Maybe they should just be put down.

Anyone who follows the celebrity mags as I do (sure, sure - pretend you don't browse them in the grocery line) knows that Tatum O'Neal has been a drugged out disaster-area for years. And Ryan O'Neal has had his share of ink for his own personal problems, probably the least of which includes fighting like a 4-year-old with Farrah Fawcett and just generally being an ass.

Well, you can now add son Redmond to the list of losers in that clan. Seems Ryan and Redmond have been arrested for meth possession. I guess growing up seeing your father and sister embarrass themselves and end up complete washouts due to drug use wasn't enough to convince Redmond that he should, perhaps, stay away from substances.

Has no one but me seen that show "Intervention" on A&E? Seriously, if you watched that show, and you saw what the subjects of that show looked like when they're in throes of addiction, you'd actually consider turning Amish just to avoid any brush with substance abuse, much less ever start on that path yourself. I really think maybe the O'Neals should just all be put down. Let the gene pool be drained, scrubbed with bleach and then John McEnroe can refill it with clean DNA. Who would've ever guessed McEnroe would end up being the responsible, reasonable adult in that family?

You reap what you sow.

I'm probably going to get flamed for being hard-hearted, but I have to chime in about what's happening on the financial front. So here goes.

Financial markets are a damn mess. Why? For months we've been hearing words like, "sub prime mortgage crisis" and "credit crunch" and "government bail out," etc. But most people who just work everyday, direct deposit their checks and pay their bills really don't understand exactly what's happened. I'll make it as simple as possible. Several years ago, some genius decided that one of this country's goals should be for every single person, citizen or not, solvent or not, should own a home.

Many, many, many people were in NO financial position to do that. They couldn't afford it, plain and simple. But the mortgage lenders figured they could make a quick buck by giving them mortgages anyway - in other words, they gave loans to people they knew would never be able to pay those loans off. People who KNEW they had no hope of paying those loans off took the loans anyway. The mortgage companies made a quick buck from closing costs, fees, etc. associated with making the transaction and figured they could collect a few payments before it all collapsed, and the homeowners got to live in houses that were way beyond their means for a while.

Then the inevitable happened. Interest rates rose. As they do. It's called an economy. All those people who "bought" homes they couldn't afford, with no money down, sometimes even borrowing in excess of the cost of the home to cover the transaction costs, etc., because they had no savings or cash of any kind (THIS is who you loan six figures to?) with adjustable rates, suddenly couldn't pay their mortgage. Shocker. They lost their homes, and the financial institutions who held those loans - the greedy morons who made the loans in the first place or the ones who bought the loans, hoping to get cash in - got left holding the bag. They figured the government (meaning the taxpayers) would bail them out, and at first, that was happening. But the bag got way too heavy, and now they're going under, one after another.

Well, of course they are. You make a bad deal, you lose money. You make enough bad deals, and lose enough money, you go out of business. Any half-wit could've predicted it. I live in a starter-home neighborhood. When all of this was going on, when I saw person after person in my neighborhood buying homes I knew they could *never* afford, I remember telling anyone who would listen that most of my neighbors would be gone in 2 years when their adjustable rates did just that and increased. I was right. And I'm not finance whiz. I can barely figure out the tip when I go out to eat, but even I could see that a disaster was in the making.

The goal should never have been an ever-increasing homeownership rate. The goal should have been an ever-increasing number of people living in a fiscally responsible way, with low debt, savings and spending habits within their means. When everyone is doing that, then homeownership rates will increase without putting the country's entire financial sector at risk. When all you're looking for is easy money, a free lunch, and immediate gratification without the work and sacrifice of legitimate gain, this is what you end up with - a financial sector in ruins and people in default.

All sides are at fault - the people who wanted what they hadn't earned, the politicians who wanted to tout inflated and unnatural and unsustainable statistics as evidence of their economic success, and greedy financiers who wanted a quick buck with no regard for the consequences either to the people they made the deals with, their companies' financial health or the country.

I'm disgusted with everyone involved.

