I was at work, sitting on break, flipping through a tabloid magazine to keep myself entertained. I can usually make it through an entire magazine in 15 minutes to get all that I want out of it on one break. I generally skip through the ads, but one in particular caught my attention a short while back. I was amazed that someone actually took the time to advertise that they were selling these. What was it? Wait for it...
"Designer" feminine products.
I would say that I saw it wrong, that no one would actually invent this, but someone did. Pads with patterns on them, and tampons in brightly colored applicators. Really? I really wish I could the inventor what on earth was going on in his or head (but I am assuming probably his) head when they came up with these.
"Anyone have an ideas for a new product?"
"I'd imagine that special time of the month would be so much more fun and exciting if a lady could bleed on a picture of flowers instead of a plain old, boring, no-fun pad."
"That's a great idea. Let's do it!"
Do these people seriously think someone's crotch is going to get so bored that they want to look at a pretty picture? Nethers don't have eyeballs, folks. I wonder if the dude that invented this is related to the genius that invented bras with patterns on the insides of the cups. If my chest or privates are that bored, maybe they should print the insides of bras and feminine products with Shakespeare or Calculus so at least those areas can learn something if they are that bored.
Meanwhile, the smarty that invented these is probably laughing all the way to the bank, while I am working retail, touching used toilets seats, dead fish, and sweaty worn clothes at the returns desk.
-duckyone
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Hot summer!
I don't really like the summer. Hot weather, tornado sirens, beach sand, humidity- ugh! Not really my thing. I'd be okay if the temperature never got above 75F. Alas, it hit 100F last week- on my birthday, no less- so I've been sort of melty and pitiful lately.
I am content to sit inside the house and relax on the couch or play with Curly Girly. Of course, she wants to go outside every day and stay out there for over an hour until I drag her in because I start sweating in places I didn't know I could sweat from. In fact, I think I may have grown extra body parts just so they can sweat too. :(
Apparently, there are actually people out there that like hot weather. Apparently almost everyone else beside me. So here we go, a song about it:
Yes, I am aware it's not in English. (It's in Korean, in case you are wondering.) It's called "Hot Summer" and the group is F(x). I like their songs, they are catchy. If life were colorful and un-sweaty like this music video, I might tolerate summer a little more. Thank goodness for air conditioning and popsicles in the real world!
-duckyone.
I am content to sit inside the house and relax on the couch or play with Curly Girly. Of course, she wants to go outside every day and stay out there for over an hour until I drag her in because I start sweating in places I didn't know I could sweat from. In fact, I think I may have grown extra body parts just so they can sweat too. :(
Apparently, there are actually people out there that like hot weather. Apparently almost everyone else beside me. So here we go, a song about it:
Yes, I am aware it's not in English. (It's in Korean, in case you are wondering.) It's called "Hot Summer" and the group is F(x). I like their songs, they are catchy. If life were colorful and un-sweaty like this music video, I might tolerate summer a little more. Thank goodness for air conditioning and popsicles in the real world!
-duckyone.
Friday, February 11, 2011
I'm still here!
Yes, I'm still here! I watch too much tv and yet I have nothing too exciting to post about TV-wise. Wednesday nights I watch "Toddlers & Tiaras" with my sister, sort of. She lives in another state, but we confer over Facebook chat about the general zaniness of the show.
I think I might have more to say about tv once Playhouse Disney switches to Disney Junior. They have been building up hype for about 3 months, but I think it's going to be a letdown. We'll see. They have 3 new shows: Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Tinga Tinga Tales, and a Babar cartoon. The pirate show looks a little too mature for toddlers, Tinga Tinga Tales is a show about African tales, and the animation for some reason looks very stereotypically "African." I hope the stories are better than the animation. Babar is Babar, I've never seen him before but he's an institution- he looks cool enough. They have 3 new short segments too, "A Poem Is..." which looks cool except the voice in the ad sounds Joan Cusack-ish, and not in a good way, "Oso's 3 Healthy Steps," which my daughter will like and I will be annoyed by, and "Mouskercise," which I am sort of curious about. It looks like most of the lineup will be the same, except that "My Friends Tigger and Pooh" has been phased out and "Little Einsteins" seems banished to early mornings and holidays. "Charlie and Lola" disappeared a few months back too, much to the rejoice on my husband, even though I thought it was cute.
I was watching The Bachelor but it's turned out to be pretty lame and boring. I watched the auditions of American Idol, which are funny and really the only exciting and entertaining part. I've been mostly watching a lot of Disney Channel and way too much Elmo, as usual.
And in real life, things are going quite normally. I'm still working part time and spending the majority time with my daughter. My husband is still working from home, which has turned out really well for us so far. It's winter in the boonies, so it was getting pretty cold last week, with -35F wind chills at night. For now, it's warmed up a little, to the 30s and 40s, so I'm thankful for that. My daughter, Curly Girly, is doing really well- being cute, learning a lot of words, being a typical toddler. She recently learned to jump, which is super adorable!
And in internet life, I've cashed out for Amazon gift cards on Swagbucks.com, iRazoo.com, and Zoombucks.com in the past week or so, ($5 on Swagbucks and iRazoo, $20 on Zoombucks), so I am raking in some nice $ to start off the year! I am saving for a new iPod Touch so hopefully I will have enough before my birthday in June. :)
Well, hopefully I'll have something exciting to ramble on about soon. Anything is more exciting than Disney Junior!
-duckyone.
I think I might have more to say about tv once Playhouse Disney switches to Disney Junior. They have been building up hype for about 3 months, but I think it's going to be a letdown. We'll see. They have 3 new shows: Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Tinga Tinga Tales, and a Babar cartoon. The pirate show looks a little too mature for toddlers, Tinga Tinga Tales is a show about African tales, and the animation for some reason looks very stereotypically "African." I hope the stories are better than the animation. Babar is Babar, I've never seen him before but he's an institution- he looks cool enough. They have 3 new short segments too, "A Poem Is..." which looks cool except the voice in the ad sounds Joan Cusack-ish, and not in a good way, "Oso's 3 Healthy Steps," which my daughter will like and I will be annoyed by, and "Mouskercise," which I am sort of curious about. It looks like most of the lineup will be the same, except that "My Friends Tigger and Pooh" has been phased out and "Little Einsteins" seems banished to early mornings and holidays. "Charlie and Lola" disappeared a few months back too, much to the rejoice on my husband, even though I thought it was cute.
I was watching The Bachelor but it's turned out to be pretty lame and boring. I watched the auditions of American Idol, which are funny and really the only exciting and entertaining part. I've been mostly watching a lot of Disney Channel and way too much Elmo, as usual.
And in real life, things are going quite normally. I'm still working part time and spending the majority time with my daughter. My husband is still working from home, which has turned out really well for us so far. It's winter in the boonies, so it was getting pretty cold last week, with -35F wind chills at night. For now, it's warmed up a little, to the 30s and 40s, so I'm thankful for that. My daughter, Curly Girly, is doing really well- being cute, learning a lot of words, being a typical toddler. She recently learned to jump, which is super adorable!
And in internet life, I've cashed out for Amazon gift cards on Swagbucks.com, iRazoo.com, and Zoombucks.com in the past week or so, ($5 on Swagbucks and iRazoo, $20 on Zoombucks), so I am raking in some nice $ to start off the year! I am saving for a new iPod Touch so hopefully I will have enough before my birthday in June. :)
Well, hopefully I'll have something exciting to ramble on about soon. Anything is more exciting than Disney Junior!
-duckyone.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Happy 2011
Happy New Year....a whole bunch of days late!
Honestly, there's not much going on right now, so I don't have much to ramble about. My favorite shows aren't on right now. My life is pretty normal and boring at the moment. Two of the shows I like (America's Next Top Model and The Amazing Race) start up next month, I think, so I'll probably give my 2 cents about that.
Right now, I've been watching The Bachelor (trainwreck) and Toddlers & Tiaras (even bigger trainwreck). Actually, The Bachelor is pretty lame and tame compared to Toddlers & Tiaras! Those little tiny 2 and 3 year old beauty pageant contestants- getting spray tans, fake hair, and $1000 dresses- it's crazy! I saw a mom on last week's episode who gave her 4 year old 10 Pixy Stix and about a can of soda because the poor girl wasn't energetic enough! And one dad mentioned that his daughter was a product. Classy, isn't it? But I can't stop watching! Next week, one of the little girls brings a PONY on stage! I so have to watch that!
In my normal, boring, average life, I accidentally taught my 2 year old to say "stupid cat" last week. She's officially in her "parrot" phase and repeats near everything we say. She did let me finally put her hair into a ponytail, which was totally cute!
Hopefully I'll have something awesome to blog about soon! Happy New Year everyone!
-duckyone.
Honestly, there's not much going on right now, so I don't have much to ramble about. My favorite shows aren't on right now. My life is pretty normal and boring at the moment. Two of the shows I like (America's Next Top Model and The Amazing Race) start up next month, I think, so I'll probably give my 2 cents about that.
Right now, I've been watching The Bachelor (trainwreck) and Toddlers & Tiaras (even bigger trainwreck). Actually, The Bachelor is pretty lame and tame compared to Toddlers & Tiaras! Those little tiny 2 and 3 year old beauty pageant contestants- getting spray tans, fake hair, and $1000 dresses- it's crazy! I saw a mom on last week's episode who gave her 4 year old 10 Pixy Stix and about a can of soda because the poor girl wasn't energetic enough! And one dad mentioned that his daughter was a product. Classy, isn't it? But I can't stop watching! Next week, one of the little girls brings a PONY on stage! I so have to watch that!
In my normal, boring, average life, I accidentally taught my 2 year old to say "stupid cat" last week. She's officially in her "parrot" phase and repeats near everything we say. She did let me finally put her hair into a ponytail, which was totally cute!
Hopefully I'll have something awesome to blog about soon! Happy New Year everyone!
-duckyone.
Friday, December 31, 2010
The mysterious empty box
So if you saw my previous post of Twitter parties, you may have been skeptical about whether or not I am actually getting the prizes. I can tell you that in the last two months since I started going to Twitter parties, I have recieved exercise pants, several toys, coupons for food and diapers (a whole box of diapers for free, woo!) , and gift cards. The largest value thing I won was a $100 gift card!
I do have to mention, though, that I had my first bummer experience. I won a toy. It looked cool, and I was curious about how it worked. They sent me a message saying I'd get my prize in mid-December (I think I won it at the end of November). I went to work on Christmas Eve, and when I returned home, my husband told me that FedEx had dropped off a package for me. From his description of the box size, I figured it was the toy I had won. But when I got home, all I found was an empty box!
To call it a box was being nice. It was actually a giant piece of cardboard, folded in half, and the three open sides were taped shut with packing tape. I'm assuming it's difficult to find a box in the size they needed, but I figured it was possible. Maybe not! Anyhow, I looked at the return address and decided that the toy had indeed been in the "box" at one point. I was a little bummed out, but mostly amused at how both the delivery guy and my husband could have the box without realizing that it was just cardboard and nothing else.
My husband called FedEx and they were really nice, said they'd get a claim started and that someone would call early the next week. They called the following Monday morning (impressive!) but we were sleeping so they left a message saying they just needed to know a little more information about the problem. So my husband called them back, told them that no one had noticed that it was just a tapey slab of cardboard until I got home and looked at it. At that point, they basically said that due to the way it was packaged, they were denying the claim and to talk to the people who sent the package.
I got on Twitter, contacted the people, and they got back to me fairly quickly (nice!) and they asked me to send them a message about what the problem was. I told them we had called FedEx first and what they said, and that all I got was an empty box. They basically told me that they sent the prize, that it wasn't their fault that it wasn't in the box, and that they had no replacement for it because they already gave out too many prizes already.
Basically, I am now the proud owner of a big piece of cardboard. I just hope that whoever got the toy is happy! I'm not mad, not even disappointed really, just boggled about why it's no one's fault. One of my friends did point out, however, that it's my fault for accepting an empty box. So there you have it. It's my husband's fault. :) But like I said, I'm not mad, it was just a prize, not anything I paid for, and nothing I am entitled to.
So there you have it. My sad box story. But I promise, I do get the vast majority of the prizes that I win! Don't let this scare you from attending Twitter parties and entering Twitter contests!
-duckyone.
I do have to mention, though, that I had my first bummer experience. I won a toy. It looked cool, and I was curious about how it worked. They sent me a message saying I'd get my prize in mid-December (I think I won it at the end of November). I went to work on Christmas Eve, and when I returned home, my husband told me that FedEx had dropped off a package for me. From his description of the box size, I figured it was the toy I had won. But when I got home, all I found was an empty box!
To call it a box was being nice. It was actually a giant piece of cardboard, folded in half, and the three open sides were taped shut with packing tape. I'm assuming it's difficult to find a box in the size they needed, but I figured it was possible. Maybe not! Anyhow, I looked at the return address and decided that the toy had indeed been in the "box" at one point. I was a little bummed out, but mostly amused at how both the delivery guy and my husband could have the box without realizing that it was just cardboard and nothing else.
My husband called FedEx and they were really nice, said they'd get a claim started and that someone would call early the next week. They called the following Monday morning (impressive!) but we were sleeping so they left a message saying they just needed to know a little more information about the problem. So my husband called them back, told them that no one had noticed that it was just a tapey slab of cardboard until I got home and looked at it. At that point, they basically said that due to the way it was packaged, they were denying the claim and to talk to the people who sent the package.
I got on Twitter, contacted the people, and they got back to me fairly quickly (nice!) and they asked me to send them a message about what the problem was. I told them we had called FedEx first and what they said, and that all I got was an empty box. They basically told me that they sent the prize, that it wasn't their fault that it wasn't in the box, and that they had no replacement for it because they already gave out too many prizes already.
