Celebrity Death List 2012

Just like last year I have created my celebrity death list.  Last year my count was at 6.

Here was the list with those who passed bolded:
Dan Ackroyd - 58, Chuck Berry - 84, Ray Bradbury - 90, Lillian Jackson Braun - 97, Jimmy Carter- 86, Dick Clark - 81, Tim Conway - 77 (from the Carol Burnett Show), Billy Crystal - 62, Doris Day - 88, Kirk Douglas - 94, Michael Douglas - 66, Roger Ebert - 68, Queen Elizabeth - 84, Peter Falk - 83, Aretha Franklin - 68, Zsa Zsa Gabor - 93, James Garner - 82, Billy Graham - 92, Andy Griffith - 84, Larry Hagamen - 79 (TV star of Dallas and I Dream of Jeannie), Russell Johnson - 86 (the Professor from Gilligan's Island), Kim Jong-il - 69 (He's been ill... haha, I know, bad joke), Lindsay Lohan - 24, Rose Marie - 87, Penny Marshall - 68, Taylor Momsen - 17, Peter O'Toole - 78, Nancy Reagan - 89, Carl Reiner - 88, Keith Richards - 67, Andy Rooney - 91, Taylor Swift - 21, Elizabeth Taylor - 78, Amy Winehouse - 27

This year I again made a list.  Some were repeats and some were new.  However I have been lazy getting it put up on my blog.  I made it in January and have gotten 3 correct this year already.  And I girl-scout-honor you that this list has not been fudged to include some of those who already passed.  There were on the list and legit.

So, without further ado....

Celebrity Death Watch 2012

Muhammad Ali - 70
Bob Barker - 88
Chuck Berry - 85
Ray Bradbury - 91
Gary Busey - 67
George HW Bush - 87
Jimmy Carter - 87
Fidel Castro - 85
Dick Clark - 82
Tim Conway - 78 (Carol Burnett Show)
Macaulay Culkin - 31
Charlie Daniels - 75
Doris Day - 89
Kirk Douglas - 95
Aretha Franklin - 69
Zsa Zsa Gabor - 94
James Garner - 83
Robin Gibb - 62
Billy Graham - 93
Andy Griffith - 85
Larry Hagaman - 80 (Dallas, I Dream of Jeannie)
Merle Haggard - 75
Etta James - 73
Russel Johnson - 87 (Gilligan's Island)
Ke$ha - 24
Larry King - 78
Harper Lee - 85
Jerry Lewis - 85
Lindsay Lohan - 25
Courtney Love - 47
Rose Marie - 85
Penny Marshal - 69
Taylor Momson - 18
Peter O'Toole - 79
Joe Paterno - 85
Prince Philip - 90
Nancy Reagan - 90
Carl Reiner - 89
Keith Richards - 68
Mickey Rooney - 91
Charlie Sheen - 46
Margaret Thatcher - 86

Awards Season! The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Dresses

Anyone who knows me knows I am a huge fan of all things Hollywood.  And this comes to even more of a frenzy during awards season.  So, when I missed the first half of the Golden Globes the other night I was shocked and slightly embarrassed for myself.  I even forgot to set the dvr!  Who am I anymore?  I don't even know.

That said, I think the Golden Globes is my favorite awards show because it combines both tv and movies.  Now, just becasue they are my favorite doesn't mean they are flawless.  Take last night, for example...

The awards show was somewhat predictable.  Does Meryl really deserve that award or is it just the easy pick.  That woman is one of the most overrated women in Hollywood.  Stop just handing her the awards!  Last night, Viola Davis should have won the Globe for her performance in The Help but, with the almighty Meryl in her category, she was shut down.  That said, Meryl's hair was cute.  Her dress, not so much.  It looked like she as at a barn dance, not a swanky awards show.

PROBLEM WITH AWARDS SHOWS #1: The same people ALWAYS win.

Now, that's not to say that the right people don't not win.  Look at Octavia Spencer winning for her perforance in the help.  Totally deserved.

In addition, I want to give my congratulations to The Artist.  I really want to see that movie and you most likely deserved the awards because it looks like an amazing movie.

 HOWEVER, and I have said this before...