Ike aftermath

I'm afraid the news is not good for my Houston fam. Reports from people in their neighborhood who did not evacuate are that their house was flooded with 5-6 feet of water. So, pretty much everything that wasn't in the attic or the top of a closet has been destroyed. Emotions are running high.

Their neighborhood is still not safe to enter. Water is still standing, power lines are still down, and debris has made the streets impassable. So, they can't go home yet and see the damage for themselves. They'll be going home as soon as the city says they can return, and they'll assess what, if anything, is salvagable. Their home is still standing, so that's good, and they have already registered with FEMA, so they'll hopefully have an estimate in the next week or so as to how much their flood insurance will pay and what exactly must be repaired or replaced.

No question they have a lot of work ahead of them, cleaning up and rebuilding their home. But both sides of the family are already pitching in to help, and everyone in our brood got out safely, and that is the most important thing. Things can be replaced. Structures can be repaired. But lives lost - that would've been an irreparable tragedy.

One word I must say. Houstonians are awesome and amazing. What you saw in Katrina, you will NOT see with Ike. You will not see people waiting for the government to do what needs to be done and screaming about whose fault it is and expecting someone else, anyone else, to take care of the people, the city, the present or the future. By Saturday, the people who hadn't left were already beginning cleanup and clearing the streets themselves, not even waiting for city crews, much less FEMA or the federal government to start fixing things. Private entities set up relief stations, and when one of them needed help passing out free ice to stranded citizens, they put a call out for volunteers, and within hours, they had a full parking lot of volunteers, passing out ice and helping their neighbors.

The private sector stepping up and helping. Private citizens stepping up and helping. No waiting. No whining. Just doing. That's my city. I love Austin with all my heart and will most likely be here for the rest of my life. But Houston is where I was born and where I grew up, and I'm so proud of it. It's a can-do city. The people there are strong and compassionate and quality. When they've won national titles in sports, there's no rioting, no looting. Just celebrating together as a community. And when they're hit with disaster, there's no fighting, no falling part, no crying about who is to blame and who is going to come in from elsewhere to fix it. There's pulling on their boots and getting to work - pulling together as a community and doing what needs to be done.

Because that's what they do. That's what Houston is. I'm proud of you, Houston.

An interesting weekend ahead.

Family has evacuated. Now we wait and see what Ike does.

Funniest line heard on 30 Rock last night: "Never go with a hippie to a second location."

Hurricane Ike - on the way

Well, kids, Hurricane Ike is going to hit us. I was fairly certain that the track they were predicting the last few days wouldn't hold - hurricanes tend to veer in the last couple of days before they hit. I just wasn't sure which direction it would veer - toward Mexico or toward Houston. Unfortunately, it's taken a more northly path, bringing it more toward Galveston and Houston.

I think the direct hit will be a little south of there, but the east side of the hurricane is the more destructive side, so that's bad news for my beloved hometown. My relatives there are evacuating. They'll be coming up this direction to stay with us, and we'll just have to see how bad the weather gets up here in Central Texas. I'm just glad they have us to run to when something like this happens. We can provide them a safe and familiar place to wait it out.

I have to go now and get my fix from The Weather Channel. I'll probably be glued to it for the next couple of days!

In my email...

Financial solutions wants to offer me, "Bankruptcy: Fast and friendly help"

While I appreciate that they'll be both fast and friendly, I think I'll decline the offer of bankruptcy. But thanks anyway! It's always nice to be asked.

That's just sad.

Got to reference a little "News of the Weird" this morning - mostly because all I can think about right now are my sinuses and Hurricane Ike, and I don't feel like blogging about either of those. So, thank heaven for Don Gorske.

Don's got obsessive-compulsive disorder, and he says that it's driven him to eat 23,000 Big Macs in 36 years. He's even kept every receipt in a box.

"The correctional-institution employee says he doesn't care when people call his Big Mac obsession crazy. He says he's in love with the burgers, which are the highlights of his days."