Basically, I am now the proud owner of a big piece of cardboard. I just hope that whoever got the toy is happy! I'm not mad, not even disappointed really, just boggled about why it's no one's fault. One of my friends did point out, however, that it's my fault for accepting an empty box. So there you have it. It's my husband's fault. :) But like I said, I'm not mad, it was just a prize, not anything I paid for, and nothing I am entitled to.
So there you have it. My sad box story. But I promise, I do get the vast majority of the prizes that I win! Don't let this scare you from attending Twitter parties and entering Twitter contests!
-duckyone.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
This is cool!
I don't really have anything funny or exciting to post. I just thought this was a cool video- beer being filled up through the bottom of cups! People say there's a magnet thingy in the bottom to make it work. I don't care how it works. I just think it's cool.
I don't even drink beer and that's making me thirsty! I wish they had those when I worked in restaurants, it would have made my work day slightly more entertaining. What do you think of this machine?
I hope you all had wonderful holidays. I had a nice, relaxing Christmas, and a not-so-relaxing day after Christmas taking back 100s of returns at work. (I'm not exaggerating either, I easily took back over 200 returns on my own during my shift, and there were several other people working the returns counter too. We easily took back over 1000 returns that day, and that's a lot considering I live in a relatively tiny town.) Tell me how your holidays went!
-duckyone.
I don't even drink beer and that's making me thirsty! I wish they had those when I worked in restaurants, it would have made my work day slightly more entertaining. What do you think of this machine?
I hope you all had wonderful holidays. I had a nice, relaxing Christmas, and a not-so-relaxing day after Christmas taking back 100s of returns at work. (I'm not exaggerating either, I easily took back over 200 returns on my own during my shift, and there were several other people working the returns counter too. We easily took back over 1000 returns that day, and that's a lot considering I live in a relatively tiny town.) Tell me how your holidays went!
-duckyone.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Reality tv week of 12/12
Last week was the final week of The Amazing Race and Hell's Kitchen. But both were so predictable and noneventful that it took me this long to get around to talking about it! Sorry!
*The Amazing Race: The final 3 teams raced back to California, where put together part of a parade float and had issues finding cabbies to take them to their final locations. Of course, this is the one episode that ended up all glitchy on my DVR, but it was so boring that it didn't really matter. Nat and Kat, the doctors, were the winners. Woo. Hoo. The host announced that popular teams that didn't win would be back for next season to try again. They showed clips of a lot of this season's teams, which is pretty midleading because most of them won't be on the next season. The final cast for the next season hasn't been officially announced. However, even though Team Jumba was shown on the teaser, I am pretty sure they didn't compete in the new season. Bummer! That would have been really cool.
*Hell's Kitchen: Russell and Nona were the two finalists. Typical final individual challenge was the two cooks making 5 dishes in an hour and having professional chefs judge them. It was a close challenge but Russell ended up winning that. Then, old castoffs came back to make up the chef teams for the two finalists to make it through their final dinner services. Nona had issues when Boris made something wrong like 3 or 4 times- she told him to cook something for 5 minutes, and even after that he kept cooking it for 4! Russell had problems trying to get Vinny to do much. Vinny wasn't actively trying to derail him, but he wasn't trying too hard to help Russell win either since he felt that Russell was the cause of him going home before the final 6. In the end, Nona won the season and the chance to work at an awesome fancy restaurant, and Russell vowed that none of the other chefs that season would ever work in the same city as him because he'd say bad stuff about them till they turned tail and ran away. Stay classy, Russell.
So anyway, now I have no reality tv to watch, so I guess I won't be doing these for a while. ucky you guys!
-duckyone.
*The Amazing Race: The final 3 teams raced back to California, where put together part of a parade float and had issues finding cabbies to take them to their final locations. Of course, this is the one episode that ended up all glitchy on my DVR, but it was so boring that it didn't really matter. Nat and Kat, the doctors, were the winners. Woo. Hoo. The host announced that popular teams that didn't win would be back for next season to try again. They showed clips of a lot of this season's teams, which is pretty midleading because most of them won't be on the next season. The final cast for the next season hasn't been officially announced. However, even though Team Jumba was shown on the teaser, I am pretty sure they didn't compete in the new season. Bummer! That would have been really cool.
*Hell's Kitchen: Russell and Nona were the two finalists. Typical final individual challenge was the two cooks making 5 dishes in an hour and having professional chefs judge them. It was a close challenge but Russell ended up winning that. Then, old castoffs came back to make up the chef teams for the two finalists to make it through their final dinner services. Nona had issues when Boris made something wrong like 3 or 4 times- she told him to cook something for 5 minutes, and even after that he kept cooking it for 4! Russell had problems trying to get Vinny to do much. Vinny wasn't actively trying to derail him, but he wasn't trying too hard to help Russell win either since he felt that Russell was the cause of him going home before the final 6. In the end, Nona won the season and the chance to work at an awesome fancy restaurant, and Russell vowed that none of the other chefs that season would ever work in the same city as him because he'd say bad stuff about them till they turned tail and ran away. Stay classy, Russell.
So anyway, now I have no reality tv to watch, so I guess I won't be doing these for a while. ucky you guys!
-duckyone.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
I don't want your stupid vacuum!
So I was watching tv and getting ready to change Curly Girly's diaper tonight at 8PM, and my doorbell rang. Who would possibly want to see us at 8 at night? I peek the door open, and I see a guy standing at the door holding a box of baking soda. That's all the tipoff I need to know it's a Kirby salesman, from the Kirby dealership a few streets over. How do I know? They have the same predictable shpiel every time they knock on the door.
1. They offer you a free product. Today apparently it was baking soda, but in the 3 years I have lived here they've been here no fewer than 5 times and have also offered paper towels and tissues.
2. They offer to clean your floor for free.
3. Once in your door they take forever to show off their vacuum, they say that their vacuum gets up way more dirt than any other by taking a white circle and vacuuming against it so the carpet dirt goes onto the pad for you to see it more easily. My husband made the mistake of letting them in once and they also vacuumed part of my mattress apparently. GROSS! At least they put a clean white circle down, I guess.
4. They try to sell you a ridiculously overpriced vacuum. (I've read about people being charged up to $3000 for these stupid things.) Once you say no, they pretend to call their boss to get the price knocked down. I've heard the price being knocked down to as low as $600, which is still way more than I ever want to pay for a vacuum.
So here's what happened tonight.
*ding dong*
Me: *opens door* *Curly Girly has taken off her diaper and is running around naked and shrieking*
Kirby dude: Hi, I'm here from *insert random initials of some company here* and I'm here to do a survey on cleaning products.
M: You're here to sell vacuums, and I'm not interested. Sorry.
KD: How did you know? Has someone been here before?
M: Yes, several times.
KD: Ok, bye.
So I shut the door, grab a diaper and wipes, and manage to wrangle my daughter and am attempting to put on her diaper when I hear a knock at the door. Freshly diapered kiddo runs around some more and I answer door. There's a different guy, with the baking soda at his side like he is hiding it.
Me: Still selling vacuums, huh?
Kirby dude 2: *fake innocent face* What? Was someone here before?
Me: Yeah, like 30 seconds ago. Oh, and don't bother knocking on the one next door, my neighbor just moved out. (*That was true, neighbor moved out.*)
KD2: *runs off*
How dumb do they think I am? It may have been dark out, but my curtains are open because my Christmas tree is in the window, and I could see their car, lights all on, pulled up in front of my building. Do they think that since I wasn't fooled the first time that I might get a case of the stupids in a mere minute and be gullible when the second guy bangs on my door? And who thinks it's a good idea to try and clean a carpet and sell me stuff at 8PM? If anything, it's not easy to see dirt in your carpet at night, so their demonstration wouldn't be as effective. Anyway, it's just plain rude. Lots of people are eating dinner, having family time, or putting children to bed at 8PM. I've looked it up online and I am not the only one that this has happened to. Not even close. There are hundreds of stories of Kirby visiting at all sorts of weird hours, not telling why they are there at first, or claiming to be taking a survey when they aren't, and being charged way too much for a vacuum. Inside Edition even did a story on it a few years back.
I'm thinking of getting a No Soliciting sign for my door. Not that they'd pay attention to it. There was one on our last apartment's door and people would just come on in and bang on doors anyway.
And just so you don't think this is a Kirby hating post, it isn't, even though I am annoyed at them right now. There are also these college aged kids trying to sell magazines, saying they need a certain number of points to get to go on a vacation to Hawaii or somewhere equally nice. Usually I see their nametags or magazine brochure and I'm like, "I know you're selling magazines, I don't have money, sorry. Bye!" and close the door. The last guy actually said to me, "Don't you want to help me go to Hawaii?" Well, sir, no, no I don't. Why should I be pressured into buying a magazine I don't really want so you, who can apparently afford to go to college when I can barely pay my bills, can go on a fancy vacation. In fact, that $20 I spend on a magazine I don't want makes me $20 shorter for any vacation I may want to take some day. Or, more realistically, $20 short on gas money or my electric bill.
I live in a small "city" where most of the town doesn't have much. It's a nice place, but a lot of people are barely scraping by and a lot get government help. Kirby picked a dumb town to try to sell $3000 vacuums.
Sorry, but I just had to vent about this. I just get so annoyed when these people come to my door over and over and don't take no for an answer. I am especially annoyed that they tried to trick me. They didn't even do a good job at that. Lame.
-duckyone.
1. They offer you a free product. Today apparently it was baking soda, but in the 3 years I have lived here they've been here no fewer than 5 times and have also offered paper towels and tissues.
2. They offer to clean your floor for free.
3. Once in your door they take forever to show off their vacuum, they say that their vacuum gets up way more dirt than any other by taking a white circle and vacuuming against it so the carpet dirt goes onto the pad for you to see it more easily. My husband made the mistake of letting them in once and they also vacuumed part of my mattress apparently. GROSS! At least they put a clean white circle down, I guess.
4. They try to sell you a ridiculously overpriced vacuum. (I've read about people being charged up to $3000 for these stupid things.) Once you say no, they pretend to call their boss to get the price knocked down. I've heard the price being knocked down to as low as $600, which is still way more than I ever want to pay for a vacuum.
So here's what happened tonight.
*ding dong*
Me: *opens door* *Curly Girly has taken off her diaper and is running around naked and shrieking*
Kirby dude: Hi, I'm here from *insert random initials of some company here* and I'm here to do a survey on cleaning products.
M: You're here to sell vacuums, and I'm not interested. Sorry.
KD: How did you know? Has someone been here before?
M: Yes, several times.
KD: Ok, bye.
So I shut the door, grab a diaper and wipes, and manage to wrangle my daughter and am attempting to put on her diaper when I hear a knock at the door. Freshly diapered kiddo runs around some more and I answer door. There's a different guy, with the baking soda at his side like he is hiding it.
Me: Still selling vacuums, huh?
Kirby dude 2: *fake innocent face* What? Was someone here before?
Me: Yeah, like 30 seconds ago. Oh, and don't bother knocking on the one next door, my neighbor just moved out. (*That was true, neighbor moved out.*)
KD2: *runs off*
How dumb do they think I am? It may have been dark out, but my curtains are open because my Christmas tree is in the window, and I could see their car, lights all on, pulled up in front of my building. Do they think that since I wasn't fooled the first time that I might get a case of the stupids in a mere minute and be gullible when the second guy bangs on my door? And who thinks it's a good idea to try and clean a carpet and sell me stuff at 8PM? If anything, it's not easy to see dirt in your carpet at night, so their demonstration wouldn't be as effective. Anyway, it's just plain rude. Lots of people are eating dinner, having family time, or putting children to bed at 8PM. I've looked it up online and I am not the only one that this has happened to. Not even close. There are hundreds of stories of Kirby visiting at all sorts of weird hours, not telling why they are there at first, or claiming to be taking a survey when they aren't, and being charged way too much for a vacuum. Inside Edition even did a story on it a few years back.
I'm thinking of getting a No Soliciting sign for my door. Not that they'd pay attention to it. There was one on our last apartment's door and people would just come on in and bang on doors anyway.
And just so you don't think this is a Kirby hating post, it isn't, even though I am annoyed at them right now. There are also these college aged kids trying to sell magazines, saying they need a certain number of points to get to go on a vacation to Hawaii or somewhere equally nice. Usually I see their nametags or magazine brochure and I'm like, "I know you're selling magazines, I don't have money, sorry. Bye!" and close the door. The last guy actually said to me, "Don't you want to help me go to Hawaii?" Well, sir, no, no I don't. Why should I be pressured into buying a magazine I don't really want so you, who can apparently afford to go to college when I can barely pay my bills, can go on a fancy vacation. In fact, that $20 I spend on a magazine I don't want makes me $20 shorter for any vacation I may want to take some day. Or, more realistically, $20 short on gas money or my electric bill.
I live in a small "city" where most of the town doesn't have much. It's a nice place, but a lot of people are barely scraping by and a lot get government help. Kirby picked a dumb town to try to sell $3000 vacuums.
Sorry, but I just had to vent about this. I just get so annoyed when these people come to my door over and over and don't take no for an answer. I am especially annoyed that they tried to trick me. They didn't even do a good job at that. Lame.
-duckyone.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Just wondering...
Why on earth is Jeopardy! filmed in HD? Is it more entertaining if we can actually see the contestants' drippy nervous sweat? Honestly, I don't see the fascination of HD- as long as I know what's happening on the TV, I'm good. I don't want to feel like I'm right there in the show. Anyone else?
-duckyone.
-duckyone.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Reality tv week of 12/5
There's only 2 shows I watch right now, and they both end next week! I tried to watch Skating With The Stars, but I just couldn't get into it. (I do hope that Brandon Mychal Smith wins though, I did see that he was sick this week and the judges rated a video of his rehearsal and were pretty harsh!) Anyway, here goes!
