Champagne Friday: This and That

I have a whole list of Random Musings from the past month that I've been typing furiously at stoplights and storing on my phone. So, I feel compelled to link up with Shana this afternoon for Random Musings Friday. Have your own random musings? Join the linky lunacy! It's almost as fun as popping the cork on a $6.00 bottle of spumante!

1. I saw this on Robyn's blog yesterday (admittedly, it was from a couple of weeks ago, but as I mentioned last week, I'm still playing catch-up). It's probably the funniest clip I've seen from a talk show in...well...ever. I adore Ellen but seldom watch because at 4PM, I am trying to tidy up, answer emails, start dinner, photograph jewelry, etc, etc. But I could watch this one clip for a straight 45 minutes and still be laughing. I have no idea this woman is, but I feel like, sloth adoration aside, we could probably be BFFEE.

2. In a rare moment of reasoning, Neal decided that asking for "unsweetened tea" is illogical, because that would assume the sugar was added and then taken out, thus making it "unsweetened." So, he has started asking for non-sweetened tea when we go out. It's bad enough that he is asking for anything but sweet tea in Georgia, but the request for "non-sweet tea" confuses everyone. From the cashier at Chick-Fil-A to the waitress at Olive Garden. They clarify that he wants "unsweet tea"...every. single. time. A couple of weeks ago, I pleaded that he just give up the fight and revert back to his old, sinful, grammatically incorrect ways. It will never catch on. And yet, I guarantee tonight at dinner he'll try again.

3. Neal loves to back the car into the driveway. Being able to just pull right out into the road in the morning means one less stressor on his way to work. Since the family across the street from us is competing with the Duggars, I thought I should start backing in, as well...especially because the Pathfinder is not equipped with a back-up camera. (P.S. Dear person who invented the back-up camera, We should dedicate a holiday to you.) Usually, this is not a problem. It's a fairly wide driveway and I just have to hook around a bit to the left to back into my spot. Except for last Tuesday night. It was late and dark and I was tired and I hit a tree. Eh...more like bumped it. I was going approximately 4 mph. But when I told Neal about it (after surveying the quarter panel to make sure there was no damage), he said "you hit the tree next to the driveway?" Yes. "But it's like 8' from the driveway." Yes. "So you were not actually in the driveway, but in the yard. You tried to back up into the yard." I'm done talking to you. It's just enough to make me want to strap a camcorder to my rear bumper and play it through my radio screen.

4. Finally...several weeks ago, Neal came home in a huff because he was missing some pieces to his uniform that he needed to take to a conference that weekend. He was going to make a run up to Clothing & Sales to see if they had the items. I agreed to go with him. It was warm and sunny and I needed a break. Since I was riding with him, I didn't grab anything but my phone and my military I.D., in case we went off base. And, for whatever reason, he didn't grab keys either. So, we were locked out of the house, looking at each other with that infamous expression of now what? Base housing charges $30 every time they have to come open your door. Neal was in no mood to spend $30. He improvised.

On one hand, I'm a little concerned that our house can be so easily infiltrated. On the other, I will gladly use that $30 for Nutella and ballet flats.

5. Just a few reminders...the auction to benefit Wings for Our Troops "in loving Memory of CPL Chad S Wade" will be next Wednesday, the 29th, on After Glow Bead's Facebook fan page. I will send one more reminder out on Tuesday night. She has a growing collection of donated items, from jewelry to glass to crocheted hats! I think the word epic applies here!

And Amanda @ It's Blogworthy will announce the winner of Daisy & Elm jewelry on Wednesday as well. It's not too late to post your tackiest, most-outdated clothing or jewelry that you still harbor in your closet! Go ahead and show us. We'll try to withhold most of our judgement.

May your sleep be deep, your to-do list short, and the weekend last for forever. We have a tornado watch here today. It reminded me that people in Florida get to drink Hurricanes...clearly we need a drink called The Tornado for our Tornado Parties.

Happy Champagne Friday!

