new JM song

i love john mayer. saw him in concert. got the t-shirt.

that being said, he has a new song out, "say". i have listened to it 6 times in a row.

if you're into this type of stuff, it's worth multiple listens.




this song is in the movie "the bucket list, " which i will be seeing. morgan freeman + a new JM song? i'm there.

the office -- hot in herre

sigh. i miss them.

pam-a-lama-ding-dong

a special "hi there, hello" to my good friend, kerry. rumor has it she moseys around these parts from time to time.


she is originally from cynthiana. moved to the big city. loves fast food. is an aunt. and is one of the best people i have ever known. she is the best listener and is super hot. she loves the office and does a wonderful pam beesley impersonation every day at her job.


she slaves all day at her desk with nary a new blog post from anyone. feast away, dear BCG, feast away :)

and it burns burns burns, the ring of fire...

this story recently ran about a boy getting suspended for throwing a crayon at his teacher. while this might not seem like a consequential thing, to me, it got me riled up. sure...it was just a crayon. i'm sure hundreds of crayons are thrown across the country every day.

what got me upset was the fact that this boy and his mother were parading around all the news channels playing the victim role. "oh my son...he's so good. he didn't mean it." sure. come talk to me when a teacher gets arrested for holding down a student about to freak out. come talk to me when it would be okay for ME to throw a crayon at YOUR son.

after being an official teacher for half of a year now, i am utterly surprised at the lack of responsibility people take for their actions these days. it is no longer anyone's fault.

actually, it is the TEACHER'S "fault" for not teaching the kid right from wrong. it's the government's" fault" for patrolling the neighborhood. whatever happened to personal responsibility and common decency during childhood? act a fool around your 5 year old now and that is all they will ever think of you.

it literally breaks my heart some days...

antm hall of fame

ria and i had talked about this recently, so here are my antm all-star awards:

**favorite model (all-time):

1. renee -- gorgeous eyes, skin, and son. she was a bit abrasive at the beginning, but i think she acted how i would act if i had to be around some of those girls every day


2. caridee -- love her final few pictures.


3. joanie -- her picture as a housewife (in a green dress) is my favorite antm picture to date.

**honorable mention: naima (she had a calming energy about her). i realize all of these are blonde models...but they took the most AMAZING and intriguing pictures during their cycles (and that doesn't mean while they were on their periods)

**least favorite model (all-time):

1. gina -- everything about her pisses me off


2. brittany (cycle 8) -- she whined about EVERYTHING, esp her gross weave and australian go-sees.


3. sara (cycle 6) -- her mouth is too puffy and her hair was just wrong.

these might be surprising picks b/c jade, jael, and others aren't on here. i can at least stand the other ones...these three...i would rather watch hannah montana than them.

**favorite judge (all-time):

1. duh...nigel barker. as if that was even a question. he is too gorgeous for words.


2. jay manuel. he does a fantastic job as art director of the photo shoots. i wish tyra would let him judge more often.

**least favorite judge (all-time):

1. nole marin -- he had nothing constructive to say. he reminds me of a little gopher.

**favorite cycle (all-time):

1. cycle 4. i liked most of the people on this cycle and the photo shoots were interesting. i loved their south african location and, also, the shoot with the kids.


2. cycle 3. i love when they go to tokyo.

**least favorite cycle (all-time):

1. duh. i love them all.

**best moments in ANTM history:

1. when chantal trips during the final runway show


2. when ann & eva write in cassie's brownies with a knife


3. the look on renee's face when natasha is talking to her "husband" on the phone

starting next cycle (sometime in feb) i will be dissecting each episode. can't wait! so, if you know how to smile with your eyes (gag me now), please keep checking back in early 08. i think that'll do it for now. i'm sure there will be more thoughts to post later. any thoughts? agreements...disagreements?

jingle bell rock

i had the most exquisite time last night. the gang went to chipotle for dinner and merriment ensued.

we went to the xroads xmas party and it was a DE-LIGHT. not only were (nearly) all of my favorite people there...there was hot chocolate, singing, and even the rice parents showed up.

after attending a holiday party, the most logical thing to do would (of course) go to target.

it's been well documented that the 4th of july is my favorite holiday, but second place is beginning to look a lot like christmas.

