I don't proofread my posts before I publish them... cause I keep my thoughts au naturale.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Can You Believe This?!?

I was watching The View the other day, cause of course that's the only way I ever get news unless it is on my google home page or a trending topic on Twitter.

They were talking about a couple in Arizona whose children were taken away from them temporarily after a WalMart employee turned over photos they had taken of their children partially nude during bathtime.

I could not believe this! I have taken pictures of my kids bathing or even in their undies because they are so frickin' adorable. Of course, I use a digital camera and never get photos printed at WalMart, but that's not the point. The point is that what was an innocent family photo op was turned into allegations of sexual abuse that have traumatized an entire family! On The View it said they lost custody for a month, but other things I've read said days to weeks. Either way, they should not have lost them at all. I know that people were doing their job by investigating, but just looking at the photos should have shown how harmless they were.

The couple is now suing the state of Arizona (they are from Peoria, IL) along with WalMart. What do you think about this?

Oh, and the couple's names are Anthony and Lisa Demaree and I believe their kids were all under 5 at the time the photos were taken. Here's another link if you'd like to read more.

October is Thrilling! TCM


As I think I've pointed out (cause you know more about me than you ever wanted to!) my favorite genre is horror, followed by comedy. But, thrillers are up there because some thrillers have a horroresque in nature, but I love whodunits and mystery! October is full of thrillers at Turner Classic Movies (TCM), a channel that I've long since adored. I'll take a Jean Arthur comedy anyday over something as mindless as Paul Blart Mall Cop. Not to mention some of the class thrillers like The Bad Seed any anything Hitchcock.

To kick off the month of October, TCM is airing A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers, an hour long look into the genre of thriller. Think of it as Film Studies 101 tutorial that gives an in-depth look at the different types of thrillers, tools used in the trade and interviews with well-known directors, authors, hosts and stars.

This begins a new series that will include future installments from other genres followed by a month of movies related to that genre that air on Fridays. The Suspenseful World of Thrillers was written, produced and directed by Laurent Bouzereau and is made in cooperation with DreamWorks Television. Mark your calendars for October 2nd to see the world premiere of this special. Here is the list of movies planned for the month:

Friday, Oct. 2 – Thrillers and Hitchcock


8 p.m. A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers (2009) – premiere.

9 p.m. Rear Window (1954), starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly.

11 p.m. A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers (2009) – encore.

Midnight Shadow of a Doubt (1943), starring Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright.



Friday, Oct. 9 – Political Thrillers


8 p.m. The Manchurian Candidate (1962), starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury and Janet Leigh.

10:15 p.m. The Parallax View (1974), starring Warren Beatty and Hume Cronyn.

Midnight The Boys from Brazil (1978), starring Laurence Olivier and Gregory Peck.



Friday, Oct. 16 – Crime Thrillers

8 p.m. The Narrow Margin (1952), starring Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor.

9:30 p.m. A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers (2009) – encore.

10:30 p.m. Lured (1947), starring George Sanders, Lucille Ball and Charles Coburn.

12:30 a.m. The Lodger (1944), starring Merle Oberon and George Sanders.



Friday, Oct. 23 – Gothic Thrillers

8 p.m. The Night of the Hunter (1955), starring Robert Mitchum, Lillian Gish and Shelley Winters.

10 p.m. Dragonwyck (1946), starring Gene Tierney, Walter Huston and Vincent Price.

Midnight Rebecca (1940), starring Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier and Judith Anderson.



Friday, Oct. 30 – Psychological Thrillers

8 p.m. Gaslight (1944), starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten and Angela Lansbury.

10 p.m. Night Must Fall (1937), starring Robert Montgomery, Rosalind Russell and Dame May Whitty.

Midnight Psycho (1960), starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles and Martin Balsam.

Be sure to check them all out or head to TCM for more information!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Bill Hader as Keith Morrison Rocks My World!!!

As you all know, I value hilarity as much as I value life... pretty highly. I also find humor to be very endearing! Anyway, Bill Hader (SNL) does this hilarious bit where he portrays Keith Morrison of Dateline. He's done it several times, but I thought I'd share a clip for you that I found on YouTube. Oh, Dateline and SNL are both NBC productions. Enjoy!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Anecdote for the Day

So as you may or may not know, my little sassypants, A, will be four in December. She's one sharp cookie, if I do say so myself.

