Twitterific

It started as a lark. My kids were talking about twitter so I decided to sign up & check it out. At first I only followed my kids plus Tony Caridi, the WVU play-by-play announcer. Easy enough, manageable . . . took only a few seconds a day. My son, Trent, then pointed out that I could get twitter on my iphone. Twitterific! One day I decided to add a couple of people that I knew were on twitter. Then these people added me. Soon strangers added me so I added them. Then I discovered celebrities on twitter so I added people like John Mayer (who twitters so much I may have to drop him!), ET & Ryan Seacrest. Then a friend of my nephew's was on American Idol so I added both him & his fansite. Of course, I was also twittering (tweeting) while I was adding & being added to other accounts. It wasn't long before I got some direct messages so I fired messages back. Recently I discovered both the head football coach & basketball coach at WVU were on twitter . . . couldn't add them fast enough! Soon I began checking my twitter account at red lights & while grocery shopping. I find it fascinating to not only keep up with those in my family who tweet but to also get random comments from miscellaneous other people.

I know I have an addictive personality (thank God I never tried drugs!) so I guess it's not surprising that I have now become a twitter addict. Is there a 12 step program for this? 

De-frazzling

After spending the majority of the weekend gathering data for FOUR tax returns, I am rather frazzled! Today I will drop all of this off at the accountant's . . . yippee . . . It will be off my back & become someone else's problem! I don't know why I find this so daunting. Perhaps it's because the IRS is pretty formidable, & I'm afraid of making a mistake. A prison term is not part of my long range plan! At any rate it will be a great feeling to have this over & done. What a bummer to spend most of the weekend immersed in paperwork though!

My project of having the main bathroom renovated was supposed to take a week. It was bad enough that the bathroom was torn apart the day before Ryan, Renea & Owen were coming for the weekend, but I thought it would be worth it to have it finished by Friday, March 20. Here we are on March 31st, & the bathroom is still a work in progress. Yikes! I'm sick of living with the mess not to mention the inconvenience. Contractors are just in a league of their own when it comes to deadlines!

On the home front there are a couple of exciting tidbits of news:

It was discovered on Saturday that 5 year old Owen is following in his father's footsteps & is a natural breaststroker! He also has signed up for a t-ball team.

It was believed that Drew, who will be 3 in May, had narrowly missed the cutoff to play 3-4 year old t-ball (can't really even wrap my mind around that!) this summer, but they will make an exception for him. Alrighty then, let's play ball!

TREATS!!!

Who knew? Apparently everyone but me! I only get unsweetened iced tea at McDonalds & don't give their menu a passing glance when I go to the drive-thru to order my tea. The other day my friend, Nancy, came back to the office after lunch with a treat for me. McDonald's low fat yogurt with berries & granola. Whoa, this is wonderful! In addition, my eight year old niece told me you can get apple slices with fat free caramel dipping sauce at Burger King. Well, I tried that & YUM! So I have been sharing this information with my friends all of whom already knew about these treats. Yikes, I feel like I've been living in a cave!

One thing (inevitably) leads to another . . .

While shopping for a new WVU t-shirt for myself, I went to the boys department since those shirts fit me better & are generally less expensive. I found a shirt, but before I could buy it I spotted a WVU warm-up suit in Drew's size 50% off. Naturally, I had to have this too thinking I could save it for his birthday. I then went to get a baptism gift for Tyler. After I purchased his gift, I thought that I might as well give Drew the warm-up on Sunday when Tyler will be getting lots of gifts. So, that should have been the end of it, but a couple days later when I went to Walmart to purchase a cd, I saw a WVU basketball uniform in kids' sizes so I bought both Drew & Owen a uniform. Then I needed to get something more for Tyler so I bought him a couple of WVU onesies. Things seemed to be pretty even-steven at that point, but unfortunately, before I could check out I saw Spiderman t-shirts in Owen's size. So I picked one out, then went to see if I could find something comparable for Drew & Tyler. As luck would have it, I was able to get Spiderman t-shirts for them too. I proceeded to check out without a glance to the left or right since I feared I might find something else that would be just too cute to pass up. So not only have I purchased what I had planned (a little gift for Tyler's baptism & a t-shirt & cd for me), but I have also bought a warm-up, 2 onesies, 2 basketball uniforms, & 3 t-shirts. (Think I may refrain from shopping for awhile!)

Baffled

Today as I was cleaning up my computer desktop & assigning photos to various albums, I came across this picture. I know that it was taken by my camera, not my iphone, but I have no idea who it is or where it came from. Owen & Drew occasionally will take a picture, but this is so random that I'm baffled by it. Before sending this to the trash, I thought I might just see if anyone could identify this person.

Reality Rant

This week my reality tv life started out well with perhaps the best show of them all--The Amazing Race. My only real complaint with this show is that sometimes winning does not give the team a time advantage on the next leg of the race as waiting for flights or for a specific business to open allows other teams to catch up. I'm sure this is done to keep the whole thing competitive though.

On to Monday's Bachelor--yikes, there are no words! I haven't watched this show for quite a while, but there was something really appealing about Jason Mesnick, single dad of a 3 year old son & two-time loser in love. He seemed like such a stand-up guy. A couple weeks prior to the finale though, the sleaze factor emerged for me as he spent the night with three different women in the span of a few days. (Anyone else worried about STD's?) In addition, he was routinely shown kissing & making out with all of them in the same day & sometimes even on the same date! As you may have heard, he was torn between two women in the end. Now in my opinion these conflicted feelings should have been enough for this man to know he was not ready to propose marriage to anyone, but nooooo! He dumped one, sobbed uncontrolably, then proposed to the other all on the same day. Fast foward to the show immediately following the finale--Six weeks have elapsed from the proposal to the taping of this After the Final Rose show. On this show, he changes his mind & dumps his fiancee; then asks the one he rejected to take him back. Like a fool she agrees! Of course, in five minutes they are making out. The real winner here--bachelorette Jillian, who made it to the final three & was then eliminated. Well, I'm so angry that I wasted three hours watching this on Monday & that I ever actually thought this man had any redeeming qualities. Somewhere his ex-wife is probably laughing her head off!

Last, but not least, American Idol. For me this show has become over-produced & far less of a "reality" show each season. In the preliminary auditions, they cut a huge number of people who can actually sing so that some of the crazies go through to see Randy, Paula, Simon, & Kara.
That might have been a mildly entertaining in the first season, but it's become old & tired now. It seems the power-that-be at Idol are more interested in drama, backstories, etc., than in providing an opportunity for an unknown singer to emerge to win a recording contract. As a viewer I would like to see all singers who make the top 36 have a televised audition. Since the show chose to show drama instead of singing in the early weeks, a few of the top contestants were seen for the first time the night they had to sing to be voted through to the top 12 while others already had been so heavily featured that they already had fan clubs & had the message boards buzzing. Level playing field? I think not! Yes, I've become cynical & am so over watching this contrived show!

The good news . . . Dancing with the Stars premieres on Monday!