ANTM

it's official. maria and i are AMAZING guessers. this was the easiest top model to guess yet. i had a feeling ever since the makeover episode that it was going to be saleisha. here are my thoughts from this season:

• i agree with the choice of ANTM
• tyra needs to be stopped...immediately
• the last photo shoot nigel did was very poorly shot and the photos were of v. bad quality
• my favorite shot was probably the recyclable material one and my favorite shot was of jenah doing the recyclable cardboard.
• my favorite ANTM ever was caridee.
• jaslene's covergirl commercials are PAINFUL to watch.

you wanna be on top? (model) top? (model) top? (model)

where did you, where did you go-go-go

sorry i've been MIA lately. the end of the semester just crept up on me and it's hard to believe it's nearly christmas. here are a few quick hits from the last few weeks:

*i've been without a debit card for 3.5 weeks now b/c mastercard is dumb
*attended a PD with Dr. Jean in Louisville. if you are a teacher, you need to research her b/c her stuff is amazing
*slowly but surely working on christmas gifts.
*completed my first cycle of KTIP. glory hallelujah. only 2 cycles to go :\

i hope to be able to post more often now that my first cycle is done. chris is coming home december 20th :) happy holidays to all.

now i must research hanukkah and kwanzaa so i can teach about christmas.

thankfulness

i am thankful for:

• having a job i love going to every day


• my grandparents


• the amazing support from my parents this summer


• another lovely year with my love


• my true friends, without which i would be lost


• josh hamilton


• my lf and our lyric texts


• my eled girls -- they know what tws, iep, gssp, lep, tpa, and countless other acronyms stand for.

mostly, i am thankful for the fact that i have a warm apartment and food to come home to at night. being around my students everyday, i have come to realize that i was one of the lucky to have had such a glorious upbringing.

cheers to the holidays.

NYC trip -- Sunday

Sunday was the big day for travelling around in the city.

We decided to start at the MoMA (museum of modern art). chris and i both love art, so we were hella excited to get to go here. to spare everyone the bland details, it was an AMAZING experience. we got to see everything from matisse and monet to van gogh and warhol to everything inbetween. my favorite part was seeing the george seurat exhibit because he is one of my favorite artists. what a fun time!

us at the MoMA

next, we FINALLY were able to go to the times square toys-r-us -- aka: one bigass toy store.

i went in the barbie house

i met new and interesting friends.

chris bought a huge gummy snake

all was well with the world.

then, we decided to take a ride on the always luxurious staten island ferry. the ferry takes you near the statue of liberty and from manhattan --> staten island and then from staten island ---> manhattan. we met some brilliant people and families...and then headed back to phebe's for some beer.

the bar was rockin' because the game had already started. i would have never expected to see that much orange and black in the middle of the city. but there we were. unfortunately, i didn't have enough room in my suitcase to pack my housh jersey. fortunately, they had yuengling on tap and i got to have my first (and second and third) taste of this glorious beer.

sadly, we had to leave before the game was over because we had to get me to LGA...but we had a wonderful, lovely time together.

NYC trip -- Saturday

on saturday, we bid goodbye to my host and caught the train to the city.

we went to the SONY Wonder Lab. the coolest thing we saw was this projector that showed raindrops falling. as you would move your arm around, the raindrops would change their course to follow your arm. really hard to explain, but totally cool to watch.

next, we went to this AMAZING bar/restaurant in the east village called phebe's. this is not your average bar...but a BENGALS bar in the middle of nyc. i love that they spread who dey throughout the land. we were told to come back on sunday during the game...more to follow on this.

next, we traipsed downtown to ground zero to check on construction progress. there wasn't much to see, but we did get to see the plans for the upcoming freedom tower.

after this, we spent a good while traveling around the Port Authority trying to figure out how to get to the Meadowlands. Luckily, we finally found our way and had some amazing pineapple/chicken pizza for dinner.

i loved having a relaxing day with chris in the city. it was nice to not feel rushed and we still have a perfect subway record :)

NYC trip -- Friday

FINALLY i am getting around to blogging about last weekend's trip to WP/NYC. i had a very enjoyable time and it seems to be getting harder and harder to leave chris at the end of each weekend.

Here's what happpened on Friday:

• flights were great. i missed an earlier flight by about 5 minutes, but no worries, b/c i really do like airports. i got a great lunch/beer in concouse C at CVG.