Anyway,

Yesterday she was talking about how cranky everyone was and I said to her, "your mama's cranky!" (I'm super mature.) To this she responds, "I know! You're my mom and YOU.ARE.CRANKY!"

I love it! (Remind me that I said this when she's 16.)

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Dear Dairy Queen


For the past 27 years, I have been on a quest for the meaning of life. Never would I have guessed that the road to happiness that leads to the meaning of life is paved with moolattes and quesadillas!

As an avid Arby's lover (connoisseur, if you will)I have long been loving their jamocha shakes. The first time my lips touched the straw to a moolatte, inhaled the coffee aroma and then tasted the delectable nectar of the Gods, I forgot what the jamocha even is! There is nothing on earth that compares to its creamy, coffee goodness...

Then there's the quesadilla. Despite the slogan, "hot eats, cool treats," I'd go as far as to assume that not many people consider Dairy Queen a place to go for anything other than ice cream. However, they owe it to their taste buds to do just that! The black olive is underrated. The mixture that you put into your quesadillas makes me want to die of bliss... it is THAT good... cheese... veggies... chicken.... olives... I see nothing worthy of complaints.

I would go as far as to wonder if on the seventh day when God supposedly rested if he was not perfecting the moolatte recipe, but it isn't in the Bible because he was worried someone would steal it... but you have... and I'm not sure stealing from God is a good thing, but in your case, I'll allow it (just don't tell God.)

In closing, despite the unhealthy amount of calories, and despite my fear of gluttonous retribution, I would go as far as to say that I could eat your quesadillas and drink your moolattes every day until I die.

Sincerely,
hamsterkitten

Monday, September 21, 2009

Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Plus CNN Story)


As you may or may not know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I thought I'd bring it up early so that you can get a jump start on thinking of ways you might be able to help. Whether it's something as small as putting a pink ribbon on your twitter avatar or something as big as becoming an advocate, it's a worthy cause to get behind. I highly recommend the Susan G. Komen site.

Also, I wanted to provide the link to a story done by Campbell Brown of CNN about a mom who got fired for breastfeeding in the work place. If you're a breastfeeding mom, have ever been, or plan to be, you owe it to yourself to watch this!

http://campbellbrown.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/17/mom-breastfeeding-cost-me-my-job/#more-1486

Thursday, September 17, 2009

I'm Honing My Skills

So I had this interesting conversation with a fellow grad student the other day. I'm going to say this is all hypothetical in case any of my professors read this (which I'm sure they won't) so it could all be a lie. (But it's not.)

Since grad school has started and towards the end of undergrad, I had perfected the art of bullshitting. I like to call it "rhetoric." (This is to annoy my classmates who may be reading this.) My memory is about as long as that of a goldfish. I believe I've posted about this before. So, if I sit down to read an assigned text, not only will I not remember what I read five minutes later or which text said what, but I am so bored I want to stab out my left eye with a stick. And there's something about me that abhors boredom. So, I have since adopted the philosophy that my goal will be to get the same grade as my friends who read 24/7, but I will not actually read. So far it has worked perfectly! One of the major differences I've found in grad school is that professors appreciate the value of discussion over most everything else. By discussion, they figure out if you understand what you're learning/reading. And you can bet I'm always one of the first to raise my hand and I'm a huge participant in all discussions... but I don't read the assignments. I like to think I just learn quickly and know a little about a lot.

Now I'm starting to sound cocky, so I'll move on. I've also made several friends. I love it! And we've started a weekly Wednesday night gathering where every Wednesday we go out after class and hang until the wee hours. This works great for me because I get to sleep in on Thursday mornings. Plus, by the time I would have returned home from class, the kids would be asleep anyway.

Last night was the first week of said shindiggery and it was a blast. Fortunately, what happens in Macomb stays in Macomb, but I will say that I had the pleasure of my first field sobriety test and I passed! Hooray! Being arrested is on my bucket list, but I'm saving that until I can pass it off as being a "crazy old lady." Speaking of bucket lists, sometime before I die I want to save a pig that is on the way to be slaughtered.

Okay, time to pay some bills and do some reviews!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

MOTR Recipe: Easy Cheesy Tuna Casserole

This is another favorite in my house. And I'm all about easy but tasty food!