Yes, Don. You are in love with the burgers, which is why I'm going to guess that you do not have a girlfriend. I could be wrong. But I don't think so, what with the burger being the highlight of your day.

I'm also going to guess that 23,000 Big Macs has made you a whole lotta man - another possible reason why the Big Macs are your girlfriend. A Big Mac doesn't care how much you weigh, does it, Don? A Big Mac never says to you, "Maybe you should have a salad, hon - with some grilled chicken maybe?"

This is one of those moments where I thank God (and I mean that literally) that I am who I am, with my mental health intact, and a really great life that I actually enjoy - where the highlight of my day does not involve 2 all-beef patties or special sauce. Okay, sometimes there's special sauce, but it doesn't taste like Thousand Island dressing.

I'm a weiner!

My friend Judy gave me a blog award! I'm not sure what I win exactly, except for the right to put this logo on my blog:

But I'm all about accepting glory, so thanks Judy for the praise!

Unfortunately, after I came down from my "big winner" high, I realized there was responsibility associated with this award. According to Judy, there are steps attached to accepting this award:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog. (YAY!)

2. Link the person you received your award from. (Done!)

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs. (What? You mean I have to share the adulation?)

4. Put links of those blogs on yours. (What am I - a machine?)

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated. (Oh sure. I've got nothing to do all day but comment on people's blogs. No, seriously. I've got nothing to do all day but comment on people's blogs.)

Okay, then. I've already added the logo to my blog, so I'd better get on with the nomination thing.

1. I'm going to cheat and put Judy's blog on my list of nominations, even though she's already gotten this award: Where One Day Runs Into Another.
2. Next is Busy Mom. Not that she needs me to send people to her, because she's pretty big time already, but I do love her blog, so there ya go.
3. I can't get enough of Banterist. Please to enjoy.
4. The Daily Kitten is awesome, because every day you should have a little kitten time.
5. The Bleat is not to be missed. Jim Lileks is my blogging inspiration and hero.
6. Tasty Type is my friend Lauren's food blog. Everything Lauren touches looks fabulous, and every time I go to her blog and see what really good food is, I feel a little sad looking at the Lean Cuisine sitting on my desk.
7. I went to London a few years ago, and I really loved the city. So, I like to visit London Daily Photo and pretend I could actually walk down the street and see whatever is posted on any given day.

If I have time, I'll try to post a message on all of these sites, but if I don't get to it, at least I've fulfilled most of my obligation! But let's put the focus back where it belongs: on me. Comment on my blog and tell me you love me, too!!! Pleeeease!

The news in pictures. Who needs words?

I've been a little busy lately, but I've finally come up for air and gotten caught up on the news. I haven't really been able to read all the many news stories out there, but I've found that I can get the gist of things just by looking at the photos that accompany the stories.

For instance, there are currently three potential hurricanes churning their way through the Atlantic toward the U.S. right now - Hanna, Ike and Josephine:



Also, a really creepy couple in Michigan got married at funeral home:



But I think the news that suprises me most is that Tina Fey has apparently been chosen as John McCain's running mate:



I wonder if she'll still have time to write for 30 Rock. I love that show.

Ugh.

Throat hurts. Head hurts. Maybe just allergies, but could be coming down with a cold. Oy.

Tomorrow. The Day.

Tomorrow it begins, people. The greatest time of year. Kickoff is at 6 p.m.

The renovations to the north end of Royal Memorial Stadium have been completed.

I have a new purse for game days.

And this year, glory of glories, I have a partner in crime. I have a true Texas fan to go with me to all the games. No more begging people to come to a game with me ("Come on! Just one game! I'll buy you a drink when we get there..."). No more selling tickets on eBay when I can't find anyone to go with me and I just can't face losing money on yet another ticket. No more squeezing in with my parents' seats so I don't have to sit alone in my own seats. This year: two tickets, two butts in seats.

Let the joy begin!!!

Rock me Sexy Jesus!

