#23: Lordy. He is one more hunkalicious dude!

[annabear]

I am addicted to HGTV's "House Hunters" and see these cool loft type condos in Chicago and think I would like to live like that. If I loved the city and had the money to live nicely, I think I could be a city girl.

I'm addicted to that show, too.

I lived in southern CA (Orange County) until I was 13, then we moved to Ohio. I don't think it would have mattered where in Ohio we moved at that time - any of it was the sticks to me when compared to California!

ETA: I keep forgetting to say Thanks! to cindilu for the calendar wallpapers!

[spikesmom]

The Sound of Music? That's one that just never appealed to me... not sure why, but it didn't. Somehow it came up at work one day a couple of years ago and I took mucho crapo because I hadn't seen it and really didn't want to... many Sound of Music lovers in my office... as luck would have it (she says with much sarcasm), a local theater that does "different" things, was having a showing of it that was billed as a "sing-along"... so I got badgered into going (and really, if I hadn't been ok with going, I wouldn't have), so we caught a bite to eat and headed to the theater... you got a little package of stuff when you went in because along with singing, there were "props" for your participating pleasure (I can't even remember all of the stuff but it had some significance to the movie and you could wave the stuff around while you sang)... yeah... I admit, I had a good time - more watching all the people really get into it and just sharing it with some friends... and that's the end of The Sound of Music for me... saw it once. Probably won't ever see it again.

But I get that some people loooooooooooove it because there are other movies and muscials that I want to see over and over, TSOM just isn't one of them...

And while I've seen many movie musicals, live theater is more to my liking...

Spent most of my early childhood on Army bases in the family housing areas (Monterey, CA and San Juan, Puerto Rico)... and then we moved back to the Midwest and a bigger city... my graduating class was over 500 and there are numerous high schools here so I guess we qualify as big enough... even though my grandparents lived in a very small town up north (if you blinked, you missed it), I never though of it as hickville or anything like that... it was just a small town to me...

I'm totally a city girl... don't mind the hustle and bustle, love being close to things and I'm totally a street lights and sidewalk kind of gal... eta: a lot of our burbs, etc. around here don't have street lights and sidewalks... don't know why but they don't... and I realize that I like noise... of course, living near an airport might have something to do with that.... heh.

[jumpingjacks]

I want to know which nun it was in SOM that did the dubbing in MR and B@T.

Her name is Marni Nixon. She played Sister Sophia.

[keepingfaith]

As far as cousins, my dad's side was all Italian, so some Tony Sopranos, yes. Bubbas, no.

My family is Irish. Bubba's father was Italian, so with the mix of Irish and Italian he could be so persuasively entertaining with his bold and intricate tales that people who didn't believe a word of it would still give him the money.

[Gibby]

Woohoo!! We're getting closer to the UNICEF goal! I think the UNICEF publicity about Clay being in Mexico has helped.

Support Clay Aiken and the United States Fund for UNICEF!

Progress: 86%

Raised: $ 86070 Goal: $ 100000

[cindilu2]

Sorry to be a pain, but I added an option in the spam pin thread (for those almost liked 'C' but not quite *g*)

[jumpingjacks]

Sorry to be a pain, but I added an option in the spam pin thread (for those almost liked 'C' but not quite *g*)

Those are so cute....just a little question....should the Sir Robin run the same direction as Clay Aiken on the last one?

[cindilu2]

Sorry to be a pain, but I added an option in the spam pin thread (for those almost liked 'C' but not quite *g*)

Those are so cute....just a little question....should the Sir Robin run the same direction as Clay Aiken on the last one?

I had to choose - run that way and have all the letters match (bottoms of the letters at the edge of the shield) or have it run top to bottom, but then it would be different (top of the letters at the edge of the shield) than the rest of the words. I did both ways, and this one looked better to me. They run consistent around the outside edge.

[Kareneh]

Gibby, I saw these pics on EAYOR and I couldn't BELIEVE when someone suggested that not only was he going commando, but that this gif shows...uh....other stuff normally covered by undies....Unreal....uh...I don't THINK so.

But I AM enjoying the on ramps revealed....

So interesting---my birth father had four wives (not at the same time, at least) and had children with each one. He totally ignored all the kids from the first three marriages (my mom was number 2)...Meanwhile my mom remarried when I was about nine or ten---and he liked to :all_coholic: Was never physically abusive, but emotionally he was lethal in many ways.

Now...my mom's not perfect by any means. But I was lucky because she TRIED...and she loved me and I always knew that. My half brother, (from marriage number 3)..wasn't so fortunate. His mother was totally irresponsible and she pretty much ditched her motherly duties, allowing whatever man she was with at the time treat him any way they chose to, and my brother has been in jail twice, has done the drug route and fathering children out of wedlock route......I haven't seen him in 17 years and have no idea where he is now--the times I or my mom did reach out to him, he ended up taking advantage of us and moving on to his next misfortune.

So I look at all this and see me and my brother...and how differently we have dealt with whatever we had to work with. And NOW that I'm an adult and have my own children I can look back at some things in my past with my mother and find a way to 'forgive' her for times when I thought she was 'less than'....she's always done her best---HER best, so I can't fault her as a mother, for sure.

I'm with you, too, KAndre, about how Clay seemed to treat Vernon's death being very telling. Funny. The other day when I was with my mom, just out of the blue she asked me, "Do you ever wonder if _______(birth father) is still alive?" I just shrugged and said no. She said, "I do. I'd love to see him again so I could shove a hot poker up his ass."

I got that "Do you ever wonder" question answered for me and I didn't see it coming...at all. It seems as if we have some parallels, muski, and I have some other things left hanging which I wrote about a long time ago in my long neglected blog.... Sally Rand McNally. You'll have to scroll down the very first entry. My father was a drinker and abusive when he drank. He had interesting ideas about babysitting and would park me in in my carriage in front of Comeau's tavern while he went in for a "drink." Understandably, that kind of pissed my mother, who loves musicals and the SoM in particular, off. When I was two and my sister was 13 months, she left him when she came home and found his girlfriend sitting at her kitchen table.....babysitting. We chuckle about this stuff now. And interesting that Comeau's Tavern has now burned down, as well as my elementary school...hmm.....shades of Carrie, eh?

The King and I is also one of my favorites. I met Yul Brynner once. I saw him in the King and I locally once and my friend and I hung out at the stage door with a few others. He came out and was so kind and gracious to each of us. I have his autograph on my Playbill somewhere. The shocking thing to me was how short he was! On stage he looked big, he so dominated it. In person he was tiny - no more than 5'6" I bet - if that - and very slight.

Yul Brynner in the The King and I.....loved it! One of my favorites, too.

So, I crawled through a snowstorm yesterday to the walk-in clinic, paid my $75 "ain't got no health care card fee" and then laid out another $70 for some Biaxin. Unfortunately, they would not prescribe a narcotic to a walk-in patient and I came away without the Tylenol-3's I had hoped for....just the pneumonia I apparently had when I walked in the door. A few hours ago I gave up trying to find the lung I hacked into the Christmas tree and went to work on some South Bend pictures. I'm not hardly through with them yet, I think I over did it in the excitement of seeing him for the first time this tour. Everyone else went out figuring that it was best to leave me alone since I am now well enough with 2 doses of pills to be crabby. Proper thing. Anyway, I rebooked my flight back to Houston for the 9th instead of the 4th so I can make up some of the family time I've missed being sick. I just now wish I had brought the dog with me since it means he has to stay at the kennel another 5 days longer.....he must really think we've left him for good this time.

And all you Houstonians are making me homesick. Just before I left to come up here, to NS, I was feeling how much I was going to miss living in Houston once this move is complete. From today......one month.....counting down to weeks, then days. I sure liked living in Houston....a lot. (But we're buying a half acre in Fulshear.....so you won't really be rid of me for long.)

Okay, there's pins to check out, so I'm off to do that. Then I'll try and get settled in the Lazy Boy for the night. With one less lung, I should do half as much coughing tonight, eh?

One can only hope.

[jumpingjacks]

Sorry to be a pain, but I added an option in the spam pin thread (for those almost liked 'C' but not quite *g*)

Those are so cute....just a little question....should the Sir Robin run the same direction as Clay Aiken on the last one?

I had to choose - run that way and have all the letters match (bottoms of the letters at the edge of the shield) or have it run top to bottom, but then it would be different (top of the letters at the edge of the shield) than the rest of the words. I did both ways, and this one looked better to me. They run consistent around the outside edge.

OK...I know nothing about how these are made so I was just checking. Thanks.

[cindilu2]

Sorry to be a pain, but I added an option in the spam pin thread (for those almost liked 'C' but not quite *g*)

Those are so cute....just a little question....should the Sir Robin run the same direction as Clay Aiken on the last one?

I had to choose - run that way and have all the letters match (bottoms of the letters at the edge of the shield) or have it run top to bottom, but then it would be different (top of the letters at the edge of the shield) than the rest of the words. I did both ways, and this one looked better to me. They run consistent around the outside edge.

OK...I know nothing about how these are made so I was just checking. Thanks.

No worries, jj - keeps me on my toes! And they're evolving even as we type (the pins, not my toes. Hee!!).

Jeez KarenEh, I know you're sick, but this? CMSU!

A few hours ago I gave up trying to find the lung I hacked into the Christmas tree and went to work on some South Bend pictures.

Hope the drugs kick in soon and you feel better!

[Gibby]

So, I crawled through a snowstorm yesterday to the walk-in clinic, paid my $75 "ain't got no health care card fee" and then laid out another $70 for some Biaxin. Unfortunately, they would not prescribe a narcotic to a walk-in patient and I came away without the Tylenol-3's I had hoped for....just the pneumonia I apparently had when I walked in the door. A few hours ago I gave up trying to find the lung I hacked into the Christmas tree and went to work on some South Bend pictures. I'm not hardly through with them yet, I think I over did it in the excitement of seeing him for the first time this tour. Everyone else went out figuring that it was best to leave me alone since I am now well enough with 2 doses of pills to be crabby. Proper thing. Anyway, I rebooked my flight back to Houston for the 9th instead of the 4th so I can make up some of the family time I've missed being sick. I just now wish I had brought the dog with me since it means he has to stay at the kennel another 5 days longer.....he must really think we've left him for good this time.

I'm sorry you're so sick, Karen! That sounds really miserable. I hope you sleep better tonight.

[muskifest]

A woman uses her intelligence to find reasons to support her intuition.

C.K. Chesterton

Kenny and I are watching an episode of Northern Exposure. A group of women are doing something that THEY want to do, that they believe in and feel is empowering to them. A bunch of the men are watching and complaining about those 'crazy' women---what the HELL are they doing? I don't get it, etc. (Maurice said all they seemed to be doing was stand around and talking---where's the fighting, the yelling? How can you KNOW if they're having a good time?!?!?) Then Chris, the character I used to have erotic dreams about when I this show was on tv , comes out with this quote.

I love it.

A woman uses her intelligence to find reasons to support her intuition.

C.K. Chesterton

Discuss....

[Claygasm]

Karen Eh? - feel better my friend!! You know, it takes a great person to be so funny when they feel so crappy! And to do so much for us clack starved folks with your beautious pictures WITHOUT GLASSES.......

Your sacrifice is too much!

This picture - this picture just CMSU!!!!

Now I must go to bed. I almost forgot I have to work tomorrow!

[Couch Tomato]

Muski finally was able to read your storyette..... scratch that one off my to do list..such a chore it was

Two more days off before real life takes over again.

KAndre loved your post earlier today. I'm finding everyone's "stories" so interesting.

Thanks for sharing.

Keeping Faith... did you go get your stitches? And Kareneh! I can literally feel your pain. Poor baby. Go crawl into bed and take care of yourself.

[playbiller]

Geez loiuse, Karen Eh Take a break, it sounds horrendous.

[Lotus]

Karen Eh Thank you for the beautiful pictures. I finally had to give up right clicking and saving because I wanted all of them.

I do hope you can get some sleep and that the antibiotic kicks in really soon. You really need to take care of yourself first. I'm saying this as a person who ended up in hospital because I had such a bad case of pneumonia.

The wonderful photos you give us can wait.

[cha cha trusty]

76 TROMBONES LED THE BIG PARADE............

Add me to the list of those who love musicals!! I have seen (and own) The Sound of Music umpteen times, both in the movie theatre and at home! But I am a self-confessed media junkie. I love TV and frequently watch things again just because I can!! One of my favorite musicals tho is A HARD DAYS NIGHT! I know, it's not a musical in teh true sense, but I love it!! I have an extensive video tape collection dating back from when it was invented (no, seriously....) and a modest and growing DVD collection. I just got the Indiana Jones Trilogy for Christmas, and we have all the LOTR movies plus a few more related cartoons, documentaries, etc. I wanted Harry Potter #5 but didn't get it so I'll have to go out and buy it soon!! I have several copies of all the books! (this includes LOTR and HP )

I also asked for and received The Time Bandits for Christmas, I havent' seen it in forever, and is next on my viewing list after I watch some more parts of Pride & Prejudice again! (I know, I'm pathetic... and I really should get more exercise!!)

Loved Northern Exposure too - someday I'm going to get that DVD collection! Wasn't Chris played by the guy in My Big Fat Greek Wedding (not a musical but loved it!) and Sex and the City? John........ ????? - can't think of his name. I love him - I wish I had had erotic dreams about him too!

KarenEh? -- be careful when you recycle that tree!! Hope you feel better soon!

cindilu - keep up the good work!! I'll take 3 of each whatever you come up with!

[liney23]

I love musicals, too! When I was a teenager, I would watch the tv on Saturday nights with the sound so low that I had to sit a foot away to hear it so my mom wouldn't hear me. She didn't care, she just didn't want to be woken up. I love the old forties movies that had the chorus lines and even the swim movies with pool chorus line. Some of those routines were awesome.

I am a complete HP and LOTR fan. I have read the books of each multiple times and Legolas was my screensaver before Clay! That was one sexy elf!!! LOL

[wandacleo]

Wow, you guys were a chatty bunch tonight.

I love musicals.

Hate GWTW and never saw Casablanca because I've seen the ending on TV about 100 times and figured there was no point in suffering through the whole thing to get to a shitty ending.

Little joke to start the week off right:

An elderly couple is vacationing in the West.

Sam always wanted a pair of authentic cowboy boots.

Seeing some on sale one day, he buys them, wears them back to the hotel, walking proudly.

He walks into their hotel room and says to his wife, "Notice anything different, Helen?"

Helen looks him over, "Nope."

Sam says excitedly, "Come on, Helen, take a good look. Notice anything different about me?"

Helen looks again, "Nope."

Frustrated, Sam storms off into the bathroom, undresses, and walks back into the room completely naked except for his boots.

Again, he asks, a little louder this time, "Notice anything

DIFFERENT?"

Helen looks up and says, "Sam, what's different? It's hanging down today, it was hanging down yesterday, it'll be hanging down again tomorrow."

Furious, Sam yells, "AND DO YOU KNOW WHY IT'S HANGING DOWN, HELEN? IT'S HANGING DOWN BECAUSE IT'S LOOKING AT MY NEW BOOTS!"

To which Helen replies, "Shoulda bought a hat, Sam, shoulda bought a hat."

[skybar22]

Raise your hand if you don't have a cousin or uncle bubba LOL. KF that is a book waiting to happen.

Hey you're never more out of step than me when a new Harry Potter book or movie comes out...oh wait...KAndre's with me on that one right?

Raises hand but I had a Bubbie.

No Harry Potter for me either but I love musicals. One of my favorites is Gypsy. We used to put that soundtrack on and dance and sing to it when I was kid. I loved The Sound of Music but haven't seen it in a long time and Funny Girl is an all time favorite as well. Growing up, my mother loved to watch the old musicals on TV and I definitely appreciate Gene Kelly, Donald O'connor and Fred Astaire. I took tap dancing lessons thinking I wanted to dance just like them. HAH!

[cha cha trusty]

Wow, you guys were a chatty bunch tonight.

I love musicals.

Hate GWTW and never saw Casablanca because I've seen the ending on TV about 100 times and figured there was no point in suffering through the whole thing to get to a shitty ending.

Little joke to start the week off right:

An elderly couple is vacationing in the West.

Sam always wanted a pair of authentic cowboy boots.

Seeing some on sale one day, he buys them, wears them back to the hotel, walking proudly.

He walks into their hotel room and says to his wife, "Notice anything different, Helen?"

Helen looks him over, "Nope."

Sam says excitedly, "Come on, Helen, take a good look. Notice anything different about me?"

Helen looks again, "Nope."

Frustrated, Sam storms off into the bathroom, undresses, and walks back into the room completely naked except for his boots.

Again, he asks, a little louder this time, "Notice anything

DIFFERENT?"

Helen looks up and says, "Sam, what's different? It's hanging down today, it was hanging down yesterday, it'll be hanging down again tomorrow."

Furious, Sam yells, "AND DO YOU KNOW WHY IT'S HANGING DOWN, HELEN? IT'S HANGING DOWN BECAUSE IT'S LOOKING AT MY NEW BOOTS!"

To which Helen replies, "Shoulda bought a hat, Sam, shoulda bought a hat."

BWAH!!!!!

[bottlecap]

[duckyvee]

I watched The Sound of Music last night, too. I love musicals, old and new.

Bubba? None here. We have a Midge, though. That must count for something.

[aikim]

Good Morning Everyone,

7 Days until The BAF Golf Outing!

18 Days until Clay is on Broadway!

Everyone have a great day!

Kim