home from a very loooog week. Work was especially painful this week.
I just got a new blackberry for work. The keybord buttons are really close to each other and it makes typing kinda hard... That's all I wanted to say for now.

Really??

So, it is probably hard to see from this pic but this guy was totally taking up two seats on my train going home last night. Seriously what is it with guys? Do you really need to spread your legs so far apart when you sit down? Someone eventually sat next to him once the train started moving.

Football

Husband and I went to the VT game last weekend in Blacksburg and had a great time! - hopefully i'll get some pics up soon. Tech won that game against Georgia Tech and we won this past Saturday too. Unfortunately we are still not ranked although we did get a few votes (63). Our opponent next week, Nebraska, is 3-0. Hhmm.... i'm glad we beat North Carolina the other day but we were really uneaven. I'm afraid Nebrasks will give us a run for our money.

Also - hubby and I went to the Raven's game yesterday - again, had a great time. Pro football is always fun - especially when you get suite level tix at the 50 yard line. Go Ravens!

Rot Pipeline Palin

Check this out: http://personal-space.com/script/script.php

Day 17(ish): Going As Well As Can Be Expected

So... in the interveining 12 days since I last posted we went to a Labor Day BBQ and cheated on the diet (more with alcohol than food really), I had a work staff retreat where I cheated (2 glasses of wine and some potato chips), and we played poker last weekend and we both cheated (wine and a cookie or 3). I think we are doing pretty well though. I am base minue 3.8 lbs and hubby is base minus 4. We are going to Blacksburg this coming weekend (YEA!) so we will once again be off the diet - but i think we are going to do another week of Phase 1 before we move on to Phase 2. God I can't wait. All I want is a freaking muffin and a sandwich. Now I just need to figure out where I can find whole grain muffins and bread - or learn how to bake them....

I am really looking forward to going to the 'Burg for the weekend. We got free Tix to the Georgia Tech game. I really hope we win. That whole East Carolina thing was soooo depressing. I don't know if I'll be able to blog during any of the games this season if we are going to suck this bad. I think i will just get more depressed. I mean, we are in a "building year" and all but still.....

anyways... GO VT!

BTW - the half marathon is now 4 weeks and 3 days away. I've ran 5 miles a few times the last 2 weeks but i need to up it to 6. I just don't know when i'm going to have the time. 6 miles takes over an hour for me. I just can't do it in the AM b/c I am so hot afterwards - even after I shower. I need to do it at night or over the weekend (not possible this weekend.) I am going to run 5 miles tonight when i get home from work. It is getting a little dark now around 8 so i'm kinda worried about that but i think i will be ok... i don't think i have any reflecty clothes tho... hm...

ok - that's it for now. - Peace!

DAY 5: Doing OK

I'm doing OK. Feeling a little light headed off and on throughout the day but it goes away once i eat. I've been to the gym only twice this week. Monday I did some cardio - ran and elipitcal - and yesterday I ran 4 miles on the treadmill. Today: weights and abs, Sat: spinning, Sun: OFF, Mon: Run 5 miles hopefully. I really need to pick up the pace for training for the half marathon - 6 weeks from tomorrow!
I weighed myself on Sunday before we started this diet and again last night at the gym. Currently I am base minus 1.6 lbs. That really doesn't mean much at this point. I can vary by that much on any given day of the week. The significant thing happend this morning. For the first time in a few weeks I had to wear my belt with my jeans. YEA! It's not like they'd be falling off or anything but they definately need a little help. Sweet.
I think we are getting into the groove as far as being more efficient with our time while we are cooking. It still takes a lot of time to put everything together though....

I Have A Dream

Today is an historic day. It is the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech" AND it is also the day that a black man will accept a major party's nomination for President.
I have so many different feelings about this. I feel overwhelmed because we are witnessing history - good history - in the making. I am excited about what it means for progress that we are nominating Barak Obama for President. I am scared about the harsh attacks and lies that will be directed at our candidate. I am nervous that his nomination will motivate the most progressive Americans AND the most hateful Americans to action. I am hopeful that in 9 weeks we will have a Democrat back in the White House.

I can't wait to hear Obama's acceptance speech tonight. In the mean time... Here is MLK - It gives me chills everytime I hear it... for your reading pleasure:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!