PROBLEM WITH AWARDS SHOWS #2: COMEDY AND MUSICAL SHOULD NOT BE GROUPED TOGETHER!

There were some amazing comedy movies that were VERY deserving of awards but comedies never win when there is a musical in the category as well.  They are completely different art forms and deserve different categories.  There is a reason animated movies are seperate.  THEY ARE DIFFERENT.  So let's put the two in their own categories, or even put musical in with drama because they are closer in form in my thinking than comedies, because Bridesmaids and 50/50 really deserved some love last night too.

 

Moving on, the TV categories.  New Girl SHOULD have won last night, as well as Zooey Deschanel for her amazing performance in the series...

...but they were overtaken by shows on channels like HBO and Showtime.  This is one injustice that really annoys me.  Great for Laura Dern, great for Peter Dinklage, I'm glad Matt LeBlanc finally got his award, but COME ON! 

Cable tv and regular tv are NOT the same!  First off, there's the difference in money.  Look at how much more cash goes into the cable shows like Boardwalk Empire.  In addition, there's the difference in ratings!  Cable shows can get away with a lot more cussing, violence, sex, and other crap that regular tv shows can not.  They are completely different entities and should be judged as such.

PROBLEM WITH AWARDS SHOWS #2:  CABLE TV AND REGULAR TV SHOULD NOT BE IN THE SAME CATEGORIES!!!

How could you not give an award to that face...

 

Moving away from myy negative opinions, let's look at my favorite parts of the night starting with.... COLIN FIRTH!!!!

Anything with Colin Firth in it is good for me. 

Also, so jealous of Meryl in THIS moment...

And, added bonus of the night... Zooey brought her sister as her date.  Emily Deschanel love!!!

BEST DRESSED AND HAIR

Emma Stone

Shailene Woodley

Sofia Vergara

Claire Danes

Viola Davis

Sarah Hyland

Diana Argon

Tina Fey

Natalie Portman

Julie Bowen

Jessica Alba

Rooney Mara

Helen Mirran

Charlize Theron

BEST HAIR

Reese Witherspoon

Charlize Theron

Zooey Deschanel (It took me a little bit to decide but I do like this one.)

George Clooney and Stacy Keibler

TRENDS I LOVE!

Glittery Headbands

 

YELLOW!

Tiers - Props to those who can pull it off.

WORST DRESSED

Tilda Swinton

Sarah Michelle Geller

Lea Michele

Julianna Margulies

The Life and Times of My Stomach

I have been blessed in my life so far to be pretty much food allergy free.   Thank goodness because I eat like a grade schooler.  My favorite foods are pizza, mac n cheese, grilled cheese, those old school cheap-o fruit snacks, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and the like.

That's not to say I don't have more "sophisticated" tastes as well.  I'm all about the salmon, chicken marsala, and other "adult" foods.  I assume they are adult foods because kids eat things like fish sticks not grown-up salmon.  Right?

And I must admit that since high school I haven't done that well with fried foods in restaurants much to the dismay of my food loving friend, Beth.  But other than that I could eat pretty much anything.

However... bum, bum, BUM!.... over the last couple months, things have changed.  After eating (so most of the time) I have had stomach cramps and felt just not that great.  I mean, it has been to the point where I don't want to eat things.  Not even brownies.  And that is a travesty!

So, I finally, after much procrastinating, dragging of my feet, complaining to friends who convince me to make a doctor's appointment only to hear a week later that I still haven't called, made the appointment.

And, horror of horrors, the doctor took dairy out of my diet for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!  Do you know how hard it is for a girl who has a glass of milk a day, loves cheese, ice cream, cheesecake, cupcakes, cookies, lasagna, not to mention the above mentioned mac n cheese, grilled cheese, pizza, and generally anything with milk and cheese in it, to give up dairy completely for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!?!

Do you know how many products have milk in them?  A lot!  Pretty much everything!  Bread, a lot of dry cereals, pancakes, mashed potatoes, butter, pizza, mac n cheese, all the other foods I mentioned before.  So this has been pretty hard on me because I love food.  I mean, I LOVE food.  Sometimes one of the lady's at work and I will just sit there and talk about food.  It's been very hard giving it up.