*The Amazing Race: The teams went from China to South Korea this week. First they had to drive up to the border near North Korea, which is sort of scary but I guess not too bad if they were able to film a reality show there. Then, they had to go into the demilitarized zone and go rafting down a river. From there, they took military vehicles to a US military installation (Camp Casey, I think it was called), where they had to match some symbols to a soldier's headband, and then the matching soldier kicked through a board revealing their clue. After that they had two choices- speed skating (or should I say "speed" skating) or deliver big ginseng roots. Then they had to go to a park to find an airplane statue, and from there was a temple that was the pit stop.
Nick and Vicki were behind because of the 6 hour penalty they took last leg, and at first it looked like the playing field would be evened because there was only one flight that day to South Korea and the other teams had to wait for it. Alas, Nick and Vicki were mere minutes late for the flight, and had to wait 9 hours for the next one! They also had an extra penalty challenge for being last on a non-elimination leg, which involved washing a ginormous tank. They realized once they missed that first flight that they were done for, and they weren't even shown throughout the majority of the episode. They were shown at a montage at the end and they looked like they had a lot of fun, because they knew they couldn't catch up and just enjoyed themselves. Brook and Claire got to the pit stop first, but had a penalty because they took a taxi during a point where they could only walk or take public transportation (did they learn nothing from Team Jumba?), and that cost them first place and the vacation prize that came along with it. Jill and Thomas (the only man standing) got first place, followed by Brook and Claire, and Nat and Kat.
I've heard that next week's episode takes them back to the US to sunny California! And the previews said that there will be an announcement regarding next season. I wonder what it could be? And who do you think will win this season? It's hard for me to tell at this point!
*Hell's Kitchen- The final 4 were spared last week, but this week the field was cut to 2! The challenge this week was to pick two flags and make a dish combining those two country's food styles. Trev got Mexico and China, and despite all the hot peppers he put in there, his dish was called bland. Russell's dish was slammed as well (France and India, and he clearly focused on French). Nona, who got Greece and Italy, was also met with disappointment. Jillian, who didn't have enough time to cook her beans for her Spanish/Thai dish and had to make rice instead, was panicking about her dish but ended up winning the challenge! The reward was dinner with Chef Ramsay and her family!The losers had to move furniture out of their apartment and then prep for that night's dinner service.
The dinner service moved fairly smoothly, and each contestant had their turn running the pass (aka being a little Chef Ramsay), and the show's sous chefs were sabotaging them by making stuff wrong on purpose to see if they were paying attention. Nona did well at calling out orders but didn't realize a wrong side had come up. Russell had trouble calling orders but watched the food like a hawk and mistakes didn't get past him. Trev was being ignored by his fellow contestants but noticed the incorrect food. Jillian was hollering her orders like Chef Ramsay would, swearing and all, but she missed a mistake on a main dish. After the service, Chef told them to discuss who should stay and who should go, but that didn't matter, since he had pretty much made up his mind. As soon as the final 4 came out, Chef sent Trev home. After that, he gave the other 3 the chance to say why they should stay. Russell was announced as the first finalist, Nona the second. I was shocked! I thought for sure that Jillian would have made it through. At this point, I hope Nona beats Russell because Russell is so arrogant!
One more week of updates and then I have no shows to watch! What will I blab on about next?
-duckyone.
*The Amazing Race: The teams went from China to South Korea this week. First they had to drive up to the border near North Korea, which is sort of scary but I guess not too bad if they were able to film a reality show there. Then, they had to go into the demilitarized zone and go rafting down a river. From there, they took military vehicles to a US military installation (Camp Casey, I think it was called), where they had to match some symbols to a soldier's headband, and then the matching soldier kicked through a board revealing their clue. After that they had two choices- speed skating (or should I say "speed" skating) or deliver big ginseng roots. Then they had to go to a park to find an airplane statue, and from there was a temple that was the pit stop.
Nick and Vicki were behind because of the 6 hour penalty they took last leg, and at first it looked like the playing field would be evened because there was only one flight that day to South Korea and the other teams had to wait for it. Alas, Nick and Vicki were mere minutes late for the flight, and had to wait 9 hours for the next one! They also had an extra penalty challenge for being last on a non-elimination leg, which involved washing a ginormous tank. They realized once they missed that first flight that they were done for, and they weren't even shown throughout the majority of the episode. They were shown at a montage at the end and they looked like they had a lot of fun, because they knew they couldn't catch up and just enjoyed themselves. Brook and Claire got to the pit stop first, but had a penalty because they took a taxi during a point where they could only walk or take public transportation (did they learn nothing from Team Jumba?), and that cost them first place and the vacation prize that came along with it. Jill and Thomas (the only man standing) got first place, followed by Brook and Claire, and Nat and Kat.
I've heard that next week's episode takes them back to the US to sunny California! And the previews said that there will be an announcement regarding next season. I wonder what it could be? And who do you think will win this season? It's hard for me to tell at this point!
*Hell's Kitchen- The final 4 were spared last week, but this week the field was cut to 2! The challenge this week was to pick two flags and make a dish combining those two country's food styles. Trev got Mexico and China, and despite all the hot peppers he put in there, his dish was called bland. Russell's dish was slammed as well (France and India, and he clearly focused on French). Nona, who got Greece and Italy, was also met with disappointment. Jillian, who didn't have enough time to cook her beans for her Spanish/Thai dish and had to make rice instead, was panicking about her dish but ended up winning the challenge! The reward was dinner with Chef Ramsay and her family!The losers had to move furniture out of their apartment and then prep for that night's dinner service.
The dinner service moved fairly smoothly, and each contestant had their turn running the pass (aka being a little Chef Ramsay), and the show's sous chefs were sabotaging them by making stuff wrong on purpose to see if they were paying attention. Nona did well at calling out orders but didn't realize a wrong side had come up. Russell had trouble calling orders but watched the food like a hawk and mistakes didn't get past him. Trev was being ignored by his fellow contestants but noticed the incorrect food. Jillian was hollering her orders like Chef Ramsay would, swearing and all, but she missed a mistake on a main dish. After the service, Chef told them to discuss who should stay and who should go, but that didn't matter, since he had pretty much made up his mind. As soon as the final 4 came out, Chef sent Trev home. After that, he gave the other 3 the chance to say why they should stay. Russell was announced as the first finalist, Nona the second. I was shocked! I thought for sure that Jillian would have made it through. At this point, I hope Nona beats Russell because Russell is so arrogant!
One more week of updates and then I have no shows to watch! What will I blab on about next?
-duckyone.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Reality TV week of 11/28
Another finale this week, and one less show for me to talk about! Here we go!
*The Amazing Race- the 4 final teams went to China this week! Hong Kong to be more specific. They raced out of the busy city to a cave, and right back into the city to Majesty Chinese Restaurant to a challenge that looked fun but ended up not being so much so! The restaurant was filled with tons of happy people eating and singing karaoke. However, this detour involved one team member finding a piece of fake food among a giant buffet table full of yummy looking dishes. It would have been easy if they could merely poke around for it, but no! If they poked a food, they had to eat it. This led to members on two teams (Brook and Claire, Nick and Vicki) eating so much that they had to run to the bathroom to be sick. Honestly, that is probably one of the grosser challenges I've seen. They didn't show the grossness, but they really could have not played the barf sounds for us to hear.
From there, teams raced to a statue of Bruce Lee (cool!) where they had two choices. They could take parakeets and deliver them to a boat whose number matched the cage's tag, or they could ride a bus through the city and look for 3 signs that stood out (they were in English, and one of them said "Pit Stop" right on it) to find out where this leg's pit stop on it. Nat and Kat (the doctors) were first, winning themselves a vacation. Nick and Vicki finished in last due to Nick being overtired and competely shutting down. I know shows have creative editing, but Nick was really being a jerk here. Vicki had just eaten until she puked and then got on a boat, and was just as tired, but couldn't do the bird challenge herself. Nick decided to give up and nap on the boat. The team took a 6 hour penalty to skip the challenge and finish the leg. Luckily for them, this was a non-elimination leg, but they have to take the 6 hour penalty and an extra challenge next leg. It doesn't look promising for them.
*Hell's Kitchen: This was a really non-dramatic episode! The final 4 had to cook a dish in 1/2 hour, and Chef Ramsay tried them and told them exactly what was in each one just by taste- it was amazing! From there, the real challenge began- Chef had made a dish for them to try and them gave them half an hour to recreate it! Trev forgot to put his carrot puree on the dish, which was a bummer since he got it right and the others all used yam. Russell and Nona both got the main meat, veal, correct. Nona got the closest to the original dish and won a day of pampering. She chose to take Russell instead of her "buddy" Jillian, for strategic reasons. Jillian was upset and discouraged, which Chef Ramsay noticed. He took her to his office before the dinner service for a pep talk.
The pep talk must have worked because Jillian pretty much had a perfect service! Nona messed up the risotto twice but that was easy enough to fix. Russell hit a snag on the fish station when he sent up a dish of raw fish once or twice. Trev was doing excellently on the meat station, but he was overwhelmed and would forget how to cut the meat or what to send up, causing Chef Ramsay to send him to the dining room to cool off for a minute, and he plated the meat himself, which was not something he'd normally do. They finished the dinner service easily, and Chef congratulated them but sent them to pick the bottom two. Russell and Trev were sent up and each pleaded their case. Chef Ramsay surprised them all by sending no one home, AND letting them visit with their family members for a little while! Expect two chefs to be sent home next week and lots of drama judging by the previews!
*America's Next Top Model- This week was the finale! The final 2, Chelsey and Ann, went to a photo shoot for Vogue Italia at the beginning of the episode. They were supposed to be natural but still model-y, and both girls did an excellent job. Next it was off to film their Cover Girl commercial, which luckily for them involved filming the acting first and recording the voices later, with no pesky memorizing needed! After the commercial, the girls were surprised with having some family members visit them. Chelsey's parents came, and Ann's parents and little brother came. All the parents were amazed at how beautiful their daughters were and how well they were doing. And the girls got another surprise when they were told their families would be front row at the final fashion show!
The final fashion show was a fairly straighforward thing, not like some of the stranger ones (remember the screaming brides one?) of seasons past. It was the typical chaos backstage, with poised models coming out to walk anyway. Previous contestants Jane, Kayla, Chris, and Liz were back to walk in the show, as was last cycle's winner, Krista. After the show was the final judging, where they showed the commercial and Cover Girl photos, as well as video from the fashion show. Both girls were criticized quite a bit on their walks, their commercial, and their photos, to the point where I wasn't sure what was going to happen! After the girls went to await their fate, the judges got pretty loud trying to decide who would win. Chelsey had the most obvious model aspirations, the most knowledge of the industry, and the most engaging personality. Ann had 6 top photos this season, which is a record, and despite being 6'2", had a body that fit the clothes really well. Chelsey's photos weren't as strong, and Ann was really shy and not the best at walking the runways. So who won? The judges picked Ann and her awkward beauty to be America's Next Top Model! Finally, someone that I wanted to win actually won! The girls that I have wanted to win in the past 3 seasons all came in 2nd place, so I am glad to see my favorite win this time!
Well, that's all for this week, and the list of shows I watch will be down to 2 next week! And I think both of those will be over in two weeks. What will I watch then? Yipes!
-duckyone.
*The Amazing Race- the 4 final teams went to China this week! Hong Kong to be more specific. They raced out of the busy city to a cave, and right back into the city to Majesty Chinese Restaurant to a challenge that looked fun but ended up not being so much so! The restaurant was filled with tons of happy people eating and singing karaoke. However, this detour involved one team member finding a piece of fake food among a giant buffet table full of yummy looking dishes. It would have been easy if they could merely poke around for it, but no! If they poked a food, they had to eat it. This led to members on two teams (Brook and Claire, Nick and Vicki) eating so much that they had to run to the bathroom to be sick. Honestly, that is probably one of the grosser challenges I've seen. They didn't show the grossness, but they really could have not played the barf sounds for us to hear.
From there, teams raced to a statue of Bruce Lee (cool!) where they had two choices. They could take parakeets and deliver them to a boat whose number matched the cage's tag, or they could ride a bus through the city and look for 3 signs that stood out (they were in English, and one of them said "Pit Stop" right on it) to find out where this leg's pit stop on it. Nat and Kat (the doctors) were first, winning themselves a vacation. Nick and Vicki finished in last due to Nick being overtired and competely shutting down. I know shows have creative editing, but Nick was really being a jerk here. Vicki had just eaten until she puked and then got on a boat, and was just as tired, but couldn't do the bird challenge herself. Nick decided to give up and nap on the boat. The team took a 6 hour penalty to skip the challenge and finish the leg. Luckily for them, this was a non-elimination leg, but they have to take the 6 hour penalty and an extra challenge next leg. It doesn't look promising for them.
*Hell's Kitchen: This was a really non-dramatic episode! The final 4 had to cook a dish in 1/2 hour, and Chef Ramsay tried them and told them exactly what was in each one just by taste- it was amazing! From there, the real challenge began- Chef had made a dish for them to try and them gave them half an hour to recreate it! Trev forgot to put his carrot puree on the dish, which was a bummer since he got it right and the others all used yam. Russell and Nona both got the main meat, veal, correct. Nona got the closest to the original dish and won a day of pampering. She chose to take Russell instead of her "buddy" Jillian, for strategic reasons. Jillian was upset and discouraged, which Chef Ramsay noticed. He took her to his office before the dinner service for a pep talk.
