McCain has 7 houses. So?

I'm no McCain fan, but please tell me why I should vote based on how many houses the man has? Just because a person is wealthy doesn't mean he's done something illegal to get/keep the wealth, nor does it make him morally corrupt. Yes, perhaps he doesn't completely understand what the average person goes through, but he's definitely had hardships in his life and is not some spoiled grown-up kid.

I hate how so many of us have this attitude that the wealthy should give all their money away and only buy what they really need. Well, most of us buy more than what we really need. People buy houses that are much bigger than they "need," but they WANT those big houses, new cars, etc.

Food meme

Snagged from Ottermatic's blog:

Bold what you’ve eaten and strike through what you would never eat.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Mwahahahaha!

I somehow got Tim watching the Olympics with me last night. He is not into sports at all, and usually if I'm watching sports he goes back into the other room to watch Sci-Fi Channel or something. Last night, I came home and turned on the Olympics and sat down to eat the dinner I just made. (We have no dining room, so we are bad and eat in the livingroom.) He comes in to join me and watches volleyball, gymnastics, and track & field. About halfway through the evening, he says, "How the heck did you get me out here watching this?" Well, I laughed and thought that was his way of saying he was leaving, but he ended up watching them until they ended at Midnight. I told him that all I did was turn on the TV and he's the one who sat there, and that now he knows how easy it is to get drawn into this stuff. If you watch just a little gymnastics, you want to see the rest to see how it ends, right?

Movie meme update

Well, looks like I have a few movie quotes left from my earlier movie meme that need to be identified. I was happy to that most of them were recognized. The leftover quotes are:

6. Ladies and gentlemen, I have been to the Great Wall of China, I have seen the Pyramids of Egypt, I've even witnessed a grown man satisfy a camel. But never in all my years as a sportscaster have I witnessed something as improbable, as impossible, as what we've witnessed here today!

That was from the commentator named Cotton at the end of the match in Dodgeball.


12. Now, you listen to me, Mr. Grand High Poobah of Upper Buttcrack, I'm just about half-past give a shit with your fun and games.

That was one of my favorite lines by Kathy Bates in Delores Claiborne.

Olympics and body image

On the cusp of the last post, I wanted to post something about the Olympics and body image. I'm sure men go through this just like women do, but since I'm not a man I'm only going to go by my perspective.

As much as I absolutely love the Olympics and the athletic ability of the Olympians, I think it's important for us to realize what they go through to have those bodies -- mainly talking about the swimmers, as that was my sport. There seems to be a train of thought out there that all women who are 41 can be in the same shape as Dara Torres, or that younger women can look like some of the other swimmers. Don't get me wrong, Dara is AMAZING and this is NOT a knock on her in any way. However, most 41-year-olds have jobs. Dara's full-time job is swimming, and most women can't swim full-time.

I bring this up because of something that happened a few years ago, something I'd mostly forgotten about until I was watching the swimming again. A few years back, when I was on yet another diet trying to practically starve myself and swim my pounds away, I had a conversation with my older (and wiser) sister. I said I'd taped a picture of Olympic swimmer Amy VanDyken to my fridge because that's the body I wanted and thought I could achieve if I ate right and worked hard enough in the pool. Maureen is silent (on the phone) for a minute, then says, "So, your goal is to look like an Olympian gold-medal winner, and you think this is realistic?" Up until then, I hadn't looked at it that way and that really helped me realize how I was completely unrealistic with that goal. I was in my 30s, worked two jobs at the time, and didn't look like that at my peak performance when I was 18. But somehow I felt I could have Amy's body.

At that point, I could almost hear an audible "click" in my head when I realized how unrealistic I was being. Since then, I've slowly become more comfortable with my body and feel pretty good. I'm fat, yes, but I haven't eaten so well in years. I eat well, don't count calories or any of that stuff that leads me to become incredibly obsessed with food. I currently have different foods to choose from in the fridge -- yesterday I made some rice with edamame and chili made with lean ground turkey and white kidney beans. I have some fruit in there, veggies, chicken to cook, stuff like that. And yes, I had some Pillsbury crescent rolls and I have a little pint of ice cream in the fridge. So sue me, lol.

Olympics - possible spoiler

...although if you haven't heard this by now I'd be shocked. :) Yay, Michael Phelps got his eight medals! I was so thrilled for him last night. Some people seem to be bothered by the hype around this because some of his medals were due to relays. Yes, that's the way these things go. But, if I recall correctly, five of the golds were individual medals and he always gives credit to his relay teammates -- always. Let's give him his due.