Needless to say, I've cheated a couple of times.  I mean, how much can a couple slices of pizza bother me, right?  The answer, a lot more than I realized.  While I've been on this two week non-dairy clense, I have been feeling better (most of the time).  So when I decided to partake in the cheesy goodness that is pizza I felt glorious and vindicated. Take that non-dairy diet!  I'll eat whatever I want!  Until two hours later when I was rolling around on the floor clutching my stomach in agony.  And that was only a slight exagerattion.  I wasn't rolling on the floor.  I was in the chair.

Anyway, yesterday I had my follow-up appointment to see how this new boring food diet was going.  And since there were still times when I was on my non-dairy diet (and I really wasn't even cheating) that I still got/felt sick/bad/uncomfortable my doctor decided to take some of my blood (and it wasn't even a hot vampire taking my blood, just a middle-aged lady) and do a celiac test to see if I have a gluten allergy.

She's apparently going to try different diet changing means and blood tests on me before she tries "more invasive" tests.  I'll let you just imagine what that all entails.

But, on the upside, for Thanksgiving my doctor wants me to try to take some imodium before eating a meal that would usually give me problems to see if it helps to alleviate some or all of the issues.  So, on doctor's orders, I must eat mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and other foods that have dairy in them.  And that's what I'm thankful for this year.

Chicago Here I Come!

Tomorrow is Shelly's and my fourth annual Chicago Shopping Trip! I am so excited to take a day to walk around Chicago and shop with one of my favorite people. We've been going on an early November shopping trip every year since we both graduated and never see each other except for a couple times a year so I really treasure the day.

A really old picture of me and Shelly with Jayme because I just realized I

have no recent ones with just the two of us.  This must be rectified.

Every year I get a little braver about the trip as well. The first year I rode the Amtrak up from Bloomington and met Shel at Union Station in Chicago where she had arrived earlier on the metra. The next year I drove up to her apartment in New Lennox and we had breakfast and headed in on the metra. The next year I met her at her place in Lisle and we again rode the metra. (PS The Metra freaking rocks. It's so easy and inexpensive. My sister and I have also driven up and taken the metra from New Lennox or Lisle for a Cubs game and a concert so we didn't have to worry about parking or the fact that neither of us have ever driven in Chicago before.)

But this year is different. This year Shelly lives IN Chicago and I am going to be driving all the way up to her place in the city which she says is really easy to get to and not too busy trafficwise. We'll see. Either way I am excited and a little scared for a new driving adventure. I tend to get nervous around bigger cities but have driven on interstates through Atlanta (that really broke me in), Memphis, Scranton, Erie, and Nashville. I have also driven IN Indianapolis (downtown) with the directional help of Jayme and the GPS. I'm excited to see how I do with Chicago.

Atlanta Traffic

Whenever I do get there, Shel and I will be jumping on a bus, then transfering to the L and heading first to some awesome 25% off sales at H2O. 

Then we'll have to see where Chicago takes us next.  We will most likely hit up Water Tower Place

sometime during the course of the day and maybe head to Nordstrom's Outlet.  And we will hopefully find some really great deals.  I'm excited!

"And we're back!"

Fall TV is officially back in session!  This is like school being back in session but much more fun and entertaining.  Also no homework.   Unless you miss a class, I mean episode.

And of course, with good tv shows coming back on the air, there is also the addition of a lot of new and awesome shows.

With DVR I can now watch two things that are on at the same time!  I love TV technology.  So, while watching one show I can record the other one I wanted to watch at the same time.  This works out wonderfully except on Monday nights when there were 3 things on I wanted to watch.

So, I am unveiling my fall tv schedule to you.  What I watch is regular type, DVRed is italics, wish I could watch but is apparently impossible except for online is in gray.  I've also marked the ones I'm not hooked on with  "trial" after the name.  We'll have to see how they go.  Midseason start shows are in blue.  My favs and the ones I'm most excited about are in uppercase and with an exclamation point for added excitement (as you do).  #organization  PS All times are for Central timezone.