The pep talk must have worked because Jillian pretty much had a perfect service! Nona messed up the risotto twice but that was easy enough to fix. Russell hit a snag on the fish station when he sent up a dish of raw fish once or twice. Trev was doing excellently on the meat station, but he was overwhelmed and would forget how to cut the meat or what to send up, causing Chef Ramsay to send him to the dining room to cool off for a minute, and he plated the meat himself, which was not something he'd normally do. They finished the dinner service easily, and Chef congratulated them but sent them to pick the bottom two. Russell and Trev were sent up and each pleaded their case. Chef Ramsay surprised them all by sending no one home, AND letting them visit with their family members for a little while! Expect two chefs to be sent home next week and lots of drama judging by the previews!
*America's Next Top Model- This week was the finale! The final 2, Chelsey and Ann, went to a photo shoot for Vogue Italia at the beginning of the episode. They were supposed to be natural but still model-y, and both girls did an excellent job. Next it was off to film their Cover Girl commercial, which luckily for them involved filming the acting first and recording the voices later, with no pesky memorizing needed! After the commercial, the girls were surprised with having some family members visit them. Chelsey's parents came, and Ann's parents and little brother came. All the parents were amazed at how beautiful their daughters were and how well they were doing. And the girls got another surprise when they were told their families would be front row at the final fashion show!
The final fashion show was a fairly straighforward thing, not like some of the stranger ones (remember the screaming brides one?) of seasons past. It was the typical chaos backstage, with poised models coming out to walk anyway. Previous contestants Jane, Kayla, Chris, and Liz were back to walk in the show, as was last cycle's winner, Krista. After the show was the final judging, where they showed the commercial and Cover Girl photos, as well as video from the fashion show. Both girls were criticized quite a bit on their walks, their commercial, and their photos, to the point where I wasn't sure what was going to happen! After the girls went to await their fate, the judges got pretty loud trying to decide who would win. Chelsey had the most obvious model aspirations, the most knowledge of the industry, and the most engaging personality. Ann had 6 top photos this season, which is a record, and despite being 6'2", had a body that fit the clothes really well. Chelsey's photos weren't as strong, and Ann was really shy and not the best at walking the runways. So who won? The judges picked Ann and her awkward beauty to be America's Next Top Model! Finally, someone that I wanted to win actually won! The girls that I have wanted to win in the past 3 seasons all came in 2nd place, so I am glad to see my favorite win this time!
Well, that's all for this week, and the list of shows I watch will be down to 2 next week! And I think both of those will be over in two weeks. What will I watch then? Yipes!
-duckyone.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Twitter Parties- don't miss out!
I have recently found out about Twitter parties, and since they are a lot of fun and beneficial, I thought I would share the info with you! I have won prizes going to these parties, and I am all about using Twitter to my advantage! Plus, what's better than a "party" you can go to without leaving home! I can participate in these parties while still spending quality time with my daughter. Nothing wrong with learning things and winning stuff in between singing Twinkle Twinkle and changing diapers! This is just a brief overview so if you have questions, feel free to ask and I will try to elaborate! I am still a Twitter party newbie but I have learned a lot.
What exactly is a Twitter party? It's a scheduled time where a host on Twitter moderates a "party" for an hour or two, and attendees chat, and possibly answer questions or trivia. The party host announces a hashtag (the # sign followed by a word) so that you can follow the party.
Why on earth would I sit there chatting on Twitter for an hour for no reason? Most of these Twitter parties are sponsored. Do you know what that means? PRIZES! The prizes can be little things like coupons, and range all the way up to bigger things like cash, gift cards, and even computers! And of course, you learn a lot of information about the sponsor, so if you were interested in the company sponsoring, you really learn a lot!
Is it really worth it to go to a Twitter party for a small chance at a prize?
I think it is. Some days, especially now that it is a the holiday season, there are so many Twitter parties that I have to pick and choose, and still end up trying to go to two in the same hour! It gets hectic but I do learn a lot, get to chat with people like me, and if I win something, then that's just a bonus! But since I know you are wondering, yes, I have won several (!) prizes just by going to these parties. I started in October and won 3 prizes, and I've won 6 in November. And in case you were wondering, the biggest thing I won was $100! I've also won clothes, a book, toys, gift cards, and coupons. And the odds of winning at one of these parties can be pretty good depending on the number of prizes and the number of attendees. I've been to parties where there are 40 prizes and 60 attendees- not bad odds at all when you think about it!
Do you really receive the prizes that you win?
As long as the sponsor does what they promise, then you really do get your prize. I've received all 3 that I won in October, and 1 out of the 6 so far that I won in November. But the first one I won was on 11/17, and it takes time to mail prizes out, so I am not too worried about getting all of the other ones! I have heard stories of sponsors not fulfilling prizes, but those stories are few and far between, and I haven't had any experiences like that yet.
Sounds cool! How do I get in on this?
I first heard about them from someone that I followed on Twitter who went to a lot of them. But I will tell you now, start by following @TweeParties. They list parties going on almost every day, and they have an e-mail newsletter that you can sign up for. The tweets @TweeParties sends out have a link to the party information. For most parties, you do RSVP, which usually involves commenting on a blog entry or filling out a short form with your twitter name and email address. Some other good names to follow (people who host a lot of these parties) are @ResourcefulMom, @DadsTalking, and @BarefootMomma, although there are others. Sometimes a company will hold a party on their own- @Chuggington holds a party with Chuggington prizes every Thursday.
Any tips?
1. Follow the rules. Go to the links that the party hosts provide and read the rules. Sometimes you have to RSVP. Sometimes there is a site to look at or video to watch ahead of time. Some have trivia, some are merely chats with questions about your opinions. Sometimes winners are random based on RSVPs or questions answered, while some are first correct answer. Make sure you are following the host of the party so you can see what's going on!
2. Make it easier to see. Go to a site like Tweetdeck.com or Tweetgrid.com. These sites allow you to enter in the hashtag of the party so you can easily see the tweets of the host and all of the other attendees. I usually attend parties from my iPod and so it's harder for me to see what's going on, but it's not impossible.
3. Go to the ones that interest you. Some days will have so many parties that you can't possibly go to them all, and do you really want to learn about something you don't care about or win a prize that is of no use to you? I have been known to go to 6 Twitter parties on a busy night (2 an hour for 3 hours!) but they were interesting stuff, and there were other parties that night that I didn't go to. It would have been too confusing, and some of the parties are of no interest to me. Sponsors don't really like it if the attendees don't care what's going on.
4.Be polite. Do I really need to say this? People should know this already! But I have seen a little bit of rude-itude going on- people insulting the hosts or making irrelevant comments and the like. My blog followers are nicer and smarter than that though, aren't you?
5.Ask questions. Hosts are usually very nice and easy to talk to, and will answer your questions. And if they party is going so fast that they don't see your question, usually another attendee will see it and help you out. I've seen people ask about if they need to RSVP or how winners are chosen at nearly every party I go to. Nothing wrong with asking!
Ok, it's an obscene hour of the morning when I should be sleeping, so this is just a quick beginner's guide. If you have any questions, ask away! :) Good luck, I hope you learn lots and win lots!
-duckyone.
What exactly is a Twitter party? It's a scheduled time where a host on Twitter moderates a "party" for an hour or two, and attendees chat, and possibly answer questions or trivia. The party host announces a hashtag (the # sign followed by a word) so that you can follow the party.
Why on earth would I sit there chatting on Twitter for an hour for no reason? Most of these Twitter parties are sponsored. Do you know what that means? PRIZES! The prizes can be little things like coupons, and range all the way up to bigger things like cash, gift cards, and even computers! And of course, you learn a lot of information about the sponsor, so if you were interested in the company sponsoring, you really learn a lot!
Is it really worth it to go to a Twitter party for a small chance at a prize?
I think it is. Some days, especially now that it is a the holiday season, there are so many Twitter parties that I have to pick and choose, and still end up trying to go to two in the same hour! It gets hectic but I do learn a lot, get to chat with people like me, and if I win something, then that's just a bonus! But since I know you are wondering, yes, I have won several (!) prizes just by going to these parties. I started in October and won 3 prizes, and I've won 6 in November. And in case you were wondering, the biggest thing I won was $100! I've also won clothes, a book, toys, gift cards, and coupons. And the odds of winning at one of these parties can be pretty good depending on the number of prizes and the number of attendees. I've been to parties where there are 40 prizes and 60 attendees- not bad odds at all when you think about it!
Do you really receive the prizes that you win?
As long as the sponsor does what they promise, then you really do get your prize. I've received all 3 that I won in October, and 1 out of the 6 so far that I won in November. But the first one I won was on 11/17, and it takes time to mail prizes out, so I am not too worried about getting all of the other ones! I have heard stories of sponsors not fulfilling prizes, but those stories are few and far between, and I haven't had any experiences like that yet.
Sounds cool! How do I get in on this?
I first heard about them from someone that I followed on Twitter who went to a lot of them. But I will tell you now, start by following @TweeParties. They list parties going on almost every day, and they have an e-mail newsletter that you can sign up for. The tweets @TweeParties sends out have a link to the party information. For most parties, you do RSVP, which usually involves commenting on a blog entry or filling out a short form with your twitter name and email address. Some other good names to follow (people who host a lot of these parties) are @ResourcefulMom, @DadsTalking, and @BarefootMomma, although there are others. Sometimes a company will hold a party on their own- @Chuggington holds a party with Chuggington prizes every Thursday.
Any tips?
1. Follow the rules. Go to the links that the party hosts provide and read the rules. Sometimes you have to RSVP. Sometimes there is a site to look at or video to watch ahead of time. Some have trivia, some are merely chats with questions about your opinions. Sometimes winners are random based on RSVPs or questions answered, while some are first correct answer. Make sure you are following the host of the party so you can see what's going on!
2. Make it easier to see. Go to a site like Tweetdeck.com or Tweetgrid.com. These sites allow you to enter in the hashtag of the party so you can easily see the tweets of the host and all of the other attendees. I usually attend parties from my iPod and so it's harder for me to see what's going on, but it's not impossible.
3. Go to the ones that interest you. Some days will have so many parties that you can't possibly go to them all, and do you really want to learn about something you don't care about or win a prize that is of no use to you? I have been known to go to 6 Twitter parties on a busy night (2 an hour for 3 hours!) but they were interesting stuff, and there were other parties that night that I didn't go to. It would have been too confusing, and some of the parties are of no interest to me. Sponsors don't really like it if the attendees don't care what's going on.
4.Be polite. Do I really need to say this? People should know this already! But I have seen a little bit of rude-itude going on- people insulting the hosts or making irrelevant comments and the like. My blog followers are nicer and smarter than that though, aren't you?
5.Ask questions. Hosts are usually very nice and easy to talk to, and will answer your questions. And if they party is going so fast that they don't see your question, usually another attendee will see it and help you out. I've seen people ask about if they need to RSVP or how winners are chosen at nearly every party I go to. Nothing wrong with asking!
Ok, it's an obscene hour of the morning when I should be sleeping, so this is just a quick beginner's guide. If you have any questions, ask away! :) Good luck, I hope you learn lots and win lots!
-duckyone.
Reality week on 11/21 (better late than never, right?)
I am really behind on this, so goodness knows I'm fuzzy on some of the details of the shows. Alas, I am going to try and do this anyway. :) Here goes!
*The Amazing Race: This week, the 5 remaining teams ended up in Bangladesh, where they had to squeeze out a glass of sugar cane juice, and then drink it. Good thing some of them seemed to be used to some heavy drinking, because a lot of them had chugging mastered. Then they have a choice of detour- deliver 30 cans of lunches by boat to some workers, or deliver 100 unbroken bricks to a location by carrying them in bowls on their head. There is a surprise waiting for them at the end of this detour- a "Double U-Turn," where two teams can each pick another team to have to go back to the detour choice and pick again- basically, they end up doing both detours. Bummer!
Jill and Thomas were first to the Double U-Turn, picking Brook and Claire, the tv shopping hosts, to go back, saying that they were the fiercest competitors. (And if one of them can survive getting beaned in the head by a caterpulted watermelon at the beginning of the season, you know that's right!) Nick and Vicki ended up not picking anyone to go back, which was a brave move! Nat and Kat (the doctors) send Chad and Stephanie back to complete the Double U-Turn, because they were the only team behind them.
From the detours, teams had to "assemble a rickshaw." It's sort of silly, since they don't really have to assemble most of it, they just have to add the seat, bell, bicycle chain, etc. But it's enough to slow teams down and confuse them, since most of them don't know what they are doing. After that was the pit stop for this leg. Jill and Thomas finished first, winning themselves $15,000- not bad! Nick and Vicki came in 2nd, followed by Nat and Kat, Brook and Claire, and finally Chad and Stephanie, who were literally last by maybe a minute or two. Chad and Stephanie were eliminated, meaning we don't have to head Chad yelling at Stephanie and being a jerk. I'm hoping this rudeness was mostly a case of bad guy editing, since I've heard that since the show wrapped, Stephanie got pregnant and so the newly engaged couple got married early than their intended March wedding. I hope they are happy!
*Dancing With the Stars: The finale was sort of disappointing to me. None of the three remaining contestants (Kyle Massey, Jennifer Grey, Bristol Palin) stood out as truly excellent, although judges' favorite Jennifer scored a ridiculous amount of perfect 30s for her dances. I am glad that Bristol lasted until the finale because I really did see her improve a lot this season! Jennifer hurt something in her back that should have caused her to not dance, but she just took some painkillers and kept going. You could tell she was a wee bit loopy on the Tuesday episode. On Tuesday, most of the previously eliminated contestants were back, except for Michael Bolton (who was "too busy touring" to show up but I think still hates the show after Bruno told him he was the worst dancer ever on the show) and Audrina Patridge (who was sick with the flu, bummer). Their dances were more fun to watch than the finalists' final dances. Christina Aguilera was the guest singer on Tuesday, and she has a crazy good voice- her performance was pretty good but not particularly incredible.