What an amazing week in the pool! I knew it would be, but not by this much -- 20 world records broken! They said this was more than the 18 combined broken records in the last two Olympics. I laughed when Dara Torres said she shouldn't have filed her nails before her race that she lost by 1/100th of a second -- same amount by which Phelps won that crazy 100m butterfly race. She was amazing. I really wanted her to win individual gold for herself, but winning the silver is amazing. Her sportsmanship says a lot about who she is.

The all-around gymnastics ended the way it should have, but I would have been ticked if it hadn't. There was definitely something weird going on with the scoring -- I don't know what, but there were some scores that were a lot higher than they should have been, and a lot that were lower. I suppose this always happens, but it's frustrating to see. In the end, it all worked out and I was thrilled for Nastia and Shawn.

So, I probably won't be watching as much this next week, except diving. My main interests in these games has always been swimming and gymnastics because those were two sports I was good at as a kid and young adult.

Fun movie meme

Snagged this from Fatistician's blog. It's a fun movie meme. Some of mine are pretty easy, I think, but they are favorites of mine from those movies. No. 1 makes me cry a little, lol.

1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions.
5. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.

1. Cathy got this one (Shawshank Redemption)
I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man...felt free.

2. Jennifer got this one. (The Usual Suspects)
After that my guess is that you will never hear from him again. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist. And like that... he is gone.

3. Annette got this one. (LA Confidential)
Get me some narco skinny. I want to do an all-hophead issue. You know, schwartze jazz musicians and movie stars. You like it?

4. Annette got this one. (LOTR: Return of the King)
Bad idea. Very handy in a tight spot, these lads, despite the fact they're dead.

5. Jennifer got this one (Office Space)
And I said, I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting, I'm going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were married, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire...

6. Ladies and gentlemen, I have been to the Great Wall of China, I have seen the Pyramids of Egypt, I've even witnessed a grown man satisfy a camel. But never in all my years as a sportscaster have I witnessed something as improbable, as impossible, as what we've witnessed here today!

7. Jennifer got this one (Wedding Crashers)
I'd like to be cowboys from Arizona or pimps from Oakland but it's not Halloween. Grow up; Peter Pan, Count Chocula.

8. Shinobi got this one. (Transformers)
And you didn't think that the United States Military might need to know that you're keeping a hostile alien robot frozen in the basement?

9. Shinobi got this one. (King Arthur)
I came to see your face so that I alone may find you on the battlefield. And it will be good of you to mark my face, Saxon, for the next time you see it, it will be the last thing you see on this earth.

10. Dianne got this one (A Mighty Wind)
I had a garage band in Stockholm, which was a challenge in its own right, to keep an instrument tuned with that temperature swing. There's a block warmer for the Volvo in the garage but it's cold in there in the winter. So we played and I had a hit that you might have heard of. "Hur ?r l?get, lilla gumman?" which means, "How's It Hanging, Grandma?" and it was big on the Swedish charts.

11. Shinobi got this one. (Drop Dead Gorgeous)
Oh, Yeah, Frida, sure. She was the oldest living Lutheran. Now she's dead as a doornail. It's them damn Shriner's, won't take down the God damn sign the lazy sons of bitches. Every year, every damn year I tell them, "Take down the God damn Frida sign, you lazy sons of bitches!"

12. Now, you listen to me, Mr. Grand High Poobah of Upper Buttcrack, I'm just about half-past give a shit with your fun and games.

13. Shinobi got this one. (Batman Begins)
You have learned to bury your guilt with anger. I will teach you to confront it, and to face the truth. You know how to fight six men. We can teach you how to engage six hundred. You know how to disappear. We can teach you to become truly invisible.

14. Dianne got this one (Chicago)
I don't mean to toot my own horn, but if Jesus Christ lived in Chicago today, and he had come to me and he had five thousand dollars, let's just say things would have turned out differently.

15. Shinobi got this one. (V for Vendetta)
I remember how the meaning of words began to change. How unfamiliar words like "collateral" and "rendition" became frightening, while things like Norsefire and the Articles of Allegiance became powerful. I remember how "different" became dangerous. I still don't understand it, why they hate us so much.

Startling news! Fat people may not die tomorrow!

I've been saying this for a long time, as have many others -- like MoPie over at Big Fat Deal, where I saw this link: Half of overweight adults may be heart-healthy. The other side of that is about half of the people who are thin have the problems so many consider "fat people diseases."