Champagne Friday: Shameless Self Promotion

First...an apology. There has been some...er...stuff going on and by the end of the day, the best I can hope for is to get my to-do list checked off. Sometimes even that doesn't happen. Blogging falls off the bottom of the list, as does reading your blogs. It's certainly not intentional. If anything, being absent from the blogging community leaves a gaping, bleeding hole in my life. But rest assured this is not bad stuff. It's actually very good. I am, however, going to play it close to the vest for now. Not forever...but for now. The good news is, I'm very close to being all caught up with business affairs and can spend a large chunk of my weekend getting caught up on what's going on with y'all. And that makes me a happy panda indeed. So, without further ado...

Happy Champagne Friday! 

via the UK's Daily Mail

Although the Queen of England celebrated 60 years of life on the throne a couple of weeks ago, the Diamond Jubilee is not until June. So much champagne to drink between now and then.

I have two Daisy & Elm announcements today. No Random Musings, I'm afraid. But I'm collecting quite the list for next week. If you have some Random Musings of your own from this week, be sure to link up with Shana so you can share! 

February 29th is going to be a busy, busy day for D&E. Both events will happen on Leap Day. But if you can't cram as much as possible into 24-hour period that only rolls around roughly every 4 years, then why even bother?

After Glow Beads, a bead/gemstone/all things jewelry business with a storefront in Louisville, KY, is hosting an online auction to benefit Wings for Our Troops "in loving Memory of CPL Chad S Wade" beginning at 12:01 AM, Wednesday the 29th. I am asking for 2 things with regards to this event. If you are crafty and would like to donate an item to auction, please contact me through the comments or email. Although the majority of the items listed so far is jewelry, Tammy would like to include all handmade crafts. Do you knit? Sew? Create custom graphics? Bake? Bedazzle? If it's RED, it's RAD! Tami Boyette, founder of Wings for Our Troops, has already purchased 2 plane tickets for a Marine and his wife to fly home to see family before he deployed last month. Tami wrote about the presentation of tickets here. If you have flown lately, you know that a plane ticket can get pricey and many of our younger servicemembers can't afford to fly home before deployment. Y'know how they say the military gets paid hand over fist? Yeah...that's a well-circulated myth. Especially the enlisted. The winning bid on your donation will go directly towards a plane ticket for a servicemember in the future. Is there any better feeling? 

The auction is a win-win because even if you aren't crafty, you can still shop and bid and win! And that money goes towards plane tickets. Plus, you get something gorgeous and handmade. So...bead or bid...or both! The items listed so far can be found in the auction album on After Glow's fan page. New photos are posted almost daily as the donations roll in.

The second announcement concerns the ultra-talented, uber-witty Amanda of It's Blogworthy and her Birthday Celebration of the Celebrity Round-up that's featured every Friday. First, a word about the Celebrity Round-up: I don't read People, I don't watch TMZ (unless I'm blitzed on LIT's in Savannah), and I very rarely even read the Yahoo stories when I log on to check my mail. I am Celebrity Ignorant. Amanda rectifies that situation every Friday by covering the who, what, when, where, and why (although there's hardly ever a why) of celebrity gossip. In 10 minutes I'm completely caught up on the noteworthy news of famous and the infamous. It's more than a blog...it's a public service.

This week and next, she is hosting The Worst Dressed Link-up. Your post only needs a photo of your ugliest, tackiest, oldest, or most out of style clothing or accessory. That's it. The more hideous, the better. (It seems that hoarders may have a distinct advantage here.) As a reward for your unwillingness to toss anything from your closet, no matter how dated, you will be entered into a drawing for a shiny, new, hip piece of jewelry from Daisy & Elm. The idea being that "out with the old and in with the new." You have until the 29th to link up with Amanda and share your fuglies in hopes of winning something that could go a long way toward bringing you into 2012. Your entries will be judged by none other than Amanda herself, Surferwife, and me...of course. Our judge of poor fashion is directly related to the number of margaritas we've consumed. Fire up the blender, Amanda. We have a contest to judge! And you have an outfit to assemble. My advice? Start with something you would normally see at Wal-mart and go from there.

