13 Things I Dig...

Thirteen things I'm into right now

1 - Totally into Moxi. I have just about everything scheduled to record, I can record two shows at the same time AND watch something I've previously taped while the other two are recording. I have already gone through the fall line up and prepared what I will be watching. I am NO LONGER a slave to my TV. I watch what I want when I want and I do it in less time (since I can fast-forward commercials) so. If I am on vacation I can say - be on vacation and not worry that Ghost Whisperer is on and it looked really good this week. No more do I have to choose between The L Word and Grey's Anatomy (like there is any question which one I would watch - plus Grey's is moving to Thursday) I can schedule my Numbers and Monk at the same time and it's ok! Amy gets irritated that I play with it while something is on TV, and that's understandable, but it is never anything important. hah

2 - Wickedly love my Pandora - www.pandora.com and create your own radio station. You say what artists/songs you like and it will spit back at you songs/artist it thinks you will like in return. You, from there, have the option to veto songs (watch it, you can only veto just so many per hour) and you have the ability to buy it right there from iTunes, approve the song, add it to your favorites for call back later on, see some background about the performer AND put any song on the shelf. Say you like Cecelia by Simon and Garfunkel but you have just had enough hearing it - it's played at least once a day - you can put it on the shelf for a month and not worry about it, AND you don't waste a skip (I don't think)

3 - Chris Pureka (haah I typed Christ) - SO anyway Chris Pureka. If you are reading my blog you are likely to know who Chris is anyway but for those of you that do not - take this time right here and go educate yourself www.myspace.com/chrispureka she is super talented and super cute. (Plus if you look in my pictures you will see a picture of she, me, and amy) Her new album is in the works and I'm just thrilled that she will be coming back to Minnesota in October and can hardly wait to go to another show, a show of HER this time, not her opening for someone else. All Chris Pureka - all the time is how it should be. She is just phenom! Which leads me to ..4 and the next phenom -

4 - Brianna Lane - First I have to thank G for getting me super addicted to Brianna and for Chris (even though I heard of Chris before G but not to the magnitude I did until after..) First I have to say that I have seen Brianna 4 times and going to see her again tomorrow night. I am not stalking her, no but I am absolutely impressed and amazed by her talent. Amy and I were chatting about Brianna after her show and the g/f had the brilliant insight to say that the thing about Brianna is that she keeps your attention. And she is right - While others are writing about feelings and blah blah Brianna brings it to life with visuals, with Brianna I can see the porch light being out and someone forgetting and trying to flip it on, I can see the zipper pulls in the jars, and I can see the man in the raincoat. PLUS she is a fantastic performer and very very down to earth...go check her out too! www.myspace.com/briannalane (she looks like the g/f's sister in law P)

5 - Bill Bryson - Right now I'm reading "A Short History of Nearly Everything" and I'm just about to the part that Einstein is born (It's on the same page that I am currently reading just haven't quite gotten there yet) and the book is captivating. Bryson has this way of taking something mundane and turning it into comedic genius. While this book is still a bit dry because it's so factual, he throws in sentences for the common person and facts about scientist that keep me captivated. I have been hooked on Bill since Erika's friend Colin from Ireland mentioned him years ago - the book Made in the USA (a.k.a. Made in America) was great - talking about the origins of words we use, how we butchered the words from other countries and made them our own etc. He even mentions a professor that I had in college while discussing cussing (and mentions the college I attended and the book that Jay wrote that I read. Even though he exaggerated in the book - my professor not Bryson). I think, by far, my favorite Bryson book so far is A Walk in the Woods. Seriously I was reading it on the bus from IBM to Mayo and I read one part about why Bryson wanted to walk the Appalachian trail (so he could tell others he $hit in the woods) and the way he phrases things made me laugh out loud...people on the bus thought I was crazy....mind you the rest of the people on the bus WERE crazy... If you have the time to read, check out one of Bill's books. He does a lot of travel books and nostalgia books so, you will probably find him in the TRAVEL section of your library or Barnes & Noble/Bookstore.

6 - I'm into my camera man, not my "Camera Man", My CAMERA, man. It is so sweet. It is so sweet that I'm not sure why I even had to think about it. I am loving that Amy and I saved $125 on it by seeing it online cheaper (BestBuy honored the online price) AND we had a "Save 12 percent" coupon which took off another $58 bucks. (and we had a gift card from when we bought the computer as a reward) so we saved a chunk of change on it. We planed to buy it w/o the $125 savings but it made it all the more enticing when we realized how much we could save, and still get the 1Gb chip and get some LCD covers. Now onto the camera - Night photos. It takes fantastic night photos. 12x Optical zoom. Not only am I going to Mt Rushmore in 3 weeks, I will be able to see the boogers up Jeffersons nose while I'm there. The zoom is insane. I was sitting on my bed and about 15 feet away is the bathroom so I zoomed in just to see what I could see (and it wasn't the other side of the mountain) but I could see a single hair on the bathroom floor. It was brown. I'm going to have good times with that puppy.