MONDAY
7 - 9 pm - Dancing With The Stars (ABC)
7 - 7:30 pm - How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
7:30 - 8 pm - 2 Broke Girls (CBS) - trial
7 - 8 pm - Terra Nova (FOX)
9 - 10 pm - CASTLE! (ABC)

TUESDAY
7 - 8 pm - Glee (FOX)
8 - 8:30 pm - NEW GIRL! (FOX)
8:30 - 9 pm - Raising Hope (FOX)
8 - 9 pm - Dancing With The Stars Results (ABC)

WEDNESDAY
7 - 7:30 pm - Up All Night (NBC) - trial
8:30 - 9 pm - Cougartown! (ABC) 
9 - 9:30 pm - Modern Family (ABC)


THURSDAY
8 - 9 pm - BONES! (FOX)
8 - 9 pm - Person of Interest (CBS) - watching until Bones starts on #Nobember 3rd
8 - 9 pm - Project Runway (Lifetime) - hopefully it ends before Bones starts...
9 - 9:30 pm - 30 Rock! (NBC)

FRIDAY
8 - 9 PM - Grimm (NBC) - trial
8 - 9 PM - Supernatural (CW) - Don't have the channel.  Sad face.

SATURDAY
Who watches tv on Saturday?  Saturdays are movie days or catch up days if anything.


SUNDAY
7 - 8 pm - Once Upon A Time (ABC) - trial
9 - 10 pm - Pan Am (ABC) - trial


So that's my schedule.  I pretty much DVR everything just in case and then play catch-up on weekends and Wednesdays or whenever I decide to stay up late.  And with this crazy tv schedule I have less time for movies so I have to be pretty picky about what I watch otherwise load down with movies on long weekends and try to catch up.  I know I'm crazy and a giant movie/tv nerd but I love it.

I know I'm a blog slacker but every time I think about posting something on here I can't think of what to write.  What do I really want to share with my nonexistent followers?  Is my life really that important?  What do I actually care about enough to share my thoughts and opinions on?

And while I know the happenings in my life don't really matter in the grand scheme of blog life I still keep this blog going.  Why, I don't know.  And maybe I don't have anything to share because I don't have anything big or important going on in my life.

I've noticed that in the last couple of months I have been a lot less involved in the tech world.  I really only log on to places like twitter or facebook and update via my phone.  At night I read, watch movies or tv shows, and sit around.  Maybe it's the effects of losing Zoe.  Maybe it's a bit of a depression but I don't know.  I just don't have anything worth sharing. 

Or maybe I'm just tired and missing my kitty today.

So, Grandma.

This post is going to be dedicated completely to Grandma and the big changes that are coming up.

First things first. She has a boyfriend. This makes me feel pretty pathetic since my grandmother has a better love life than I do. So, yeah, grandma has a boyfriend. He's a guy she went to school for 4 years with some 60-70 odd years ago. Since then she has had no contact with this man. Until this year that is....

Apparently, they reconnected via facebook and after grandma visiting down there twice she has decided to move in with him ("This modern generation").

So, coming to a Texas town near you this July... my grandma.

Anyway, this all came as quite the shock to me. I mean, grandma has been around here and less than half an hour away for the entirety of my life. So her moving some 800 miles away is kind of a big deal.

I know I should be happy for her, and I am. I'm glad she's found someone to keep company with and pal around with (that may be putting it too lightly) but part of me feels very wary about the entire situation. First of all, it's happening so quickly! They met via facebook in January, say each other for a couple of hours in May, and then grandma visited for two weeks in June. And now she's moving across the country to be with him. I know she's 83 and that she probably can't give it all the time that someone my age can but I still don't like the whole situation.

Secondly, we have really no clue who this guy is! We know just a little about him and have never actually seen a current photo. He's going to be coming up to take her back so we'll see him then but really, that doesn't really count. We'll have one dinner to meet and get to know him and then he's whisking her down to Texas to live with him. I don't know. It's weird.

Thirdly, it really annoys me that he wanted her to sell her condo and move down there. It almost feels like he's going to swallow her identity. He seems to want her to drop all things currently in her life and glean onto his. He doesn't even really understand closer families so I'm not sure even how often we'll see her.

Which brings me to number four... she's 83! How often am I going to get to see my grandma again in my life. It feels like she's kind of leaving us a little right now. Like we're losing her. And I guess that's the biggest problem of all.

I just don't know. I'm torn.