Thank you for hanging in with me these past few weeks. I will be stopping by this weekend to give you a healthy dose of love back. I miss you like the 1980's misses its parachute pants. Oooo...does somebody own parachute pants??

Champagne Friday...Phone Photo Phun

There has been quite a bit of talk on Facebook this week about how the days just seemed to drrraaaaggggg between Monday and today. And I agree. Tuesday felt like Thursday and Wednesday felt like Friday and then it all kind of went to hell. But Friday is here again and just in time, no doubt. I decided to clean out some randomly snapped pics on my phone in celebration. So, pour a glass and enjoy. Some of this you can only find in Georgia...as charming as it is.

This is some serious hometown pride. Consider that the vehicle is a Ford Explorer and thus has a pretty sizable rear window. Now look at the size of that sticker. Even from 4 cars away I could tell that it said "Macon, GA" but it was a special kind of joy to end right behind it at a stoplight. Are you this proud of your hometown?

It's a bird...it's a plane...it's a...no wait...it's definitely a plane. Being hauled up I-75. I never realized that a Nissan Pathfinder was the most efficient method to transport a plane, but then maybe it's no longer operational. It is wrapped in a body bag.

My only regret is that Target doesn't offer these in adult sizes. Nerdy Smurf on my feet? That's a win all the way around. High four!

A perfect example of "you get what you pay for." These interlocking exercise mats were on Amazon for $40. Neal, being the thrifty shopper that he is, found them at Sam's Club for $20. As he took them out of the package and started putting them together, he came up one short. I now realize that they intended you to make 2 squares of 4 mats each...but wouldn't a block of 9 make a lot more sense?

And finally...I snapped this yesterday as I was getting ready to back out at the post office. I do love to see synergy within the shipping industry. FedEx and the USPS holding hands and skipping sweetly down the yellow brick road. Or the FedEx chick just needed to drop her utility bill in the out box. Either way, I'm amused. 

May your weekend be long, the lines at the grocery store be short, and may your team reign victorious after Sunday's battle. Geaux Saints!! Oh...wait...

Happy Champagne Friday!

Seeing Gray on a Sunny Day

I do realize that the first time I've popped up over here in 2 weeks is just to drive you to another blog where I'm discussing UK's unveiling of the new Nike Hyper Elite Platinum uniforms...but I promise I've compiled a list for Champagne Friday tomorrow. So, that makes it all OK, right? Excellent.

Check me at From the Sidelines today and please weigh in on what you think about the new color combo. I will hear all opinions, but reserve my right to call you a freak if you disagree with me.

Champagne Friday: Random Style

thank you

I have been conspicuously absent around here this week. I haven't felt great and between catching up on Downton Abbey's season 2 premier on the PBS website, trying to stockpile R.E.D. Friday items, and starting my taxes...well, there hasn't been much of anything bloggy in my life this week. But I can't let a Champagne Friday pass without celebrating. So this week I'm popping a cork and recounting some random events from the past week that never quite made it onto the blog. If you have a little random of your own, be sure to link up with Shana.

1. Neal has started back to school so while he's writing papers about the structure of leadership in organizational leadership in leadership companies (or something), I'm watching 30 Rock...from start to now. That's 102 episodes. I'm on number 70. So far, I've learned that Frank is not that foul when dressed as a Harvard man, Jason Sudeikis is way hotter when he's playing Liz's boyfriend, and that show has a lot of guest stars. Like people who, I would imagine, have to appear due to some unfortunate loophole in their contract (especially any cast members from SNL...except for Seth Myer. How did he get out of it?).

2. A number of my friends opted out of Christmas cards this year and decided to go with Happy New Year's cards instead. And here I thought they just didn't care. Also, we are sending out Happy Arbor Day cards instead of Christmas cards so, y'know, keep an eye open for that coming soon to your mailbox.