7 - Reality TV - SOOO hooked on reality TV right now... Project Runway is back on, Big Brother 7: All-Stars, Hell's Kitchen, Treasure Hunters...seriously, it's insane fun! I was bummed that Malan got booted on PR Wednesday Night - he touched my heart when he said his mom threw his book down and said he'd amount to nothing...and I love his laugh hahah - Angela sooo should have gone home. She looks like she should have been on square pegs. BB7 - so sick of the BB6 alliance, I had enough of BB6 during BB6. Pullin for Jase to take it and run! I just like him this season so much better than BB5. Hell's Kitchen! Sarah just needs to go. She should have gone last week. Rootin for Heather man, rootin for Heather! (And K-grease). TH= Wild Hanlon's...I kinda miss them. haha. Pullin for the southie boys or ex-cia. Kayte is making me sick. SOON comes on - Americas Next Top Model, Survivor, Amazing Race, and American Idol. And while it's not your typical Reality TV - I am loving America's Funniest Home Videos. I watch it every night and I laugh like a crazy person. I am sick of the pinata's and I'm sick of guys getting hit in the junk, but otherwise I love it. I love when people get scared, but I have a hard time watching because I'm laughing so hard that I can't keep my eyes open to watch the succession of clips!

8 - Camping. Never thought I'd see that one. Camping has been so much fun now that I am doing it as an adult. A few years ago the g/f and I went to Duluth for Labor Day and it was the best camping time every, the next year we didn't camp because we had just moved into our house and were occupied with that on the weekends. This year though - for my birthday we went camping, a group (TFM) came with as a group event and it was GREAT! There was fire, frothy beer, food, friends, fun games, frisbee, and G played us the guitar - other sites clapped too! We are planning another camping trip for the first weekend in August (for half the TFM) and ANOTHER in South Dakota for 4 days in later August (for another sect of the TFM). I don't drink much but I like to relax and have drinks and enjoy the stars and fire and chatting and music. (and the one is SD will be filled with prime opportunities to use my new camera!!!)

9 - I'm really digging my new floor in the family room (finished basement). I will have to post pictures of what we moved into, what we changed it to, and what we changed it to - ripping up carpet, ripping out entertainment centers, recovering the bar, laying new floor, putting up a new ceiling, updating light fixtures. It's a whole new room! So the flooring - We go to Menards see (Save big money at menards yo) and there was some flooring on sale but decided that we liked the next step up (it was still on sale, but not as good a price) we initially decided or thought about this color that is light oak - you find it in any of the cookie cutter houses that are out there now. I decided that I liked the Walnut (I think it's Maple really) better. It was a warmer wood with a busier design AND it wasn't something you'd find in every pre-fab home. So the g/f and her dad laid the smack down on it last weekend. It's sweet.

10 - The word "Word". Such a kickback...and here I thought I was the only one using it and getting others to say it when I start to watch tv and OTHERS are using it, I was so excited. Word yo! Word, right Dana?

11 - The g/f, My sisters (and family) - so yea now that I'm older I do appreciate my sisters more. Erika is 6 years (almost 7) younger than I am, and Meg is 12 years younger. Now that we are all out of high school, Erika with kids & a home, and Meg away from home too, we actually have things to talk about. I worry sometimes that when my mom dies in the future that we are going to lose the glue that kept us together but now I don't think we will. We have such a generation gap sometimes that I worry but I think we will be ok, I love my sisters they rock. :) And of course my family. and my g/f. My gram is. Honestly, there is no word for her, she just is. She makes me laugh like i've never laughed, she makes me happy, and sad, and she keeps me informed (and then some) she helped me be who I am today and at 87 years old, she still watches my niece and nephew. My gramp is just like my gram only a guy hahah, he is hilarious and the two of them together is enough to make anyone get dizzy haha. My mom - my step dad (fill in mushy stuff here) I could go on for hours about Logan and Hailey so I won't. but without my family I'd be lost. Which brings me to the g/f - ya know when you are in the store looking for those sappy valentines day cards and blah blah they are sticky sweet and all that? she's all that PLUS those stupid campy cards that make you groan and laugh :) I am so thrilled that her class is done for summer and I get to see her again! She figured out in this past year (not including weekends) that she and I have seen each other for 45 hours. And folks, those aren't 45 hours in a row. They are 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there, and a whoping 25 minutes when I decide to stay up late to catch a TV show with her. It's horrible, but we shall overcome.