Anyone out there would not be surprised to learn that judges' pet Jennifer Grey took home the trophy, Kyle Massey was 2nd, and Bristol Palin was 3rd. So much for the supposed Palin conspiracy to vote like crazy to make her win! I don't think she's too upset about it, it's being reported that she earned over $300,000 just for being on the show! I was disappointed that Kyle didn't win, but my favorites don't normally do too well.
*Hell's Kitchen: The final 5 had to get into kitchen trucks and serve a whole crowd of people. Gail won the challenge serving up a steak with mangoes. Russell decided to think outside of the box and serve octopus, a move that backfired and caused him to do the worst in the challenge. Gail's win reward was a makeover, the others had a lot of cleaning and prep to do. Service this week was terrible- the remaining 5 just couldn't get it together, and Chef Ramsay was so mad that he had to leave the kitchen and go for a walk to cool off, leaving the chefs stressed and bewildered. When he returned, he said that anyone who didn't make something right would be kicked out of the kitchen, causing Gail to get sent out for messing up fish and Jillian to get sent out for sending up undercooked eggs. Nona, Trev, and Russell completed service. The bottom 2 as selected by the chefs were Trev and Gail, and Chef Ramsay also mentioned Jillian's poor service. In the end, Gail was sent home. I had her pegged to go all the way, but lately it seemed like the stress was getting to her, and she did bad on fish station 3 weeks in a row.
*America's Next Top Model: This week was a "behind the scenes" episode, so we have to wait until the next one to find out if Ann or Chelsey will win. We saw a naked man get arrested on Venice Beach, Ann serving up deep fried Oreos to her housemates, and Chris have a crazy alter ego which made the girls laugh but scared the male models they invited over for dinner one week. The behind the scenes episodes are usually pretty funny, but I want to know who wins already! Who do you think it will be?
DWTS is ended, ANTM ends tomorrow, and Hell's Kitchen and The Amazing Race will be over soon...what will I watch now? What will I blog about? I have no idea!
-duckyone.
*The Amazing Race: This week, the 5 remaining teams ended up in Bangladesh, where they had to squeeze out a glass of sugar cane juice, and then drink it. Good thing some of them seemed to be used to some heavy drinking, because a lot of them had chugging mastered. Then they have a choice of detour- deliver 30 cans of lunches by boat to some workers, or deliver 100 unbroken bricks to a location by carrying them in bowls on their head. There is a surprise waiting for them at the end of this detour- a "Double U-Turn," where two teams can each pick another team to have to go back to the detour choice and pick again- basically, they end up doing both detours. Bummer!
Jill and Thomas were first to the Double U-Turn, picking Brook and Claire, the tv shopping hosts, to go back, saying that they were the fiercest competitors. (And if one of them can survive getting beaned in the head by a caterpulted watermelon at the beginning of the season, you know that's right!) Nick and Vicki ended up not picking anyone to go back, which was a brave move! Nat and Kat (the doctors) send Chad and Stephanie back to complete the Double U-Turn, because they were the only team behind them.
From the detours, teams had to "assemble a rickshaw." It's sort of silly, since they don't really have to assemble most of it, they just have to add the seat, bell, bicycle chain, etc. But it's enough to slow teams down and confuse them, since most of them don't know what they are doing. After that was the pit stop for this leg. Jill and Thomas finished first, winning themselves $15,000- not bad! Nick and Vicki came in 2nd, followed by Nat and Kat, Brook and Claire, and finally Chad and Stephanie, who were literally last by maybe a minute or two. Chad and Stephanie were eliminated, meaning we don't have to head Chad yelling at Stephanie and being a jerk. I'm hoping this rudeness was mostly a case of bad guy editing, since I've heard that since the show wrapped, Stephanie got pregnant and so the newly engaged couple got married early than their intended March wedding. I hope they are happy!
*Dancing With the Stars: The finale was sort of disappointing to me. None of the three remaining contestants (Kyle Massey, Jennifer Grey, Bristol Palin) stood out as truly excellent, although judges' favorite Jennifer scored a ridiculous amount of perfect 30s for her dances. I am glad that Bristol lasted until the finale because I really did see her improve a lot this season! Jennifer hurt something in her back that should have caused her to not dance, but she just took some painkillers and kept going. You could tell she was a wee bit loopy on the Tuesday episode. On Tuesday, most of the previously eliminated contestants were back, except for Michael Bolton (who was "too busy touring" to show up but I think still hates the show after Bruno told him he was the worst dancer ever on the show) and Audrina Patridge (who was sick with the flu, bummer). Their dances were more fun to watch than the finalists' final dances. Christina Aguilera was the guest singer on Tuesday, and she has a crazy good voice- her performance was pretty good but not particularly incredible.
Anyone out there would not be surprised to learn that judges' pet Jennifer Grey took home the trophy, Kyle Massey was 2nd, and Bristol Palin was 3rd. So much for the supposed Palin conspiracy to vote like crazy to make her win! I don't think she's too upset about it, it's being reported that she earned over $300,000 just for being on the show! I was disappointed that Kyle didn't win, but my favorites don't normally do too well.
*Hell's Kitchen: The final 5 had to get into kitchen trucks and serve a whole crowd of people. Gail won the challenge serving up a steak with mangoes. Russell decided to think outside of the box and serve octopus, a move that backfired and caused him to do the worst in the challenge. Gail's win reward was a makeover, the others had a lot of cleaning and prep to do. Service this week was terrible- the remaining 5 just couldn't get it together, and Chef Ramsay was so mad that he had to leave the kitchen and go for a walk to cool off, leaving the chefs stressed and bewildered. When he returned, he said that anyone who didn't make something right would be kicked out of the kitchen, causing Gail to get sent out for messing up fish and Jillian to get sent out for sending up undercooked eggs. Nona, Trev, and Russell completed service. The bottom 2 as selected by the chefs were Trev and Gail, and Chef Ramsay also mentioned Jillian's poor service. In the end, Gail was sent home. I had her pegged to go all the way, but lately it seemed like the stress was getting to her, and she did bad on fish station 3 weeks in a row.
*America's Next Top Model: This week was a "behind the scenes" episode, so we have to wait until the next one to find out if Ann or Chelsey will win. We saw a naked man get arrested on Venice Beach, Ann serving up deep fried Oreos to her housemates, and Chris have a crazy alter ego which made the girls laugh but scared the male models they invited over for dinner one week. The behind the scenes episodes are usually pretty funny, but I want to know who wins already! Who do you think it will be?
DWTS is ended, ANTM ends tomorrow, and Hell's Kitchen and The Amazing Race will be over soon...what will I watch now? What will I blog about? I have no idea!
-duckyone.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
It's a conspiracy! (Reality tv week of 11/14)
Let's get right down to the big reality news of the week...the Bristol Palin voting conspiracy.
*Dancing With The Stars: As anyone who has seen even a few minutes of tv this week probably know, the Palins are all over the news. Sarah Palin and her new reality show, Willow Palin and her racial slurs, and Bristol Palin being the bottom scorer yet again on Dancing With The Stars, but, surprise surprise, making it through to the finals. Everyone has been crying that it's some giant political Sarah Palin/Tea Party conspiracy, and that the voting is rigged. But here's how I see it-
1. DWTS tells you to vote for your favorite, not the best dancer.
2. DWTS tells you you get a certain number of votes per phone line or email address, and many people, myself included, have more than one phone number and way too many email addresses. I may not care enough to vote with more than one email address, but if people do, that's their time spent the way they want.
3. DWTS tells you to spread the word to get people you know to vote for your favorite because every vote counts.
4. There is a website out there that tries to get the worst dancers as far as possible. Remember Billy Ray Cyrus? How about Kate Gosselin? Yeah, you have that site to thank for that.
If Sarah Palin is trying to get people to vote for her daughter, it's no big deal to me. I don't really think it's hurting anything. Who can blame a mom for thinking she has the most awesome, talented daughter in the world and wants everyone to vote for her? As far as I'm concerned, if the other contestants aren't pulling their celebrity connections to get votes for themselves, then that's their own loss. I, for one, was glad to see Brandy go home- her dancing looked a little stiff to me and I was sick of the judges' rave reviews, plus Maks' attitude wasn't enjoyable.
Meanwhile, I really hope Kyle Massey wins it all! It's a long shot, but go Kyle and Lacey! YAY TEAM SCHMURGALS! I can't decide if Jennifer Grey will win it (the judges seem to think she can do no wrong) or if Bristol will have a ton of votes again that will push her to the shiny mirrorball trophy.
*The Amazing Race: I wasn't sure if I would like it now that Team Jumba is gone, but it was still plenty entertaining. Royal pain in the hiney and terrible boyfriend material Chad proposed to his girlfriend/teammate Stephanie in this week's location, Oman (is it Oman? I hope I got that right.) I know a lot of people out there weren't too happy when she said yes. But I really hope Stephanie is happy. This week turned out awesomely for them. They woke up two hours late for their start time, missed the first two flights to their destination, and by sheer luck, caught a flight that was supposed to arrive 10 minutes after the 2nd flight but arrived early. From there, one team member had to repel down a cliffside and look through a bajillion "magic lamps" and find one with a ring inside to get their next clue.
From there, teams could either make a wedding feast (which no one, not even the happy newly engaged couple, decided to do) or fill a water truck and deliver it to a marked house. After that, they headed to a market place, where they had to find Frankencense and deliver it to the "Ali Baba." After that was the pit stop. The other annoying dating couple (not the tattooed team of Nick and Vicky but the others that look almost like Chad and Stephanie) arrived to the pit stop first but incurred a penality for paying a cab driver for directions, and Chad and Stephanie won this leg, gaining themselves a free trip- can we say honeymoon? Alas, the father/daughter team of Gary and Mallory were eliminated. Now that all the nicest contestants have gone home, not sure who I'm going to root for.
*Hell's Kitchen: The final 6 bombed big time this week! First, they did ok in their individual challenge, where they had to make a dish for professional chefs who judged them. Russell got a perfect score and got a nice day out to visit the restaurant than one of them will get to run as the prize. He took Gail since she scored second and he got to pick someone to come with him. The dinner service this week was a disaster and a half! First, Sabrina and Trev on appetizers totally bombed out- the highlight of that being Sabrina not being able to make a simple salad. Gail tanked the fish station for the 2nd week in a row. Russell tried to send up raw meat, and Jillian messed stuff up too. The only one who didn't incur the wrath of Chef Ramsay was Nona, and that was only because she was cooking steaks tableside. The best part of this episode was the end, and finally the moment I've been waiting for for weeks- SABRINA IS GONE! HOORAY!
*America's Next Top Model: The 4 remaining models had a meeting with an acting coach to work on talking comfortably with people, and then got sent to Vogue Italia's head office to meet with the editor. This turned out to be a challenge. Chelsey was most confortable, Kayla did ok but wasn't really what the editor expected, Jane was shy but polite, and Ann was shy but her look really impressed. Chelsey won the challenge and shared her win with Kayla- a trip to see the original "The Last Supper" painting and then a stay in one of the nicest hotels in Milan.
This week's photo shoot was more of a moving picture- not quite a movie, not a commercial, and not a still photo. Honestly, it was one of their weirdest things I've ever seen. The girls rocked it though. They all looked amazing and brought their A game to the photo shoot. However, they were told just prior to the shoot that 2 (!) of them would be eliminated at the next panel. Due to Jane's "lack of personality" and Ann's extreme awkwardness and shyness, I expected Chelsey and Kayla to be te final two. Imagine my surprise when Ann was the first called out! I think her making a good impression on the Vogue Italia editor plus coming alive during the shoot really balanced out her shyness. The other finalist was Chelsey, who I am looking forward to seeing in the finals because she wants this so much. The finale isn't for another two weeks (there is a "Behind the Scenes" episode next week), and while I think Chelsey will probably win, I'm really hoping it's Ann. Who do you think will win?
Do you watch any of these shows? What do you think about this week's episodes? Any other shows that you watch that you think I should give a try?
-duckyone.
*Dancing With The Stars: As anyone who has seen even a few minutes of tv this week probably know, the Palins are all over the news. Sarah Palin and her new reality show, Willow Palin and her racial slurs, and Bristol Palin being the bottom scorer yet again on Dancing With The Stars, but, surprise surprise, making it through to the finals. Everyone has been crying that it's some giant political Sarah Palin/Tea Party conspiracy, and that the voting is rigged. But here's how I see it-
1. DWTS tells you to vote for your favorite, not the best dancer.
2. DWTS tells you you get a certain number of votes per phone line or email address, and many people, myself included, have more than one phone number and way too many email addresses. I may not care enough to vote with more than one email address, but if people do, that's their time spent the way they want.
3. DWTS tells you to spread the word to get people you know to vote for your favorite because every vote counts.
4. There is a website out there that tries to get the worst dancers as far as possible. Remember Billy Ray Cyrus? How about Kate Gosselin? Yeah, you have that site to thank for that.
If Sarah Palin is trying to get people to vote for her daughter, it's no big deal to me. I don't really think it's hurting anything. Who can blame a mom for thinking she has the most awesome, talented daughter in the world and wants everyone to vote for her? As far as I'm concerned, if the other contestants aren't pulling their celebrity connections to get votes for themselves, then that's their own loss. I, for one, was glad to see Brandy go home- her dancing looked a little stiff to me and I was sick of the judges' rave reviews, plus Maks' attitude wasn't enjoyable.
Meanwhile, I really hope Kyle Massey wins it all! It's a long shot, but go Kyle and Lacey! YAY TEAM SCHMURGALS! I can't decide if Jennifer Grey will win it (the judges seem to think she can do no wrong) or if Bristol will have a ton of votes again that will push her to the shiny mirrorball trophy.