J and I celebrated our 10-month anniversary (aren't we cute?) last night by catching an actual first-run movie and dinner at an actual theater (as opposed to our usual stop at the Redbox on the way home to whatever I've got in the pantry). It was a mix of emotions.

On the upside, we are going strong at our 10-month mark, really happy together and making plans for the future, so we enjoy celebrating our monthly landmark and were, thus, in a good mood last night.

On the upside, we chose Alamo Drafthouse, which is always a little more fun than a regular theater, because you get to eat real food while you watch your movie. Just choosing this venue added to our good mood and feeling of celebration. Plus, we have good memories of this particular location of Alamo, since we saw a really funny Mr. Sinus Theater there of The Breakfast Club.

On the downside, with the potential to ruin our grand evening, was the service at Alamo. Usually, I have good luck there. I had a run of bad service at the Lakeline location and don't go there anymore, but I've never had a problem at the other locations until last night. When the waiter first came by, J and I were still trying to decide what food to order, so we just ordered our drinks (waters with lemon - not exactly difficult). By the time the waters arrived, we were still slow in writing up our order. We'd decided to split a steak sandwich accompanied by chili fries, and we were going to place a dessert order for chocolate molten cake a la mode when the sandwich arrived. Tasty, no?

So, we wrote up our order, stuck it on the table as we're supposed to, and we waited for our waiter to come get it. For a long time. Well into the movie. The people on either side of us had long since gotten their food (which was killing us with its fantastic aroma), and there our order sat - lonely and ineffectual in flagging down the waiter. J decided that perhaps he should place the dessert order with the food order, so he added that, with the notation that it should come later. Finally, the waiter came and got our order, and he verified that the dessert should come after the food.

The movie continued. Our neighbors got their dessert. I became distracted by my hunger, and still no food. I became agitated. I watched every single person who passed in the aisle, hoping it was our waiter bringing our food. Finally, after 40 minutes - let me repeat that: 40 minutes - our food arrived. All of our food. The main course AND the dessert. Way to follow directions. I thought the sandwich was great, but wasn't thrilled with the fries, which they'd added queso to (we only wanted chili - not queso AND chili). J didn't care for either. And we had to hurry so the ice cream with our cake wouldn't melt.

It really had the potential to ruin the evening except for one thing. The movie was phenomenal! We saw Hamlet 2, and it was absolutely hysterical!! Now, it won't be for everyone. It's an independent film, and it has that indie feel to it, like Napolean Dynamite. It's irreverant, and there's a lot of foul language, so if that bothers you, don't go. It's low budget, mostly with actors you don't know, but a few familiar faces pop up (such as Elizabeth Shue - here's her first scene - who knew she was still around???), and honestly, it was just the best thing J and I have seen in a long time! Not everyone will get the kick out of it we did, but we laughed the whole freakin' time and so did all the people in the theater with us, and we've been saying lines from it since we got up out of our chairs. We really loved it!

The ads focus on the presence of Amy Poehler, but she has a really small part. She's funny, but not even close to being the focus. The lead actor is a guy named Steve Coogan, and he is absolutely the reason the movie is so great. He totally commits to the role of this washed-up actor teacher who is about THIS close to going off the deep end and doesn't quite know it. He's really the key to the whole movie. And the play his character writes, Hamlet 2, is a Springtime with Hitler kind of delight. We just had a great time watching it.

If you watch it and hate it, then probably you won't ever listen to me recommend anything again, but I hope it gets a great following. For us, it snatched a sinking evening right out of the crapper.

"I work for gas money. That's why I skate everywhere. And a DUI."

Come on, now.

Yahoo news had the following headline, "U.S. makes history in table tennis."

Table tennis. I think you mean ping pong. I'll try to control my excitement about U.S. athletic excellence in ping pong.

I mean, seriously - ping pong as an Olympic sport? That's really stretching it, folks. What would the training diet for that be? What kind of endorsements do you think the gold medal winner will get? You think Nike and Reebok have been in talks behind the scenes with the front-runners?

Really, people, what's next? Hopscotch? Jumping rope? How about some nail-biting see-saw competition or paddle ball?


And don't ask me, "Well, could you do it?" No. I couldn't play ping pong better than anyone else in the world. I can't Riverdance either. Doesn't mean it should be an Olympic sport. (Though that would actually have more of a justification for it than ping pong. At least it requires actual athleticism.)

In my email...

123everythingabout.com says, "We don't care about your score.."

My first thought was, "Well, then why did I bother playing?"

My second thought was, "If scores don't matter, does that mean we all get gold medals?"

But then I realized that I had tied with the Chinese gymnast for the gold, so what they were telling me was that even though we had the exact same score, the Chinese gymnast would be getting the gold, and I was going to have to settle for silver.

Bastards.

I'm (still) way too plugged in.

Sheeeesh, I disappear from Blogger for...what's it been? A couple of months, maybe a year?...and when I log back it in looks all differnt! I'm not sure if whatever changes they've made will actually affect anything about how I go about my a-bloggin' but I guess I'll find out.

I barely know how to use have the sites and equipment I belong to/own anymore. And this week I added another one. I joined Facebook because my college choir got a group going on there, and I wanted to belong (the sad, sad story of my life). I've been on there for a couple of days now, and I swear I'm like an old lady trying to figure out what all the little bells and whistles do.

I've been on MySpace for quite a while, and that's pretty user friendly. I have certain friends that that's about the only way I keep up with them. It'll be interesting to see how I keep up with Facebook. I swear, I have WAY too many portals to me via the Internet. But wadda ya gonna do?

I'd ponder all this longer, but there's a huge storm rolling in outside my office window, and I'm gonna cut outta here a few minutes early to try and get in the car before the massive rain starts. Latuh! (See how young and hip I am?)

I'm an eeediot.

I was going to blog about the greatness that is Michael Phelps, with some possible mention of a few other things Olympic, but the morning threw me a curveball, and instead I have to send a public shout-out to my awesome boyfriend, J!

I stepped into my garage this morning to head to work, and the light was on inside my car. Hmmmm. I don't remember going out to my car for anything this morning...so...that means it's been on since last night. Oh. Crap.

Sure enough, I get in the car, and it won't start. Apparently, I'd only half shut the door last night when I last got out of the car, so the door sat ajar all night with the light on, and by this morning, the battery was drained. I'm a moron.

I stepped outside to see if my neighbors were around, since they'd give me a jump, no problem. But they work construction, so they leave earlier than I do and were long gone. I contemplated the neighbors on the other side, but they don't speak English, and I didn't see myself knocking on their door at 7:15 a.m. and trying to explain myself.

AAA? Well, I have AAA. And if it's 1:00 a.m., and you're leaving the clubs, and some a-hole has let the air out of all 4 of your tires because he doesn't like where you parked in the parking garage (true story), AAA is a godsend. But anyone who has AAA can attest that as a general rule, they take about 45 minutes to 2 hours to get to you, depending on where the tow-truck-contractor is located when they call him and traffic, so if you're trying to get to work and you don't really want to wait 2 hours if you can help it, and you have any other option of someone who can get to you quicker and actually solve your problem, it's best to go with the other option.

All I needed was a jump, and J is only 20 minutes away. The downside is that one of the reasons he's a musician for a living is so he doesn't have to be awake at 7:15 a.m. So, calling him at that hour and asking him to drive all the way over to help me in morning traffic is not something that wins you girlfriend points. But it was my best option.

To J's never-ending credit, as soon as I told him what was going on, he said (in his groggy morning voice), "I'll be right there" with no hesitation. Thirty minutes later, my car was started, and I was on my way to work, arriving there early enough that I can make up the lost time on my lunch hour and not even have to burn any vacation time.

So, J, you are a rock star not just on stage, but also as a boyfriend! Thanks for being so awesome and savin' my bacon without a word of complaint. :)

USA! USA!

Wow, do I love the Olympics! I was up last night until after 11:00 (late for me), because I could NOT turn off the men's gymnastics competition. It was just that compelling!

