muskifest

Hello, everybody! I wanted to drop in to say I wish you all a very happy holiday season with lots of love, laughter and warm hugs! My hubby, two daughters and I had a great Christmas morning and everybody was uber happy with our gifts. I'll get my mom from the nursing home later this afternoon to join us for our pot roast with carrots and rutabagas, mashed potatoes, Caesar salad and apple pie Christmas dinner. It's a laid back day for us. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I'm late with HAPPY BIRTHDAY wishes for Karen Eh! :04: Hope it was a happy, happy one, babe! And congrats, Couchie, on that full-time with benefits status! You deserve it! :ura:

FearofH20 Or maybe because France is between England and Germany?

Thanks, COUCHIE, for meeting me for lunch yesterday. It seems like forever since the last time we saw each other, but just as soon as we sat down and started shootin' the sh...stuff, it all came back to me! :3: This Saturday should be interesting---gonna be having lunch with three women from my high school class! Holy crap! Turns out one lives only 20 miles from me and she's having another one from Virginia visiting her and then a third who lives in Oregon is flying down for the day. Except for the one from Oregon, whom I saw when I took Alex up to college, I haven't laid eyes or thought of these women since the last high school reunion that I attended---28 years ago! Found all these gals through Facebook! Anyhoo...they were all part of the 'in' crowd---cheerleaders, student govt. leaders, club presidents, etc. All petite and 'cute', etc. I, on the other hand, was tall, overweight and had braces on my teeth junior and senior year. Although I was 'friends' with them, I never really felt a part of their crowd. Then again, at that horrid time in my life, I didn't really feel a part of any group, you know? Dayum, I hated high school. At that high school reunion those 28 years ago, however, I looked DAMNED hot! Slim, tan and quite the confident beyotch, you know? Ah, how the mighty have fallen.....

jmh...warm thoughts for you and your family....And wishes for peace....for everyone.

YO, COUCHIE! CHECK YO' PM'S, WOMAN! I swear, mumblemumblegrumblewhine, you don't talk with a person for forever and then when you TRY to talk with that person, her phone has some high falutin' recorded bitch telling you that she ain't acceptin' no calls! bitchmoanwhinegrumble. :23: :rant:

Well, since I know I am not one of those who only live to criticize, and although I DO appreciate Adam's talent, I won't take any jabs personally. .... I think it's great that those of you who were there and have come back to emphasize positive are allowed to do so and are well received. I know some others who were at the very same event and heard and saw the very same Clay Aiken and have very different reports and reactions, so it's not just the opinions of those who were there and who were not, I don't think. I have to think that Clay would expect people's opinions to be all over the place. God knows he's not wary of expressing his frank opinion of another singer's performances--both in praise and pretty blunt condemnation! Clay just "happened" to only listen to Lambert during that (IMO) horrendous Ring of Fire performance and yet made some pretty damning conclusions about his voice and style in general. I, on the other hand, have followed and listened to Clay for six years' worth of performances and so can say with much more 'authority', I believe, that the quality of Clay's voice last night doesn't compare well with what I've heard from him before. I'm NOT basing a doom-and-gloom prophecy of any kind for him as a result of last night's vocal showing; I'm just saying that my ears do NOT hear in last night's songs the same professional delivery, mastery of range, or tonal quality that we know he has exemplified over the past years. I'm not conjecturing about the possible reasons for that; I'm just saying that my conclusion is a valid one---to my own senses. I hope he is deeply involved in and excited about singing still and will create a great product that showcases that VOICE that I know still resides in him. I will say, though, that if he really has serious intentions on being a vocal performer as a career, he'll need to find a better balance between exercising and honing his God-given talent, and retreating from public performances or taking a break for his personal life, etc., for so long. Again, this is my opinion. He's good---ridiculously better than good, actually---but he's not exempt from getting 'rusty'.

Glad to hear about the money raised for the foundation and that NIP won the cookie contest! Hope all you gals who were there had fun and thanks for bringing back clack! Obviously, his voice was not in its best form and forgetting the words so much to GOG is not cute to me. Four songs to 'learn' and remember. I know that the Gala is not a concert, per se, and that the purpose of it is not for HIM to give to US, but the other way around. For me, though, at least after listening to the downloads, his vocal performances seemed to reflect lack of warm up or preparation and that's too bad. I hope it's only because of the rough week he's had emotionally in his personal life and/or because he's struggling with a cold or allergies or something. Hearing this particular performance of songs only made me long for what I know he CAN do. I hope Moon River, if it is on the new cd, is not indicative of the whole feel of the next musical effort. My personal opinion and tastes. Hope he's happy and healthy. Hope all of you are, too.

Hey, all you baseball fans! Carrie's team played in a tournament this past weekend and one of the teams we faced was one coached by Willie McGee. Remember him? Outfielder, fast-as-lightening player for....Cardinals? Giants? Anyway, I know he was MVP of the National League one year. We beat them Saturday and then we both made the championship game yesterday. We were ahead 6-0 and then something clicked and our infield (including my daughter, the pitcher) starting playing like the Keystone Cops, defensively, and got behind 9-6! We loaded the bases with two outs in our last at bat, but couldn't bring them in, so Willie's team won. But it was a great battle. And as we know....second place ain't bad, is it?