*The Amazing Race: I wasn't sure if I would like it now that Team Jumba is gone, but it was still plenty entertaining. Royal pain in the hiney and terrible boyfriend material Chad proposed to his girlfriend/teammate Stephanie in this week's location, Oman (is it Oman? I hope I got that right.) I know a lot of people out there weren't too happy when she said yes. But I really hope Stephanie is happy. This week turned out awesomely for them. They woke up two hours late for their start time, missed the first two flights to their destination, and by sheer luck, caught a flight that was supposed to arrive 10 minutes after the 2nd flight but arrived early. From there, one team member had to repel down a cliffside and look through a bajillion "magic lamps" and find one with a ring inside to get their next clue.
From there, teams could either make a wedding feast (which no one, not even the happy newly engaged couple, decided to do) or fill a water truck and deliver it to a marked house. After that, they headed to a market place, where they had to find Frankencense and deliver it to the "Ali Baba." After that was the pit stop. The other annoying dating couple (not the tattooed team of Nick and Vicky but the others that look almost like Chad and Stephanie) arrived to the pit stop first but incurred a penality for paying a cab driver for directions, and Chad and Stephanie won this leg, gaining themselves a free trip- can we say honeymoon? Alas, the father/daughter team of Gary and Mallory were eliminated. Now that all the nicest contestants have gone home, not sure who I'm going to root for.
*Hell's Kitchen: The final 6 bombed big time this week! First, they did ok in their individual challenge, where they had to make a dish for professional chefs who judged them. Russell got a perfect score and got a nice day out to visit the restaurant than one of them will get to run as the prize. He took Gail since she scored second and he got to pick someone to come with him. The dinner service this week was a disaster and a half! First, Sabrina and Trev on appetizers totally bombed out- the highlight of that being Sabrina not being able to make a simple salad. Gail tanked the fish station for the 2nd week in a row. Russell tried to send up raw meat, and Jillian messed stuff up too. The only one who didn't incur the wrath of Chef Ramsay was Nona, and that was only because she was cooking steaks tableside. The best part of this episode was the end, and finally the moment I've been waiting for for weeks- SABRINA IS GONE! HOORAY!
*America's Next Top Model: The 4 remaining models had a meeting with an acting coach to work on talking comfortably with people, and then got sent to Vogue Italia's head office to meet with the editor. This turned out to be a challenge. Chelsey was most confortable, Kayla did ok but wasn't really what the editor expected, Jane was shy but polite, and Ann was shy but her look really impressed. Chelsey won the challenge and shared her win with Kayla- a trip to see the original "The Last Supper" painting and then a stay in one of the nicest hotels in Milan.
This week's photo shoot was more of a moving picture- not quite a movie, not a commercial, and not a still photo. Honestly, it was one of their weirdest things I've ever seen. The girls rocked it though. They all looked amazing and brought their A game to the photo shoot. However, they were told just prior to the shoot that 2 (!) of them would be eliminated at the next panel. Due to Jane's "lack of personality" and Ann's extreme awkwardness and shyness, I expected Chelsey and Kayla to be te final two. Imagine my surprise when Ann was the first called out! I think her making a good impression on the Vogue Italia editor plus coming alive during the shoot really balanced out her shyness. The other finalist was Chelsey, who I am looking forward to seeing in the finals because she wants this so much. The finale isn't for another two weeks (there is a "Behind the Scenes" episode next week), and while I think Chelsey will probably win, I'm really hoping it's Ann. Who do you think will win?
Do you watch any of these shows? What do you think about this week's episodes? Any other shows that you watch that you think I should give a try?
-duckyone.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Reality tv week of 11/7.
Wow, I'm a wee bit late on this but here is the weekly rundown of some reality tv I watch.
*The Amazing Race- They continued on in Russia this week, with teams having to go on foot to a bridge, up to the top of a tower, still on foot across town to a giant church. From there they had to go to where Peter the Great is buried, and play a Russian style bowling game. Finally was the pit stop. Nat and Kat (the doctors) finished first again. A few teams didn't read the rules properly and either took a cab for some parts where they should have walked, or got a cab to lead them when they were specifically asked to ask a local and NOT a cab driver. The shop and home host ladies realized they took a cab where they shouldn't have, went back and walked that part again, and still finished in plenty of time. Chad and Stephanie (newly dating couple, Chad is rude and a half to Stephanie) and Michael and Kevin (Team Jumba) were both having issues with the challenges, especially the bowling. One team member had to knock down three different bowling patterns and Michael took an hour to get just the first one! But once he was on a roll, it went fast- he knocked down the final two patterns in one try each!
Team Jumba rushed to the pit stop for the end of the leg and were notified that they incurred two penalties- one for taking a cab, one for getting a cab to lead them, and they had to wait out an hour before they could check in. Chad and Stephanie took that as their chance and made up the time to run to the pit stop- only to be told that they had to have their bags with them- they had left their cab driver waiting! They ran back, paid the cab, and rushed back- only to be told that they had taken a cab when they shouldn't and had to wait half an hour to check in. Alas, that wasn't enough to keep Team Jumba in the game, and my favorite team got sent home! :( The worst part for the penalties for Team Jumba (besides being sent home, of course) was that the cab that they had ALL DAY wasn't cheap- it was around $350, and they didn't have enough. They had to argue with the cab driver and give them all that they had to even get their bags back!
*Dancing With the Stars: Final 5! Brandy, Jennifer, Kyle, Bristol, and Kurt all had two dances to do this week- one normal and one called Instant Dance, where they were given their style of dance to practice, but didn't get their dance music until about 20 minutes before they had to perform to it! I was truly expecting a train wreck, but was pleasantly surprised! The regular dances weren't particularly remarkable, and no team scored particularly low (I think the lowest was a 24 out of 30?)
First out on Instant Dance was Kyle, and he looked like he had practiced to that song all week! Jennifer came out, and despite all of her "My leg hurts, I'm 50 and old, wahhhh" whining, the judges think she is the greatest thing since sliced bread and she scored a perfect 30. Kurt did fairly well, even kept on the beat the whole time and was complimented, but didn't score near as well (sheesh, do you think the judge has their favorites *coughcoughBRANDYorJENNIFERcough* much?) Bristol came out and danced a clean dance and was complimented on her footwork, but didn't score near as well either. Brandy came out and took the first 32 beats or so to find the beat and mostly just stood there and bobbed a little before starting to dance, which the judges noticed. Carrie Ann commented on this fact (especially since Brandy had just bragged about her advantage of having musicality), and Maks commented that he accepted the blame for it, to which Carrie Ann answered, "Good. Because you should." This started a nice little argument between the two of them. Still, Brandy got a 9 from Carrie Ann, who was apparently feeling gracious, and 10s from Len and Bruno, which I thought was WAY too high.
Tuesday made me breathe a sigh of relief as Kyle (my favorite!) was announced as safe right away. The bottom two this week were Kurt and Brandy. Bristol was miraculously saved yet again despite the lowest scores of the night. Thanks to Mak's talking back to the judges on Monday, I was hoping that judge's pet Brandy would finally be sent home, but alas, it was Kurt who got sent packing. Next week- semifinals! Should be entertaining!
*Hell's Kitchen: We've waited about a month to find out if Trev gets sent home or not! The answer- no! Amazingly enough. he got sent from the guys team to the girls team earlier in the season, and back to the guys this week. Chef Ramsay was giving him his final chance to get his act together, and boy, did he! At one point this week, every other guy was kicked out of dinner service and Trev finished out the service on his own! First episode had the palate challenge, and Nona was the only one who did well, getting 3 out of 4 mystery foods correct. The second episode had a challenge where they had 30 minutes to make 3 dishes. The catch was that each chef was allowed 5 minutes in the kitchen and only 1 was allowed in there at a time. The guys messed up and forgot to put the lobster in, which was fixed in the last 5 minutes by boiling just the tail quickly instead of the whole lobster. However, the girls suffered a setback when Jillian burned her hand and dropped the fish dish on the floor, leaving one course without its main ingredient. The guys squeaked out a challenge win because of the dropped fish.
Rob got sent home in the first episode because he couldn't keep up,and Vinny got sent home in the second episode because he kept messing up dishes and that wasn't the first dinner service. Now we are down to the final six, who become one team- Sabrina, Jillian, Nona, Gail, Trev, and Russell. I think we might have a girl win again this season, but who knows?
*America's Next Top Model- The final five girls went to go-sees this week, and were told they had to walk or take public transportation. The street signs in Milan are up on the sides of buildings, and the subway trains were too hard to figure out. Chelsey made it to 2 of the 4 go-sees, while Chris, Kayla, Ann, and Jane only got to 1. Ann and one other contestant were late getting back, and Chelsey won the challenge. The photo shoot this week had the girls covered head to toe in white goop to look like statues who had just been brought to life by the love of their sculptor (a male model). Kayla, in spite of having trouble posing with male models, ignored her nervousness and pulled out top photo of the week. Chelsey and Ann did fairly well also. Jane was in the bottom two because she had trouble showing emotion, and Chris was in the bottom two because she had twisted her ankle on go-sees and couldn't hide the pain for her photo shoot. In the end, Chris was sent home. But Tyra told her she thought Chris should go into acting and told her to enroll in theater classes quickly!
Well, that's it for this week! See you next week for more reality fun and nonsense!
-duckyone.
*The Amazing Race- They continued on in Russia this week, with teams having to go on foot to a bridge, up to the top of a tower, still on foot across town to a giant church. From there they had to go to where Peter the Great is buried, and play a Russian style bowling game. Finally was the pit stop. Nat and Kat (the doctors) finished first again. A few teams didn't read the rules properly and either took a cab for some parts where they should have walked, or got a cab to lead them when they were specifically asked to ask a local and NOT a cab driver. The shop and home host ladies realized they took a cab where they shouldn't have, went back and walked that part again, and still finished in plenty of time. Chad and Stephanie (newly dating couple, Chad is rude and a half to Stephanie) and Michael and Kevin (Team Jumba) were both having issues with the challenges, especially the bowling. One team member had to knock down three different bowling patterns and Michael took an hour to get just the first one! But once he was on a roll, it went fast- he knocked down the final two patterns in one try each!
Team Jumba rushed to the pit stop for the end of the leg and were notified that they incurred two penalties- one for taking a cab, one for getting a cab to lead them, and they had to wait out an hour before they could check in. Chad and Stephanie took that as their chance and made up the time to run to the pit stop- only to be told that they had to have their bags with them- they had left their cab driver waiting! They ran back, paid the cab, and rushed back- only to be told that they had taken a cab when they shouldn't and had to wait half an hour to check in. Alas, that wasn't enough to keep Team Jumba in the game, and my favorite team got sent home! :( The worst part for the penalties for Team Jumba (besides being sent home, of course) was that the cab that they had ALL DAY wasn't cheap- it was around $350, and they didn't have enough. They had to argue with the cab driver and give them all that they had to even get their bags back!
*Dancing With the Stars: Final 5! Brandy, Jennifer, Kyle, Bristol, and Kurt all had two dances to do this week- one normal and one called Instant Dance, where they were given their style of dance to practice, but didn't get their dance music until about 20 minutes before they had to perform to it! I was truly expecting a train wreck, but was pleasantly surprised! The regular dances weren't particularly remarkable, and no team scored particularly low (I think the lowest was a 24 out of 30?)
First out on Instant Dance was Kyle, and he looked like he had practiced to that song all week! Jennifer came out, and despite all of her "My leg hurts, I'm 50 and old, wahhhh" whining, the judges think she is the greatest thing since sliced bread and she scored a perfect 30. Kurt did fairly well, even kept on the beat the whole time and was complimented, but didn't score near as well (sheesh, do you think the judge has their favorites *coughcoughBRANDYorJENNIFERcough* much?) Bristol came out and danced a clean dance and was complimented on her footwork, but didn't score near as well either. Brandy came out and took the first 32 beats or so to find the beat and mostly just stood there and bobbed a little before starting to dance, which the judges noticed. Carrie Ann commented on this fact (especially since Brandy had just bragged about her advantage of having musicality), and Maks commented that he accepted the blame for it, to which Carrie Ann answered, "Good. Because you should." This started a nice little argument between the two of them. Still, Brandy got a 9 from Carrie Ann, who was apparently feeling gracious, and 10s from Len and Bruno, which I thought was WAY too high.
Tuesday made me breathe a sigh of relief as Kyle (my favorite!) was announced as safe right away. The bottom two this week were Kurt and Brandy. Bristol was miraculously saved yet again despite the lowest scores of the night. Thanks to Mak's talking back to the judges on Monday, I was hoping that judge's pet Brandy would finally be sent home, but alas, it was Kurt who got sent packing. Next week- semifinals! Should be entertaining!
*Hell's Kitchen: We've waited about a month to find out if Trev gets sent home or not! The answer- no! Amazingly enough. he got sent from the guys team to the girls team earlier in the season, and back to the guys this week. Chef Ramsay was giving him his final chance to get his act together, and boy, did he! At one point this week, every other guy was kicked out of dinner service and Trev finished out the service on his own! First episode had the palate challenge, and Nona was the only one who did well, getting 3 out of 4 mystery foods correct. The second episode had a challenge where they had 30 minutes to make 3 dishes. The catch was that each chef was allowed 5 minutes in the kitchen and only 1 was allowed in there at a time. The guys messed up and forgot to put the lobster in, which was fixed in the last 5 minutes by boiling just the tail quickly instead of the whole lobster. However, the girls suffered a setback when Jillian burned her hand and dropped the fish dish on the floor, leaving one course without its main ingredient. The guys squeaked out a challenge win because of the dropped fish.