The intro:

You can look great in a swimsuit and still be a heart attack waiting to happen. And you can also be overweight and otherwise healthy. A new study suggests that a surprising number of overweight people — about half — have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels, while an equally startling number of trim people suffer from some of the ills associated with obesity.

In other news, water is wet. I guess I should be glad the media is saying something, although those who believe anyone without a flat stomach is going to die in five minutes probably won't be changing their minds.

Someone is trying to make trouble

I saw an article on MSNBC about fake fireworks at the opening ceremony of the Olympics Friday night. I thought perhaps everything was faked, but apparently it's just the footprints. Hello! Bob Costas made it clear during the broadcast that those were computer-generated, not real.

I think it's irresponsible to raise a huge fuss about this when it's not news and China was not trying to pull something on the TV viewers. I feel like people are puroposefully trying to be deceptive. I know, what else is new, but it's not right.

Olympic Spoiler

That men's 4x100 relay was SO AWESOME!!!!!!

I love seeing trash-talkers get their comeuppance. It has nothing to do with what country it's coming from, I didn't like Gary Hall, Jr.'s nonsense either.

I was so tired, keeping myself up to watch that relay. Now I'm wide awake because of it, lol. This is why I love swimming and loved it when I used to do it (nothing ever remotely close to this, of course).

WAHOO!!!!!!!!!

Will note Olympic spoilers

We were discussing posting about the Olympics on a message board and someone mentioned noting spoilers so people in Central and Western US (and other places) know not to read. I'm going to post what I want to post in my blog when I want to post it, but I will note in the title something about Olympic spoilers so if people see that in the title they are warned.

Trying to be thoughtful of others, but I also don't feel I need to wait to post stuff forever on my own blog. :)

Why I like Keira Knightley

I meant to link to this post at 5 Resolutions earlier, but forgot. Basically, it's about Keira Knightley refusing to allow any retouching of her breasts in publicity photos for her upcoming movie The Duchess. She won some money from a tabloid that basically blamed her for a young girl who died of anorexia, and she donated that money to an eating disorders charity.

I've always thought she was a great actress, taking on adult roles while other women her age were still doing teeny-bopper movies. I've hated how everyone gets on her case because she's thin. After reading these things about her, I can guarantee that her movies will continue to get my money, and I will pay the ridiculous amount my theater charges to see them.

Phelps got off to a great start!

So, Phelps has his first gold medal. Yay! I really want to see him win all eight. I also think it was cool that the Korean swimmer won a gold, especially after DQing back in 2004.

I wonder how many Americans are already up in arms about The Star-Spangled Banner. The beginning was weird, and it was cut off at the end. I guess we're the land of the free but not the home of the brave, lol. Seriously though, I'm sure the kinks will be worked out and if Phelps and President Bush can laugh it off, I sure can. :)

Fun play on names

Snagged this from Diary of a Skinny Girl


YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)
Bessina Corolla

YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
M.Bog (half the time that's how people pronounce my last name, anyway)

YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Red Cat

YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Jane Penn Yan

YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)
Bogmi

SUPERHERO NAME: ("The" + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
The Purple Yuengling

NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
Warren Clare

STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)
Haiku Raisinets

WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names)
Elizabeth Miller

TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)
Miles Minneapolis

SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flower)
Autumn Morning Glory

CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Blueberry Pajamy

HIPPIE NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)
Blueberry Maple

YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”)
The Cross Stitch Breeze Tour

Curse you, YouTube!

Well, not really. I just keep finding more and more of these great Muppet videos. Enjoy!


Muppets sing "Stars and Stripes Forever"




Muppets sing "Danny Boy"



Oh boy, oh boy.

Little accomplishments make a difference

Nothing huge, but I have to celebrate that I accomplished a little goal I had for the week -- only going to Starbucks on Friday, then getting whatever the heck I want. This is part of my goal of paying off my debts, but I also know that I can't do without completely. So, I didn't go all week and this morning got a small lite mocha mint frappuccino with half the usual amount of whipped cream. Yummy! It was a great treat, and I like the lite version better -- the heavy version is just too sweet.

I plan on keeping this up as long as possible. I have a lot of different kinds of teas and have been drinking that instead. It's cheaper and probably better for me, and I love getting that frappuccino as a treat on Friday.

So, this week I saved about $13 I normally would have spent on coffee drinks, which comes to about $52 a month. :)