• met a WONDERFUL guy named bruce on the plane from CVG to LGA. he was taking his wife and daughter to NY for the weekend to catch a broadway show. they were from columbia, SC and were truly great people.


• caught a sketchy bus from LGA to grand central. i learned all about this woman's botched plastic surgery and our bus driver offered to refer her to some miracle chinese doctor.


• before my stop on the train, i started up a conversation with some guys about tayshaun prince. they asked me where i was from (they guessed MS or GA) because of my accent. this is noteworthy because this is the first time i have ever been asked about my accent while in NYC.


• chris picked me up (!) and we quickly went on post for the game. let me tell you...it was one of the most miserable experiences of my life. not only did army lose BAD to rutgers, it was about 20 degrees, with the wind coming off the hudson, in RAIN...SLEET...and SNOW. thankfully, my love is truly lovely and kept bringing me hot chocolate.

anyone who knows me knows i HATE getting my feet and jeans wet. unfortunately, i did NOT have my rainboots with me and was forced to have standing water in my shoes and water nearly to my knees; NOT a good combination. in spite of everything, i really did have a great time because i was with chris and surrounded by cadets.

ole lefthander

before i began blogging this morning, i was catching up on the latest news from this week. i was disheartened to read that joe nuxhall, longtime player/broadcaster for the reds, had died this week. this is incredibly sad because i, like so many others, would fall asleep to marty and joe many a summer night.

while i prefer marty as a broadcaster, it was marty and joe's relationship that makes WLW the preferred means by which to catch a reds game...even in this day of satellite TV and chris welsh.
my dad and i would always listen to reds games in the car. we always knew it was "joe's inning" to call because there would be 10 second pauses in his talking. i always liked to think joe was more interested in the game as a fan than as a broadcaster. after being forced to listen to jeff brantley this season, i know joe will be missed even more.

the ole lefthander rounding third and heading for home...

back from ny. blogging to follow.

i have returned but have left a piece of myself in ny. lots of blogging/pictures to come. we had a great time and i can't believe i have to return to life tomorrow/in 6 hours. hope everyone had a great weekend.

NY bound

i will not be around to blog this wknd b/c i will be in ny with my love. catch you all on the flip side of the empire state.

this is us on our one year anniversary -- aug 07

girls nights out

last night, ria, jen, and i went out for an impromptu movie night at carmike. i adore carmike because it's only $1.50. we saw the nanny diaries, which i was dying to see because it is one of my favorite books. i must say, i enjoyed the movie far more than i had anticipated, but several abhorrations threw me off:

• Mr. X -- he should've been tall, dark, and handsome
• Mrs. X -- should've been brunette
• Grayer -- should've been younger
• Nanny's mom -- this entire piece of the plot was not true to the book and was not needed in the movie. they should've kept her out of it and put the bohemian grandmother in instead.
• i did like the different ending.

i thoroughly enjoyed DROOLING over a new specimen...although i will take JT Dinero anyday.

___________________________________________________________________

tonight was the first "dinner dames" night between jen, b, and me. i really hope this becomes a regular occurence because the dames they are a'smokin. on the menu tonight was chicken/rice casserole.


quote of the night: "how does a library work?"

<----- b

arachnid invasion

this morning, i -- yes me -- killed a spider. all by myself. it was about the size of a quarter and i successfully killed it without much incident. suzy homemaker? you betcha.

fab fam

this weekend, i was at a family reunion in indy. when i was younger, i used to avoid these gatherings, but in my old age (?) i have come to look forward to them. it is so weird to see how everyone else is getting older. the kids that used to be in elementary school are now about to graduate high school.

family is a funny thing. when i am at these reunions, i can't believe i don't hang out with these people more...but in the two years between reunions, i barely think twice about them. i suppose that will be my new year's resolution. to keep up with family more.

the rice clan has always been close...now i need to share the love with the extended ones.

blegh

i've been feeling under the weather this week...no doubt thanks in part to:

• my halloweening this past wknd


• going to the uk game in the midst of mist


• kindergarten germs everywhere

you're welcome, sudafed makers. it's my pleasure to keep you in business.

Ta-Da

Here's to the new blog. Lots of things to come. Join the fun.