Rob got sent home in the first episode because he couldn't keep up,and Vinny got sent home in the second episode because he kept messing up dishes and that wasn't the first dinner service. Now we are down to the final six, who become one team- Sabrina, Jillian, Nona, Gail, Trev, and Russell. I think we might have a girl win again this season, but who knows?
*America's Next Top Model- The final five girls went to go-sees this week, and were told they had to walk or take public transportation. The street signs in Milan are up on the sides of buildings, and the subway trains were too hard to figure out. Chelsey made it to 2 of the 4 go-sees, while Chris, Kayla, Ann, and Jane only got to 1. Ann and one other contestant were late getting back, and Chelsey won the challenge. The photo shoot this week had the girls covered head to toe in white goop to look like statues who had just been brought to life by the love of their sculptor (a male model). Kayla, in spite of having trouble posing with male models, ignored her nervousness and pulled out top photo of the week. Chelsey and Ann did fairly well also. Jane was in the bottom two because she had trouble showing emotion, and Chris was in the bottom two because she had twisted her ankle on go-sees and couldn't hide the pain for her photo shoot. In the end, Chris was sent home. But Tyra told her she thought Chris should go into acting and told her to enroll in theater classes quickly!
Well, that's it for this week! See you next week for more reality fun and nonsense!
-duckyone.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Mullet-tastic answer to my question!
My friend got her hair cut into a mullet last week. She called it a "modern mullet." I am not sure if that's an actual style of mullet, but calling it modern doesn't really make it so. She said she used to have a mullet years ago when they were "in style." Is it just me or were they never really a popular hairstyle?
Dislike of mullets aside, I made a blog entry a few months ago wondering whether people cut their own mullets (I'd imagine it's pretty simple and low maintenance) or went to a hairstylist to get this style. No one answered me then, so I asked my friend. She went to a hairstylist to get her mullet. I'm going to behave and not tell you what I really think about that.
-duckyone.
Dislike of mullets aside, I made a blog entry a few months ago wondering whether people cut their own mullets (I'd imagine it's pretty simple and low maintenance) or went to a hairstylist to get this style. No one answered me then, so I asked my friend. She went to a hairstylist to get her mullet. I'm going to behave and not tell you what I really think about that.
-duckyone.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Reality TV week of 10/31
Here's what happened on what I watched this week!
*The Amazing Race: The contestants went to Russia this week, where they had to do perhaps the silliest and easiest yet hardest tasks ever! They could either pick out 3 pieces on music being played in a room with about a dozen pianos playing all at once. I was thinking it was really dumb that they couldn't get it, but then again, I have a musical ear and can pick out the faintest music playing from across a room. (I'm a freak, I know!) Their other choice was to dig through a mountain of long strips of film to match them to a clip showing on a huge screen. The smart pairs tried to look for the words instead of the images in the clip and found the right piece faster.
From there, they had a challenge where one team member had to wear a babushka dress and plant a row of 50 potatoes. Kevin amused me, because he was so good-natured about wearing a dress and he was surprisingly good at planting potatoes. The real babushka ladies there were so awesome, cheering on people and being all around cute. After that was the pit stop for that leg of the race. Team Jumba (woo!) almost had first, until Kevin wanted to look around the building and his dad, Michael suggested (correctly) they check the field across the street. They still finished in 3rd place, which is respectable. The unfortunate last place team was the biker looking couple, Nick and Vicky. Luckily for them, this was a non-elimination leg! I am glad they are staying- since Vicky had an asthma attack in Ghana, Nick has been so much nicer to her and they have been working really well together. I wouldn't mind seeing the "newly dating" couple go- the boyfriend is so rude and mean that I don't even remember his name because I am so annoyed by him. They need to lose- and then that poor girl needs to dump his sorry butt and find a guy who will treat her right!
*Dancing With The Stars: This week had the 200th episode! That's a lot of sequins and spray tans! Is i any wonder they are scraping the bottom of the barrel for gimmicks? This week, the "stars" had to dance their own twist on a popular routine from seasons past. But first, they broke up into two teams led by former DWTS champions and Olympic medalists Kristi Yamaguchi and Apolo Anton Ohno. Team Kristi was Kyle Massey, Rick Fox, and Bristol Palin. Team Apolo was Kurt Warner, Jennifer Grey, and Brandy. Needless to say, Team Apolo got rave reviews. However, I thought Team Kristi's performance was better put together and more interesting. Guess I would fail as a judge!
On to the individual routines- Brandy scored the highest yet again. I swear, she could just sit in the middle of the floor for a minute and a half and get good scores. I did like her costume though. Jennifer Grey did ok but I think she is starting to unravel. Well, that and I didn't think she was really that great in the first place. I've never been too entertained by Rick Fox but he certainly held his own in his routine and didn't mess up. Kurt Warner bounced back from last week and did better than I expected. Kyle Massey did pretty good in a dance where he was supposed to be serious, but you could see his happiness radiating through his serious face. And Bristol Palin is improving from week to week- she does lack a bit of personality out there but her dance was clean and looked nice. I also like that she doesn't have to go out there in a couple of hankies coated in sequins to look beautiful- she looks classy covered up.
This week's elimination was another upset. Bottom 3 this week were Bristol, Kyle, and Rick. of course, Kyle being my favorite and Bristol growing on me made me hope Rick was going home, but I fully expected Bristol to have run out of time. Imagine my surprise (and hers!) when she was saved before the bottom 2! At that point, I was about ready to yell at the screen because I didn't want Kyle Massey to go home. Luckily, my tv didn't get a talking to, and Rick Fox got eliminated. A lot of people think the voting is rigged or crazy, but I absolutely think they got it right. Of course, I would like to see Brandy go home, followed closely by Jennifer Grey, but I know realistically that this won't be happening.
And remember what I said about crazy gimmicks? Next week they will have their style of dance to practice all week, but won't get the song until just before the show goes live on Monday night. Are you all thinking that this will be a train wreck? I know I am! I think this might be a bit too much for Bristol Palin to handle. I think with this challenge, Kyle will ham it up just enough to make it work, and Kurt might do surprisingly well too. I'm kind of dreading watching it and excited to see what happens at the same time.
*America's Next Top Model: The top 6 went from Venice, CA to Venice, Italy, and then Milan! It looks like a beautiful place! This was a weird episode because they didn't have the normal mini challenge at the beginning of the episode and went right to the photo shoot in Venice. They had to pose in groups of 3 with one male model in a gondola. They were stuck in corsets and hoop skirts in crazy humid summer heat. It cracked me up when one model was wondering why it was so humid there. Does she not realize that Italy and especially Venice is covered in and surrounded by large bodies of water?
From there, they went to Milan and saw their tiny but nice model apartment. They were whining about how tiny it was until Tyra showed up and explained to them that this was nicer than where working models normally live. The ladies then went to pose and walk for Missoni, which was pretty cool, except they looked like they were bundled up for a blizzard and nearly sweating to death. At panel, Liz and Chelsey nearly passed out from the heat- you can tell they aren't used to humidity!
Kayla shocked everyone and got best photo, Jane and Chelsey did well too. Ann did ok but needs to come out of her shell. Chris and Liz were bottom two- Chris because her photo came out weird and Liz because she complained the entire time. Liz ended up getting sent home, and Tyra told her to keep pursuing modeling because she is beautiful. Next week the girls pose as statues, which looks really cool! I hope this is Ann's comeback week! It looks like Jane has a rough week but I hope she hangs in there. I would be happy if Kayla goes home next, because she complains almost as much as Liz. I would rather see a girl win who really has a passion for the job, like Chelsey. Ann's still my favorite, though!
One more week until the new Hell's Kitchen! Woohoo! More junk tv for me to watch. Perhaps I should find a more useful or constructive hobby? :)
-duckyone.
*The Amazing Race: The contestants went to Russia this week, where they had to do perhaps the silliest and easiest yet hardest tasks ever! They could either pick out 3 pieces on music being played in a room with about a dozen pianos playing all at once. I was thinking it was really dumb that they couldn't get it, but then again, I have a musical ear and can pick out the faintest music playing from across a room. (I'm a freak, I know!) Their other choice was to dig through a mountain of long strips of film to match them to a clip showing on a huge screen. The smart pairs tried to look for the words instead of the images in the clip and found the right piece faster.
From there, they had a challenge where one team member had to wear a babushka dress and plant a row of 50 potatoes. Kevin amused me, because he was so good-natured about wearing a dress and he was surprisingly good at planting potatoes. The real babushka ladies there were so awesome, cheering on people and being all around cute. After that was the pit stop for that leg of the race. Team Jumba (woo!) almost had first, until Kevin wanted to look around the building and his dad, Michael suggested (correctly) they check the field across the street. They still finished in 3rd place, which is respectable. The unfortunate last place team was the biker looking couple, Nick and Vicky. Luckily for them, this was a non-elimination leg! I am glad they are staying- since Vicky had an asthma attack in Ghana, Nick has been so much nicer to her and they have been working really well together. I wouldn't mind seeing the "newly dating" couple go- the boyfriend is so rude and mean that I don't even remember his name because I am so annoyed by him. They need to lose- and then that poor girl needs to dump his sorry butt and find a guy who will treat her right!
*Dancing With The Stars: This week had the 200th episode! That's a lot of sequins and spray tans! Is i any wonder they are scraping the bottom of the barrel for gimmicks? This week, the "stars" had to dance their own twist on a popular routine from seasons past. But first, they broke up into two teams led by former DWTS champions and Olympic medalists Kristi Yamaguchi and Apolo Anton Ohno. Team Kristi was Kyle Massey, Rick Fox, and Bristol Palin. Team Apolo was Kurt Warner, Jennifer Grey, and Brandy. Needless to say, Team Apolo got rave reviews. However, I thought Team Kristi's performance was better put together and more interesting. Guess I would fail as a judge!
On to the individual routines- Brandy scored the highest yet again. I swear, she could just sit in the middle of the floor for a minute and a half and get good scores. I did like her costume though. Jennifer Grey did ok but I think she is starting to unravel. Well, that and I didn't think she was really that great in the first place. I've never been too entertained by Rick Fox but he certainly held his own in his routine and didn't mess up. Kurt Warner bounced back from last week and did better than I expected. Kyle Massey did pretty good in a dance where he was supposed to be serious, but you could see his happiness radiating through his serious face. And Bristol Palin is improving from week to week- she does lack a bit of personality out there but her dance was clean and looked nice. I also like that she doesn't have to go out there in a couple of hankies coated in sequins to look beautiful- she looks classy covered up.
This week's elimination was another upset. Bottom 3 this week were Bristol, Kyle, and Rick. of course, Kyle being my favorite and Bristol growing on me made me hope Rick was going home, but I fully expected Bristol to have run out of time. Imagine my surprise (and hers!) when she was saved before the bottom 2! At that point, I was about ready to yell at the screen because I didn't want Kyle Massey to go home. Luckily, my tv didn't get a talking to, and Rick Fox got eliminated. A lot of people think the voting is rigged or crazy, but I absolutely think they got it right. Of course, I would like to see Brandy go home, followed closely by Jennifer Grey, but I know realistically that this won't be happening.
And remember what I said about crazy gimmicks? Next week they will have their style of dance to practice all week, but won't get the song until just before the show goes live on Monday night. Are you all thinking that this will be a train wreck? I know I am! I think this might be a bit too much for Bristol Palin to handle. I think with this challenge, Kyle will ham it up just enough to make it work, and Kurt might do surprisingly well too. I'm kind of dreading watching it and excited to see what happens at the same time.
*America's Next Top Model: The top 6 went from Venice, CA to Venice, Italy, and then Milan! It looks like a beautiful place! This was a weird episode because they didn't have the normal mini challenge at the beginning of the episode and went right to the photo shoot in Venice. They had to pose in groups of 3 with one male model in a gondola. They were stuck in corsets and hoop skirts in crazy humid summer heat. It cracked me up when one model was wondering why it was so humid there. Does she not realize that Italy and especially Venice is covered in and surrounded by large bodies of water?
From there, they went to Milan and saw their tiny but nice model apartment. They were whining about how tiny it was until Tyra showed up and explained to them that this was nicer than where working models normally live. The ladies then went to pose and walk for Missoni, which was pretty cool, except they looked like they were bundled up for a blizzard and nearly sweating to death. At panel, Liz and Chelsey nearly passed out from the heat- you can tell they aren't used to humidity!
Kayla shocked everyone and got best photo, Jane and Chelsey did well too. Ann did ok but needs to come out of her shell. Chris and Liz were bottom two- Chris because her photo came out weird and Liz because she complained the entire time. Liz ended up getting sent home, and Tyra told her to keep pursuing modeling because she is beautiful. Next week the girls pose as statues, which looks really cool! I hope this is Ann's comeback week! It looks like Jane has a rough week but I hope she hangs in there. I would be happy if Kayla goes home next, because she complains almost as much as Liz. I would rather see a girl win who really has a passion for the job, like Chelsey. Ann's still my favorite, though!
One more week until the new Hell's Kitchen! Woohoo! More junk tv for me to watch. Perhaps I should find a more useful or constructive hobby? :)
-duckyone.
Yummy!
All the interesting things that my daughter does seem to happen when I am at work and she is home with her daddy. On Halloween, she managed to find my black nail polish (she had watched me paint my nails the night before), get it all over her hands, close up the bottle, and put it back before my husband discovered what she had done. Smart kid, trying to paint her own nails. :) But the more interesting thing happened on Saturday. It was lunch time, but she wanders around and went to look out the window. Now when she looks toward the sunlight, she sneezes. She is also either having a bit of a cold or teething, so you may be able to see where this is headed.
My husband heard her sneeze and then put something into your mouth.
"What was that?"
"I ate."
"What did you eat?"
"I ate it."
"WHAT did you eat?"