12 - TFM. I say TFM a lot on here and I'm not sure anyone knows what it's all about. It's basically a group of women that are friends. There is this national thing about the gay m@fia/lesbian m@fia (that would be the "M" in TFM) and we would joke that we have our own sect of it. There are about 13 or 14 of us with a few other honorary members here and there that we don't hang out with as much but do on occasion. Now the "TF" is the funny part. G, the g/f, and I went to the Catie Curtis show in March and the opening act was the 3 alto's or tenors or something (I can't remember at all) so the 3 singers and while being presented onstage they were introduced as "The Folk singer, the Rabbi, and the Sexologist" (ya know like the beginning of the joke) and it was OUR job to figure out which is which. Well a guitar fell down and one of the chicks went to fix it and she said "well, I'm the folk singer" and we all giggled and while she was re-tuning her guitar to fill the time they told us who was who and the rabbi chatted for a minute then the sexologist said - well I can give you a demonstration on where to find the g-spot. and we all roared - it had to do with taking two finger (TF) and position them in such a way to reach it, and she used the roof of her mouth as an example. So there you go - TFM. SO ANYWAY - These girls are so much fun that I'm going to be sad in a few years when we pack up and move. Now that we are all adults with homes and jobs and lives our friendships have matured as well, there is no more campiness, not cattiness, (well not totally) and we generally have a group that gets along. It's almost impossible to have a group of friends that large that all get along and some of us don't but we are all big enough to at least "deal" with who we can't. My top 16 has 6 of us, and a few others are floating around in my friends list. I don't know when we are going to move (3 or 4 years maybe) so I don't think about it now, but one of us is leaving at the end of August. Luckily for the g/f and I she is going to Massachusetts so we will see her on our trips back home. (Like this new years eve we might get to spend with her then drive home the next day - depends on everything else going on at that time and it's still like 6 months away). We have a lot of fun together - camping, game nights, fire pits, bar nights, dinners, bbq's, pride, etc. I am not looking forward to moving and trying to find friends like these again...it just simply can't be done.

oh and

13 - (I almost stopped at 12!!) hmmm how about COFFEE ICECREAM!!! While this isn't new to me, it's a favorite of mine. I hate Coffee, that is - I hate drinking it. I love everything else about it, the smell, the flavor, the color, just everything but I can't stand brewed coffee. I love coffee ice cream so much it is insane. It was hard to find it when I first moved to Minnesota...the local companies didn't make it, then I started to see Edie's in the store and THEY sometimes carried coffee, then I saw STARBUCKS came out with ice cream - and of course it was coffee! Then Breyers made it's way in and then, then, then the bestest thing to Coffee Ice Cream happened. I discovered Coldstone Creamery. They have this coffee lovers thing that I just adore - it's coffee ice cream, caramel sauce, almonds, and toffee chips. OH MY GOD. To die for. My obsession with coffee ice cream started with Friendly's...and anyone that's had Friendly's ice cream and then someone else's - the other ice cream tastes weak and isn't NEARLY as creamy. Friendly's has delicious coffee ice cream and they have this peanut butter sauce they put on their peanut butter cup ice cream sundae (and other sundaes) and one day I decided that I liked the coffee ice cream, and I like the peanut butter sauce so I should put them together. oh snap. wow. So now that I'm out here in MN and there aren't any Friendly's out here I have my mom go buy some sauce from Friendly's and mail it out to me. I am dying for some, I haven't had it since Christmas.

Erika - go buy me some and ship it out, mom isn't feeling good. I need it. Oh and the g/f wants some Dunkin Donuts coffee please. I could also use a tub of Fluff please, and some Molly's smilie face cookies AND some of the maple walnut cupcakes from Molly's and I need a couple Everything bagels from Dunkin Donuts....I think that's it, go buy it and send it :) Everything else I'll get when I'm home next *hugs*

Ok done...so Thanks Moxi, Pandora, Chris Pureka, Brianna Lane, Bill Bryson, Sony, Reality TV, Minnesota State Parks (and South Dakota too), laminate flooring, the letters w-o-r-, and d, My family/sisters and my gal, my friends in the TFM, AND coffee Ice cream...I love you all so much :)

WORD!