3. All of the sports commentators nonchalantly commented on Tuesday night that Auburn wouldn't give UK too much trouble in the game on Wednesday. Thanks a freakin lot, guys. We nearly lost and I would have been all too happy to blame it on you and your dooming predictions. Save them for our opponents, will you?

4. While watching the evening news this week, there was a commercial for a flavor enhancer that you put in your food. It comes in a packet and you add the "chicken" flavor to chicken, "beef" flavor to beef, and so on. What the what? Do I even want to know why companies don't think our chicken tastes chickeny enough for us?

5. The season 2 premier of Downton Abbey got clobbered by the critics. Of course, these are the same people who said I should watch Dances With Wolves (still haven't made it through without falling asleep), How Green Was My Valley (sounds like a porn film), and Titanic (OK, you have me there. Although geez, Rose...can you freaking scoot over so Jack doesn't have to freeze to death?). But I thought it was magnificent. A bit of a twist for Mr. Bates and Anna...a little bit o war to keep it real...and Dame Maggie inserting barbs whenever possible. They will probably not win any awards for their depiction of the English at war, but I don't watch DA (I'm going to shorten it and see if it catches on in the interwebs) for the war scenes. I watch it to see Mrs. O'Brien scheme and Lady Mary pine after Matthew. Because I'm a chick and that's what we do.

6. Lastly, Neal has discovered a pizza place in Macon that is 7 different types of garlicky goodness. They get their crust to puff up like Papa John's, but without the tub of grease floating on the top. But if you don't have anything of the Ingleside variety near you, Papa John's is giving away a pizza every 45 seconds every Saturday until Super Bowl. I guess this is their new marketing strategy...if there's going to be a heart attack every 45 seconds, let's make sure we're the leading cause.

Happy Champagne Friday. A toast to you, wherever you are!

Champagne Friday: The British Are Coming

you're the best

I was actually searching for an image of British royalty casually sipping on champagne for this post. But a complete lack of images tells me one thing: the British royalty do not openly sip champagne. And I just think that's a damn shame. Although, I bet Camilla does a pretty healthy keg stand.

For this Champagne Friday, I am unabashedly singing the praises of PBS's new season of Downton Abbey. No...that is not DownTown Abbey. That would be a McMansion parked squarely in Covent Garden. Downton Abbey is the engaging and soap opera-esque story of the upstairs inhabitants of a country home outside of London and the downstairs staff that keeps it running.

With the exception of Maggie Smith (that's Dame Maggie Smith to you), who plays the reigning Dowager Countess of Grantham (but may be more familiar from her roles in Harry Potter), I recognized none of the cast. But they perfectly execute their roles so that it's easy to imagine yourself falling into the patterns of either the upstairs or downstairs lifestyle. I recently read a review in the USA Today that said one of the reasons Downton Abbey is such enthralling entertainment is because the staff are not treated like third class citizens by the upstairs residents. In the first season, the cook cried on the earl's shoulder and the butler lent comfort to the oldest Grantham sister. Their lives are intertwined and the series shows an easy, albeit occasionally dramatic, interaction between those living upstairs and those working downstairs.

The second season starts on PBS on Sunday, which is why I'm spewing my British love, all the way from the colonies, here today. If you want to get caught up before Sunday, fortunately the first season is only approximately 7 hours long. You can find the 7 episodes of about 45 minutes each on Netflix instant streaming or you can watch them on the PBS website. Another reason to love a hit PBS show? As they are facing a possible cut in government funding, it's so much easier to donate to a station that gives added quality to your life. Also, it's public television and I have yet to hear anyone on Downton Abbey drop an f, s, or h-bomb. And the sex scenes consist of a twee bit of kissing and maybe a hand wrapped around the head. Three cheers for not having to cover Neal's eyes!

I'll leave you with some of the Dowager Countess's more cutting remarks...so very British...so very witty. They are delivered so precisely and so quickly sometimes that it's hard to get them all!