First there was the drama of losing our two top gymnasts, and the team not even really being set until last week. The only names I knew on this team were the Hamm brothers, so I was curious to see how these other young guns would do. The media kept saying they really didn't have a shot at a medal, so I wasn't expecting much, but as an absolute credit to the spirit of those young men, they didn't let the naysayers tell them what they were capable of!

They got out there and just starting nailing *everything*! Jonathan Horton was on FIRE, and Justin Spring was solid as a rock. And they weren't playing it safe doing easy routines. They were doing really stellar stuff and just pounding it! It was like they were feeding off of each other's success. When one would go out and kick butt on a routine, the next one would go out and be like, "Okay, so we're puttin' on a show, then," and he'd go out and just be amazing. It was so exciting!

We fell short on the last apparatus, the pommel horse, except for a beautiful performance by Alexander Artemev, and ended up with bronze instead of silver, but the fact that they medalled, and that they were SO fantastic in their routines leading up to the horse was a real joy to watch. It made me so proud for them and proud to be an American - the can-do spirit! And the makeup of the team is perfect, too - guys from different backgrounds and heritages, all committed to the same goal and working as a team, showing the greatness that is America when we use our diversity to focus on the same thing and make us stronger. I love it!

And to give the devil his due, the Chinese were simply amazing. They really are incredible. It was right that they got the gold because they're just phenomenal. Real perfection.

Well, guys I'm looking forward to individual competition - I expect to see more hardware now that we know what you can do! Tomorrow I'll probably go on and on about Michael Phelps, because, hello, he's freakin' awesome! But today, it's all you, men's gymastics! You ROCK!!

God wants me to sleep.

Why is it that even though I got a full 8 hours of sleep last night, I still feel like I could keel over asleep right now? I had coffee this morning, so that's not it. And I've been busy, but not slammed today.

I do have a little bit of congestion - probably mold allergy since it's very humid and overcast today (perfect mold-growing conditions). Maybe that's it. Maybe if I just explained to my boss that I need to sleep at my desk because it's overcast outside, they'd understand. It's an act of God, right?

In my email...

Angie says, "You will be approved."

That's awesome, Angie. I like approval. I really do. I suppose I should be one of those people who just knows my own greatness and doesn't need the approval of others to be validated, but the truth is, I get a lot out of a pat on the back from someone else.

It's true that I can hear 10 people say I'm fantastic, and if one says I suck, I'll obsess about the one who hates me. That's got to be a flaw of some kind, and I'm working on that, though I think most people are probably like that. We all want to be liked. We all want other people to say we're the stuff of genius and all of our decisions are exactly the right ones. It's a pretty common emotional need. Otherwise peer pressure and advertising probably wouldn't work.

So, thanks Angie. Thanks for letting me know that my future will be filled with approval. Makes me look forward to the days ahead.

Be still my nostalgic heart.

You will not believe what I found online. Okay, get your mind out of the gutter right now! It's nothing skeevy. It's quite the opposite. It's a big ole trip down memory lane - right back to my childhood and to every summer that I can remember with any kind of pleasure! Back to a time when summer actually meant a break, time off, freedom. It's time-travel to my Toni Tennille haircut, pom-pom socks and terry-cloth shorts.

I found...

Full episodes of "The Love Boat" available for viewing online!

I'm not kidding. I wouldn't do that to you. Just go to CBS.com and it's in the Video section under Classics. They don't have every episode ever, but they have a bunch, and they're full episodes, meaning a full-on serving of 70s guest stars. John Ritter when he was...well, still alive, Maureen McCormick (Marcia Brady for those who don't know her real name), Robert Hegyes (of Welcome Back Kotter semi-fame) - it's a freakin' Parade of Stars, people!

Honestly, it makes me happy just to see those old shows. It takes me back to the carefree days of my youth, wishing I, too, could someday go on a cruise - on Princess Cruise Line of course! Who else? I wonder what kind of marketing bang they got for their buck with that little venture. It must've been massive.