Wow. So many of us here have experience dealing with parents or close relatives with Alzheimers! Interesting about the bathing thing. The fear or dislike of taking baths/showers seems to be a very common thing among Alzheimers victims. I wonder why. All you going to the Gala---have a blast and be VERY afraid of us waiting here for your DETAILED reports!

Oh, God. I hadn't thought of this but....I just KNOW there are some 'fans' who will think it's just fine to do just that. But I'll keep the faith and hope that good sense and decency will prevail. You know, my mother is suffering from Alzheimers. I think the best gesture of compassion and sympathy someone could make when she dies is to send a donation in her honor to the Alzheimers Association. This disease has to be among the cruelest there is, and the idea that someone wanted to contribute to keeping the hope alive for a cure would mean the most to me.

The banner? :Thud: :Thud: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

Now see...this is where I have to liken this contest to an athletic championship. If I may..... In football the two best teams determine who the VERY best is--the SUPER BOWL CHAMPS--after playing only ONE game. In basketball and baseball, there are multiple championship games to determine the winner. These two pics deserve more than one day of voting. It can NOT be like football. It SHOULD be like baseball. I then, you see, could vote for a different one each day! crap.... I'm gonna have to go with #1. There's just too much goin' on in that pic to deny. I mean, c'mon! He's even got a nice flat surface behind him upon which to allow me to ravish him. In #2 he's thinking about it...thinking, thinking..... Then...in #1 he's decided! He WANTS me! He REALLY wants me!

If this is a contest for PICTURE? No contest. #2. I'm as schmoopy as the next woman about humanitarian (and bearded) Clay....but that long, lean, pensive, almost smirking, snappily dressed man in #2? Oh, yeah.

This was sooooooo easy for me. I'm all for the hot piece of man in that first picture. Yes, I'm all for the UNICEF man, too....but this particular 'big-hearted Clay' picture doesn't tug at my heart like the ones of him with the long hair, all smiley, holding one child while a bunch of the kids are running around him. Now THAT pic would've made my vote tough big time. As it is, slurp, drool and gurgle....it's #1 all the way, baybee!

:04: to the woman keepingfaith Have yourself a helluva day, babe! :big hug:

Au contraire, treenuts...you obviously have excellent taste (as opposed to Clay, who doesn't have excellent taste....but most probably tastes excellent... )

Got to go with that complete package in #2. Dayum, I love that shot. Tall, dressed in flattering dark colors, great hair (even CLAY said he liked this hair!), open-neck shirt, thumb ring (gah) and that FACE! The lines and angels...the perfect nose...the cheekbones, the EYES! The look in those eyes...the jeans, whose buttons (BUTTONS!) are straining with their huge responsibility! I'll have # 2, please.

I have two words for you: Jenna Bush But then the poor guy can't win. When I see a bad picture of me, I can hide it in the drawer or delete it from a file. He just has to sit back and let the world see every.single.shot.

I feel your pain. I love to think of Clay sitting on his rocks. I prefer thinking of Clay's rocks sitting on me.

OH, FASP! FASP FASP.... F___ a S___ P___! In my freshman year at college the crazy women on my dorm hall cracked on all the cussing we were doing...so we started spewing words just to spew them...the ones that stuck were fuck a shit piss... Heh...so whenever we wrote letters to each other (ah yes...letters...remember them? envelope? stamp? cute stationery?)...we'd write F.A.S.P. on the back of the envelope... Anyway....that's what I thought of when I saw these two pics going 'head' to 'head' with each other. This one really IS too....er....hard. #1--perfect hair, that LOOK!, furry arm in the sunlight, dark shirt tugged tightly across chest, loosened two-toned tie, perfect sideburns, the beginning of a trademark smirk, Gahhhhhhhhhh! #2--good hair, eyes that have a secret to tell, open necked shirt with cool necklaces adorning pokey chest hairs, long thumbs (one sporting a suggestive ring) pointing the way (as if we needed directions!), gah jeans with the button straining against the motherlode FASP!

easy one for me today

Well, since Couchie is an admin and can probably do all kinds of stuff mumblemultiplevotesmumble behind the scenes to make sure HER picture, #2, wins anyway ......I'm gonna give #1 the love it deserves. Nothing negative I can say about #1...at all. What a unique time that was for all of us.....

Y'all do know, don't you, that I legally changed my middle name to "MicStand"? Yup, shore did. Love the freckled face boy in #2...but not only do I the MAN in #1, I love all the changes that we now know happened for him between the time of those pics...and just the confidence and challenge in those eyes in #1. Gah. Now if you'll excuse us, I do believe Clay is planning on moving those hands and we'd appreciate a little privacy....

:wtfcat: Crap, crap, crap! Here I am getting ready to board a freakin' plane and I have to deal with THIS first? I can live with the fact that in the last contest there WAS no loser---yesterday's pics were both too yummy to rate... Today? Well, shit. My favorite pre-reconstruction smile, face, etc. in my favorite three-piece suit worn during my favorite "F-U" moment on camera to Kelly Bitcha? vs....casually HAWT and confident man about town, sooooo busy on the phone with some important person, looking delicious enough to devour right there on the sidewalk? I can't deal. I'm taking my daughter to college today. There's enough stress in my life without this kind of torture. :thtwister2: