Not frozen to death

I'm actually enjoying the cold weather. If it wasn't for the ^&%$#% wind, it would be great! No, I'm just surprisingly.......behind. I don't know how it happened! Hopefully, things will be better after this week. But, then again, maybe not. Who knows. At any rate, posting will be light until I find something else to say.

Oh yeah, and two more people I know are pregnant. This is becoming an epidemic! A good one, though. Yay for them!

Who has time to get pregnant when there are papers due?! Sheesh.

Sounding the all clear

Well, I think I fixed my wonky links. No idea what was going on there. The problem? A backslash. All of the links that didn't work had an extra backslash in them. WTF? Isn't that the same slash that has been there the whole time?

Got me. But it's all fixed. Life can go on for me now.

1400

This is post 1400! For some reason, I find that incredibly impressive. It doesn't take much for me to be impressed by me.

Kelly & Evan & Kevin: What the heck happened to your blogs? I miss you guys!

Get your celeb gossip on

I know you're all much more grown up than me and would never look at a celeb gossip site. But, in case you aren't and you would, my favorite is Dlisted. It cracks me up on a daily basis.

Sweet part deux!

Congrats, Tony and the Colts. You gave me palpitations several (hundred) times during the game, but you did it. No one deserves it more than you.......except maybe Lovie Smith!

I kid. (kinda) :o)

Sweet!

It is still unbelievable that it has taken 41 years for a black coach to make it to the Superbowl. But, we'll worry about that another day. Today is for celebrating! Congrats Bears!!!

C'mon Colts! I'm rooting for you.

A Bears-Colts Superbowl would be a-ok with me. I don't hate them as I do the Patriots. I actually like the majority of the team. I would look at it as a win-win situation. I would be cheering for the Bears, of course, but I do want to see Manning and Dungy do well. It seems that every sports media outlet puts the weight of the world on their shoulders every year around this time and they both handle it with a grace that I certainly wouldn't be able to maintain.

Enough talk. It's game time!

Week in Review

First week and I've been to all classes at least once. A good group this semester. Interesting topics, and I have absolutely no complaints on the professors. You never known quite what you're gonna get if you haven't been in a class with someone before, but this semester seems to be all good.

Now classmates......that's another story altogether. There are some definite "personalities" that are going to grate on my nerves, I can already tell. It seems like I have quite a few "I know it all, you don't know shit" in my classes. This may very well be true (me not knowing shit) but your attitude makes me want to strangle you. And I know for a fact that its not just me. Because, yeah, we've already talked about you. It made me laugh, and the urge to strange vanished.

I also found out that another friend of mine is pregnant. There is something in the water, or something. That will be four babies in less than a year from people I know. Sheesh. Oh wait, that will be FIVE babies! (I almost forgot about my favorite rabble rouser!)

Ambassadair has a Superbowl travel package advertised on their web page. Now me, I would think that would be a jinx. But, what do I know. I would LOVE to be able to go.....especially if it is a Colts/Bears superbowl. I wouldn't even mind being a Bears fan in a sea of Colts fans......as long as its a sea of good natured Colts fans. Most of the ones I know are good natured. There are a few real asshole fans in every camp, though. Kevvy is right about that. I met a few in my Sports Law class on Thursday, but I digress....... If anyof you have a spare 4-6k to loan me for the trip, please go here and sign me up! It does look really fun.

And in the isn't that interesting category: I was reading the Sports Business Daily (which is now required reading for class. I LOVE that!) and came across this footnote:

STEELE THE SHOW: Sage Steele, who has been on Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic since its April ’01 launch, has joined ESPNews as an anchor. She will also appear as an anchor on “SportsCenter” (ESPN).

Now, I must confess, I was only curious because I was making fun of her name. It totally sounds like a romance novel or soap opera name. Anyway, so I googled her to see who she was and it turns out she's from Carmel! How 'bout that.


Oh yeah, and Liverpool over Chelsea 2-0! That is huge. HUGE. In fact, it's even bigger than that. Makes the Arsenal-Man U match tomorrow even more important. Arsenal is 4 points behind us so they can't catch us with a win. It would put them closer, though. (duh.) A loss would also keep Man U from gaining any more points at the top of the table, and pulling farther away from us. A draw would be the best result, I think. Arsenal would get 1 pt. leaving them still 3 pts back, and Man U would get 1. I don't know. I wasn't even going to watch tomorrow because I have a Circuit City errand to run before the Bears game, but I may have to readjust the schedule so I can see the match. Yes, it is that important to me. I'm sure it's that important to you too.

Joke of the Day

Maybe it just hit me at the right time, but this made me laugh so hard I cried!



A middle aged woman had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital.
While on the operating table, she had a near death experience.


Seeing God, she asked, "Is my time up?"
God said, "No, you have another 43 years, 2 months and 8 days to live."


Upon recovery, the woman decided to stay in the hospital and have a
face lift, liposuction and a tummy tuck. Since she had so much more time
to live, she figured she might as well look even nicer.


After her last operation, she was released from the hospital. While
crossing the street on her way home, she was hit and killed by an
ambulance.


Arriving in front of God, she demanded, "I thought you said I had
another 40 years? Why didn't you pull me out of the path of the
ambulance?"


God replied, "Girrlllllll, I didn't even recognize you!!!"

Strangely enough

I have been to the dentist the first day of Spring semester for the past three years. One year, I had a tooth pulled. That was not a fun time. Today, it was just a replacement for a temporary thingie that had come out over the weekend. The permanent thingie won't be put in until the 31st, so I definitely needed the temp replaced. Thingie is a technical term for something that isn't quite a crown, and I have no idea what the hell it is. But, it is held in place with some yummy tasting dental cement and probably won't come out now even in the event of an H bomb.

Oh yeah, and school starts today. I've gotten one of three grades so far. I'm just going to assume that I haven't failed.

Let's see....I also went and got my passport today. Hopefully I'm not on any watch list and I can go on my Spring Break cruise.

Do members of the military need passports when they are deployed?

huh

Steve McNair is hot in standard definition, but in HD.......oh man....the hotness has extra clarity. More crisp, more sharp.

More hot.


Even in defeat.

wow

I'm listening to Andrea Bocelli's Amore This is the first cd of his that I have ever listened to, and he is simply amazing. Sure, I'd seen him on things before, and thought he had a nice voice, but an actual studio recording is something else. You're not getting any of the interference you get from tv performances. Nothing but his voice and your ear. It is amazing.

And, after my little cultural exploration, I have this and this to cherry pick onto my mp3 player. Although, if I NEVER hear "Jesse's Girl" again in this lifetime, I will be very happy. Love Rick Springfield, HATE that song.

Laundry time is not a good time for being bat shit crazy

Dear Mr. Crazy Stalker Man,

I don't want your phone number. You get a few points for offering it to me, instead of trying to get mine, but I don't want it. Do you know why I don't want it? Because, Mr. CSM, you are bat shit crazy. There are a few things you don't say to someone you don't know. One of them is always "I've been watching you."

Then, you probably also shouldn't go on to describe their car, how you wave to them, or anything else that requires you to speak. Why? Because speaking makes you sound bat shit crazy.

Look, you're probably a nice person. But, let's just take inventory, shall we? I go to the laundry room and put clothes in the washer, and you're there. I go back to put clothes in the dryer, and you're waving to me from your porch where you were clearly waiting for me to walk by. I go back to get clothes to bring home, and you're THERE! Stop being there. Let's add in the fact that YOU were putting clothes in the dryer when I went the first time. Your clothes should have been long done by then.

Aside from the fact that you're a crazy stalker, don't you see how desperate and pathetic it makes you look? Waiting for someone while they're doing their laundry? It's sad. No, it really is. Stop asking me my name. Stop following me to the laundry. Stop waving to me (even though I've never seen you doing it.)

xoxo
robin (not that you need to know my name!)

Speaking of food (aren't we always?)

Resolve to go at least one of these places during the Winterfest.

Dang!

Another Restaurant that I would have liked to have gone to more is out of business. I had a birthday brunch there last year and I wasn't terribly impressed with the service, although the food was good. I had planned to go there for dinner, but never made it.

A public service announcement.

Ordering CDs is a bit different than ordering books. First of all, books are often ordered up to four months in advance. CDs are mostly ordered one month in advance of release date. No real reason why except that record companies don't make them available to music vendors for ordering until that time. So, once a week, I get shiny catalogs with all kinds of "come buy me" advertising in them. I love those. Just last week I got the "Universal Music Group Distribution -- January 30 & February 6 Releases" shiny paper. I have to admit that I wasn't too terribly moved by what was in it. This isn't a hot time for new releases. At least, that's what I hear. Anyway, when I looked up the titles from our vendor, most of them weren't available to be ordered yet. So, I hang on to the shiny paper until I can get them.

In addition to that, I get something called ATM Distributing Co. This lists dvd and cd releases for a two week period. Love that too. It lists things by musical category and by format. And it lists everything. Did you know that LPs are still being released? Yeah, me either. But, they are. Not a lot of them, but some.

But, of course, the bible is Billboard. I spent a lot of time with the past two weeks BB yesterday, and nothing makes you feel old like that does. I did get to have a bit of fun with the charts, though.

Sting's "Songs from the Labyrinth" is at the top of the Classical charts.

The R&B/Hip Hop top 100 song charts are always fun.

#98: Sista Big Bones
#92: Kool Aid
#90: Chicken Noodle Soup
#88: Sideline Ho
#62: Rock Yo Hips
#61: Grew up a Screw up (LOVE this title! Never heard the song......)

Come to think of it, I've never heard ANY of those songs.

The winner of the Top 200 (most important chart in terms of what I do in ordering albums) is NAS -- Hip Hop is dead, which debuted at #1.

The albums on the charts the longest are Michael Buble's "It's Time" (98 weeks!); Jack Johnson's "In Between Dreams" (93 weeks) and Dierks Bentley's "Modern Day Drifter" (80 weeks)

These people all need new albums.

In the top 10, only 2 albums have been on the charts longer than 10 weeks: Justin Timberlake (15 weeks, #9) and Carrie Underwood (58 weeks, #4) She's been on there over a year and she's still in the Top 10?!

Checking the BB 200 can take the better part of a morning because you really should (especially if you don't know what you're doing) check every title to see if we have it, how many we have, how many holds there are. But, on the other hand, at least there is a list. You check it, and you're done.

The other part of ordering music is magazines.

Yesterday, I read two issues of Gramophone, two issues of Downbeat, 1 Country Weekly, 1 vibe, 2 Billboards, 2 New Musical Express, 1 Mojo, and 1 Spin. I love that this is part of my job, but actually having to get something worthwhile out of it kind of takes the fun away. Gramophone was the most worthwhile (Billboard excluded) because it had real reviews that were helpful. Classical music buying could be a post all by itself. If you're buying the new John Mellencamp CD you don't usually have to worry about which version of it to buy. When you're buying a Beethoven Symphony CD, there could be a hundred to wade through. Reviews rock, especially good ones.

Country Weekly was the least helpful. If there were reviews in there, I didn't see them. It was mostly a "country lifestyle" magazine. Think.......US weekly for country music world. I saw a very scary article about Reba McIntyre's eye makeup, but not so much about reviewing country music CDs. A waste of a good five-seven minutes.

The upshot of this all is: If you're not checking CDs out from your local library, I really wish you would! It's damn hard work to get them in there, and they need your appreciation.


Thanks!

It's not that I don't know what I'm doing

It's just.....I don't know what I'm doing!

My friend, AD, is on maternity leave and I'm temporarily ordering music. Now, I know what I know about music. Unfortunately, what I know is not......recent. I'm looking through the billboard charts and even if I know the names of the people, I haven't heard any of their recent stuff.

And most of the new stuff I haven't even heard of. It's so sad. No, really, it is. I'm definitely LEARNING new things today, though.

March 19th can't come soon enough for me! AD will be back and she can do what she does best. This is harder than it looks!

Behind the Times

When did Keystone Grill close?! I LOVED that place. And now there is some cheap, chain, mexican grill in its place?!

I am so bummed about this.

Whew!

I didn't fail Evidence!

I was kind of surprised that this was the first grade I got back, though. That, and a calf born with two faces, could signify the coming of the Apocalypse. :o)



Now, I need to come up with a paper topic for the Torts seminar.......

The fun never ends here, kids!

So, Tuesday

Not all that great of a day. Not a bad day, mind you, as far as days of the week go. Just, nothing special about Tuesday. Sorry, Tuesday, it's not you, it's me.

Now Wednesday....that's a good day. In English.......In Spanish......Wednesday rocks. Tuesday is just alright.....


In the past 10 days, I have watched 38 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Which would be enough to rot your brain and make eyeballs fall of heads, but that isn't even ALL I've watched. it's sad, really. No, it is.

I have also not returned a phone call I should have returned......oh.......4 days ago, at least. (hush, ppc)


And my eyelids don't want to stay up this afternoon. I'm sooooo tired.

And, I'm not crazy about Lobster Bisque. It sounded good, in theory, but I think it was too rich and creamy even for me. Whole milk AND cream? I have one more container which I think I'll gift to someone tomorrow at work and they'll love it. Just not my thing. I wish it was, but I got through about half of the microwaveable dish before I was too done.

Did I mention about my eyelids?