"Booger."
"No, don't do that!"
"I ate booger."
He was almost too amazed at her starting to use sentences to be grossed out. Almost. Bleurgh.
Since you read through my tale of grossness, I shall try to make it right- here is a picture of Curly Girly trick or treating! Super cute!
-duckyone.
My husband heard her sneeze and then put something into your mouth.
"What was that?"
"I ate."
"What did you eat?"
"I ate it."
"WHAT did you eat?"
"Booger."
"No, don't do that!"
"I ate booger."
He was almost too amazed at her starting to use sentences to be grossed out. Almost. Bleurgh.
Since you read through my tale of grossness, I shall try to make it right- here is a picture of Curly Girly trick or treating! Super cute!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Small real life update.
Here's my short update of goings on in real life.
Me: I'm good, same old same old really. I've gone to working only 2 days a week :( because of my husband's work schedule at his new job. But it does leave me a lot of time with my kiddo, and too much time to watch tv, blog, and spend time on my iPod! I've taken a recent interest in Twitter parties- they are lots of fun and I've even won a few prizes! I've also been trying to make a little money for Christmas- I couldn't afford Christmas presents for my family last year (except for my husband and kiddo) and I would like to change that this year, because I love to give gifts to my family!
Husband: I don't think I mentioned here that he was fired from his job at the beginning of August. We were pretty ticked at the time. We moved from WY to NE just for that job and he was the store manager. He was demoted with no decent reason right after our daughter was born (talk about adding stress!) demoted again a few months after that, and fired in August. They never did give him a good reason, and when he called the company's main office they wouldn't talk to him; it was always just "She's not in today- call back tomorrow." Ugh.
Anyhow, they did us a favor. My husband got a better job that he really loves, and!!! it lets him work full time from home! Money is a little tight since he was out of a job for over a month, but we are barely scraping buy. He is a lot happier, we see him a lot more (which isn't always a good thing, hahaha), and he's even lost 10 pounds all while eating more, just because he isn't eating junk food all the time and he isn't as stressed out. A good deal, no? :)
Curly Girly: She is doing very well and being completely a 2 year old. She climbs and talks and plays and throws tantrums, just like a normal toddler. She watches too much Sesame Street, which annoys me, but it has taught her all of her alphabet letters, and her numbers from 0-9! I've been trying to teach her to count (she can count to 3 sometimes) and that letters make sounds and words, but I'm still just amazed that she knows so much. Baby and toddler brains are just amazing!
She has also had more adventures than I have ever had! She went to 2 birthday parties this month, and at one of them, she got to ride on an ATV, which she loved! She also got her nails painted for the first time at a party. I had to work during both parties so her daddy took her and I missed out on all the cuteness. :( But at least she's been having a good time and has some cute, well-behaved little friends to play with.
Other family news: My mom has been sick, so good thoughts and prayers are always welcome! It is a brain tumor which is not life threatening, but it's still not supposed to be there and doesn't make her feel her best. I am hoping her doctor figures out the best course of treatment soon! :) Get better soon, mom!
Non-family news: My friend Millie finally got out of the nursing home! Unfortunately that means I can't visit her because she lives too far away for me to walk. However, her son brings her in to shop where I work sometimes so I still get to check up on her. :) She looks immensely better since she's out of the nursing home. Her face has better color, her hair looks nicer, and she seems much happier. She also says that the food is better at home too. :) I am so glad she's out of that place. I miss visiting her but I am glad that she's back in her house and feeling better. She has to have someone in her house 24-7 so they are looking into home care people and will hopefully find someone soon. :)
So that's all for now! :) Sorry this wasn't as short as intended!
-duckyone.
Me: I'm good, same old same old really. I've gone to working only 2 days a week :( because of my husband's work schedule at his new job. But it does leave me a lot of time with my kiddo, and too much time to watch tv, blog, and spend time on my iPod! I've taken a recent interest in Twitter parties- they are lots of fun and I've even won a few prizes! I've also been trying to make a little money for Christmas- I couldn't afford Christmas presents for my family last year (except for my husband and kiddo) and I would like to change that this year, because I love to give gifts to my family!
Husband: I don't think I mentioned here that he was fired from his job at the beginning of August. We were pretty ticked at the time. We moved from WY to NE just for that job and he was the store manager. He was demoted with no decent reason right after our daughter was born (talk about adding stress!) demoted again a few months after that, and fired in August. They never did give him a good reason, and when he called the company's main office they wouldn't talk to him; it was always just "She's not in today- call back tomorrow." Ugh.
Anyhow, they did us a favor. My husband got a better job that he really loves, and!!! it lets him work full time from home! Money is a little tight since he was out of a job for over a month, but we are barely scraping buy. He is a lot happier, we see him a lot more (which isn't always a good thing, hahaha), and he's even lost 10 pounds all while eating more, just because he isn't eating junk food all the time and he isn't as stressed out. A good deal, no? :)
Curly Girly: She is doing very well and being completely a 2 year old. She climbs and talks and plays and throws tantrums, just like a normal toddler. She watches too much Sesame Street, which annoys me, but it has taught her all of her alphabet letters, and her numbers from 0-9! I've been trying to teach her to count (she can count to 3 sometimes) and that letters make sounds and words, but I'm still just amazed that she knows so much. Baby and toddler brains are just amazing!
She has also had more adventures than I have ever had! She went to 2 birthday parties this month, and at one of them, she got to ride on an ATV, which she loved! She also got her nails painted for the first time at a party. I had to work during both parties so her daddy took her and I missed out on all the cuteness. :( But at least she's been having a good time and has some cute, well-behaved little friends to play with.
Other family news: My mom has been sick, so good thoughts and prayers are always welcome! It is a brain tumor which is not life threatening, but it's still not supposed to be there and doesn't make her feel her best. I am hoping her doctor figures out the best course of treatment soon! :) Get better soon, mom!
Non-family news: My friend Millie finally got out of the nursing home! Unfortunately that means I can't visit her because she lives too far away for me to walk. However, her son brings her in to shop where I work sometimes so I still get to check up on her. :) She looks immensely better since she's out of the nursing home. Her face has better color, her hair looks nicer, and she seems much happier. She also says that the food is better at home too. :) I am so glad she's out of that place. I miss visiting her but I am glad that she's back in her house and feeling better. She has to have someone in her house 24-7 so they are looking into home care people and will hopefully find someone soon. :)
So that's all for now! :) Sorry this wasn't as short as intended!
-duckyone.
Reality TV week of 10/24
Hi, here's what I watched this week!
*The Amazing Race: The contestants stayed up in the Arctic Circle this week. There was a challenge that the first team that completed it would get to skip the whole rest of the leg and go to the "Pit Stop" check point. The doctor team of Kat and Nat, who were in 1st place, went in and took the challenge- a traditional feast that involved eating all the meat off of a sheep's head! Gross! One of them was a vegetarian and they still did it! And they skipped the whole leg of the race and finished, still in first, way ahead of the others.
The remaining teams had to rappel off of a bridge, get a clue from a boat, and then climb back up the rope. Looked painful and requiring of a lot of strength! From there, teams could either bike to a sign, memorize a combination, go back to the starting point, unlock their bike lock, and retrieve their next clue, or go on a boat, lug fish up a hill, and get their clue. Some of the more athletic teams took the bike challenge, while my favorites, TEAM JUMBA! (that's Michael and Kevin) opted for the boat challenge. It turned out to be a good move for Jumba, who finished in 4th place at the end of the leg. The unfortunate team to be eliminated this week was a team of female volleyball players, who I didn't even really remember were competing until they went home. They weren't particularly memorable. Teams next week get to go to Russia- it looks like it'll be pretty interesting!
*Dancing With The Stars: It was "Rock and Roll Week." It makes me wonder this- if they are the "Number 1 show on TV" on Monday nights, why are they resorting to such lame and not-well-thought-out gimmicks? Rock and ballroom don't exactly mix very well, and I don't think that really got them too many more viewers. Anyhow, on to the actual dancing!
Kyle Massey (my favorite) did really well this week! Bristol Palin was surprisingly good, and I'm glad she got another chance after last week's monkey suit fiasco, because she really improved. Kurt Warner was good, I thought, but the judges weren't seeing it. Rick Fox was ok, but the judges seemed to like him. Jennifer Grey really didn't do well, and the judges definitely noticed. They had been a fan of her from the beginning and I never really thought she did that well, honestly. Audrina Patridge did ok but she seemed sort of blah. And Brandy did ok but the judges worshiped the ground she danced on! I honestly don't get it! Then they all did a group jive (?) contest, which just seemed like a judge's popularity contest, picking who they liked rather than who could dance. Surprise, surprise- Brandy won that part.
So who went home? It wasn't either of the two lowest scorers- Bristol or Kurt. It was the good but forgettable Audrina Patridge. At first I was like, "What?!" but then I realized I usually spaced out during her dances anyway. I'm still rooting for Kyle and Lacey to win! I also wouldn't really mind if Brandy went home next week. She annoys me.
*America's Next Top Model: The top 7 models had to do a Zac Posen runway show, followed by a commerical shoot for the fictional product "H2T water." The runway show had professional models, who were instructed to be snotty to the contestants to shake them up a little. It worked- Chris and Liz looked ticked off, and Ann looked freaked out! Chelsey won the challenge, getting 5 Zac Posen outfits, which was the one challenge prize that she really, really wanted.
The commercial shoot was a complete disaster. Liz giggled through the whole thing, Esther was blah, and Kayla had yet another dramatic meltdown. All 6'2" of Ann was having quite the issue trying to do the commercial while roller skating. It looked hard! In fact, I don't think a single girl had a good commercial to show at judging. In the end, Chris got the best of the week for her bubbly personality. Bottom two was Ann and Esther, and Ann was saved because of her quirky personality and previous 5 top photos. I liked Esther because she was from Boston, so I'm sad to see her go. I'm hoping Ann really gets it together and gains some confidence, because I really want her to win the whole thing!
That's all I watched this week, since Hell's Kitchen won't be back for another 2 weeks. :( Any suggestions of cheesy reality competitions for me to watch since I have way too much free time? :)
-duckyone.
*The Amazing Race: The contestants stayed up in the Arctic Circle this week. There was a challenge that the first team that completed it would get to skip the whole rest of the leg and go to the "Pit Stop" check point. The doctor team of Kat and Nat, who were in 1st place, went in and took the challenge- a traditional feast that involved eating all the meat off of a sheep's head! Gross! One of them was a vegetarian and they still did it! And they skipped the whole leg of the race and finished, still in first, way ahead of the others.
The remaining teams had to rappel off of a bridge, get a clue from a boat, and then climb back up the rope. Looked painful and requiring of a lot of strength! From there, teams could either bike to a sign, memorize a combination, go back to the starting point, unlock their bike lock, and retrieve their next clue, or go on a boat, lug fish up a hill, and get their clue. Some of the more athletic teams took the bike challenge, while my favorites, TEAM JUMBA! (that's Michael and Kevin) opted for the boat challenge. It turned out to be a good move for Jumba, who finished in 4th place at the end of the leg. The unfortunate team to be eliminated this week was a team of female volleyball players, who I didn't even really remember were competing until they went home. They weren't particularly memorable. Teams next week get to go to Russia- it looks like it'll be pretty interesting!
*Dancing With The Stars: It was "Rock and Roll Week." It makes me wonder this- if they are the "Number 1 show on TV" on Monday nights, why are they resorting to such lame and not-well-thought-out gimmicks? Rock and ballroom don't exactly mix very well, and I don't think that really got them too many more viewers. Anyhow, on to the actual dancing!
Kyle Massey (my favorite) did really well this week! Bristol Palin was surprisingly good, and I'm glad she got another chance after last week's monkey suit fiasco, because she really improved. Kurt Warner was good, I thought, but the judges weren't seeing it. Rick Fox was ok, but the judges seemed to like him. Jennifer Grey really didn't do well, and the judges definitely noticed. They had been a fan of her from the beginning and I never really thought she did that well, honestly. Audrina Patridge did ok but she seemed sort of blah. And Brandy did ok but the judges worshiped the ground she danced on! I honestly don't get it! Then they all did a group jive (?) contest, which just seemed like a judge's popularity contest, picking who they liked rather than who could dance. Surprise, surprise- Brandy won that part.
So who went home? It wasn't either of the two lowest scorers- Bristol or Kurt. It was the good but forgettable Audrina Patridge. At first I was like, "What?!" but then I realized I usually spaced out during her dances anyway. I'm still rooting for Kyle and Lacey to win! I also wouldn't really mind if Brandy went home next week. She annoys me.
*America's Next Top Model: The top 7 models had to do a Zac Posen runway show, followed by a commerical shoot for the fictional product "H2T water." The runway show had professional models, who were instructed to be snotty to the contestants to shake them up a little. It worked- Chris and Liz looked ticked off, and Ann looked freaked out! Chelsey won the challenge, getting 5 Zac Posen outfits, which was the one challenge prize that she really, really wanted.
The commercial shoot was a complete disaster. Liz giggled through the whole thing, Esther was blah, and Kayla had yet another dramatic meltdown. All 6'2" of Ann was having quite the issue trying to do the commercial while roller skating. It looked hard! In fact, I don't think a single girl had a good commercial to show at judging. In the end, Chris got the best of the week for her bubbly personality. Bottom two was Ann and Esther, and Ann was saved because of her quirky personality and previous 5 top photos. I liked Esther because she was from Boston, so I'm sad to see her go. I'm hoping Ann really gets it together and gains some confidence, because I really want her to win the whole thing!
That's all I watched this week, since Hell's Kitchen won't be back for another 2 weeks. :( Any suggestions of cheesy reality competitions for me to watch since I have way too much free time? :)
-duckyone.
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