And some of these could give a bit of the plot away so if you would rather hear for yourself, then I'll leave you here. Happy Weekend and Happy Champagne Friday!


"I couldn't have electricity in the house, I wouldn't sleep a wink. All those vapors floating about."

"Last night! He looked so well. Of course it would happen to a foreigner. No Englishman would dream of dying in someone else's house."

"Why does everyday involve a fight with an American?"

Corn and Caucuses (or what I learned from Wikipedia this morning)

This is what I know about Iowa:

1) It is in the midwest.
2) They grow corn there.
3) When I was 10 years old, the love of my 5th grade year, Jeremy Woodford, moved with his family (as if he had a choice at the ripe age of 10 to stay behind and live out his days with me) to Des Moines and left me clutching his elementary school football jersey in the gym after a dance.
4) Every 4 years, the candidates flock to the state to duke it out and win over the undecided voter.

The Iowa caucus generally falls on the first Tuesday of January, which means you probably missed most of the hype due to the month-long excitement of office Christmas parties and watching the Yule Log on Netflix. But even when you aren't tuned in, it still happens.

Iowa seems to be a rather random choice for candidates to attack and conquer. A more rational decision would be Texas. Look how many people live in Texas. That's like half the country. Seal up the Texan vote and you are as good as inaugurated. Or what about Maryland? Those folks live so close (and sometimes intertwined with) the D.C. set that surely they would only vote in someone they deem worthy as a neighbor.

But, nope, Iowa it is. All because Georgia governor, Jimmy Carter, used his "win" in Iowa to catapult him into success in New Hampshire and ultimately to 1600 Pennsylvania. Ever since, candidates have traveled to America's land of corn and Jeremy Woodford to hold court in places like The Pizza Ranch. These town hall meetings, which sometimes happen in a town hall but more often than not take place in someone's colonial home living room (decorated with Queen Anne coffee tables and a roaring fire) are called caucuses. I love the word caucus. I think it sounds like a rowdy party of cactuses (except, technically it's cacti and when you say it like that it just doesn't make sense any more). So these cactuses get together on a Friday night and, fueled by Captain Morgan rum and the hopes of bumping pricklies with a cactus from Economics class, throw a toga party in the basement of a city hall building. By midnight, the DJ is grinding jams while the cactuses are grinding trunks and that is called a caucus.

Or it's "a smoke-filled room where candidates for public election are pre-selected in private", according to the diary of James Adams. Although James Hammond Trumbull suggested that it comes from the Algonquin word for counsel. And other sources claim it is derived from the Latin word caucus, meaning "drinking vessel".

Regardless of whether they're getting counseled or getting drunk, Iowa gets the first stab at it every 4 years. But the Iowa caucus is not without its fair share of controversy.

Winning the Iowa caucus does not always equate to presidency.

Apparently, the Democrats must vote publicly in an Iowa caucus, which is just lunacy. Even a Kindergarten teacher can tell you that closing your eyes and raising your hand is the only legitimate way to take a vote.

Absentee voting is not allowed. Our deepest apologies to all of the Iowan military serving abroad. You are basically Washington D.C. during the Iowa caucus.

The equation for calculating votes is apparently very complex and not as easy as "1 for Bachman, 5 for Gingrich, 19457436368474 for Romney."

Speaking of complex, my hat goes off to whomever wrote the breakdown for the Democratic and Republican processes for Wikipedia. I got hopelessly lost somewhere around the 2nd paragraph and started thinking about how I was so hungry for strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. But I think everyone would agree, you know your political shit.

So, today is a big day for the corn-fed. They will close their eyes and raise their hands (being Republican and all) and later tonight someone will emerge victorious. I hope it's Rick Santorum in those ridiculous v-neck vests. I see a fashion trend there that's just itching to emerge.

And now that I think about it, maybe substitute the word "potato" for every time I used the word "corn". Hard to keep my starches straight.

Do you live in Iowa? Do you have some light to shed on the matter? Are you offended that I called you corn-fed? Don't take it personally, so am I.