Ingredients:

1 can tuna (drained)
1 can cream of mushroom
1 package of mac and cheese (any kind- can even use the kind that has the cheese sauce)

Optional:
onions
tomato
fried onions
shredded cheese
frozen peas or corn

Prepare the mac and cheese according to package instructions. Add cream of mushroom and tuna. Mix together. Throw in onions and any other optional ingredients you want. Keep on low on burner until everything is heated through. If you want you can throw it in the oven for a thicker sauce and to melt shredded cheese if you added it.

That's it! It's super easy and tastes yummy! Everyone in my family likes it.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Anyone Have the Time?

With so many analogies about time, you'd think I would have experienced such an issue with it before. There is just not enough time in the day! Especially when you're someone like me who enjoys a good night's sleep (not that I've had one in awhile, just saying.)

Let me tell you a little bit about a typical week for me. I'm not whining or complaining or expecting pity, just saying! Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I leave for school at 10:30am. I get home from work/school at around 9pm. The only break I get during this time is about an hour and a half between work and class. Sunday I work and am gone for 5 hours. Throughout the rest of the week, I have stuff I sell on ebay, I have to write reviews of the stuff being sent to me, read for school, do homework, respond to emails and promote my blog/socialize on Twitter to keep the followers coming.

Then, add to this the fact that I have a 19 month old and a three year old. I get up with them every morning and take them to daycare the three days I have class. I also have everything that's associated with children/household management. There's laundry, cooking, cleaning, picking up toys, playing with the kids, doctor appointments, grocery buying, dishes and so on and so on.

I thrive on being busy, but sometimes I feel like I have to pick and choose what I have time to do. Plus, I want to be able to socialize from time to time as well, but it is a rarity. I want to make sure to give plenty of time to my family, but in order to do so, I find myself going to bed later and later every night or waking up at 4am and not being able to go to sleep because I have so much stuff I feel I could be doing instead.

Okay, so maybe this sounds like a complaint, but I guess I'm just venting. I know it was my choice to go back to school and I feel it is an absolute must if I ever want to make decent money. It's just unfortunate that no one cares about how much "stress" I'm under but me... if only I had a maid, babysitter and chef living in my home, it might be a little easier.

Thanks for listening to me rant!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

The Art of Cleaning

I noticed Hoarders was a trending topic on Twitter last night and it inspired me to blog. Growing up, I was a pretty bad hoarder. My room looked like a rat's nest, full of useless things that I just refused to let go of. I also tended to hoard animals.

As I've gotten older, I've learned that I want to be an anti-hoarder. Now my parents have many great attributes, but organization is not one of them. I'll spare the details of their clutter, but it has scared me out of being a hoarder. I notice on the show that most people who hoard have some psychological reason for it that needs to be resolved in order to let go. For instance, I remember one man who refused to give away anything that reminded him of his dead mother because memories was all he had. I feel him. I used to absolutely refuse to part with anything my mom gave me because I felt guilty if I did.

I'm over it.

I loooooove getting rid of stuff! Be it the Salvation Army, ebay or the trash can, I'm constantly looking for things to get rid of. Unfortunately, there's too much stuff that I can't get rid of because it is not mine or I need it for school, cleaning, etc.

Last week we started going through our hall closets that were packed. Each year I find myself more and more willing to let go and it makes cleaning that much nicer. At some point we hope to tear this house down and put up a new one, so not having all the junk lying around will make moving so much easier.

Do you watch Hoarders, know of any hoarders or are you a hoarder yourself? I'd love to hear some horror stories!

Sunday, September 6, 2009

National Child Protection Week 2009


Today is the beginning of National Child Protection Week. I received a forward that reminded me of it and it held a very powerful poem and photos inside that I wanted to share with my readers. All children deserve to be loved and sometimes it takes outsiders to protect them from those that are supposed to be giving them the world. There are many organizations out there that have more information about helping prevent child abuse, NAPCAN is one. Please, please, please don't let child abuse go unreported!!!



"My name is Sarah
I am but three,
My eyes are swollen
I cannot see.

I must be stupid,
I must be bad,
what else could have made
my daddy so mad?



I wish I were better,
I wish I weren't ugly,
then maybe my Mommy
would still want to hug me.

I can't speak at all,
I can't do a wrong
or else I'm locked up
all the day long.

When I wake I'm all alone
the house is dark
my folks aren't home.

When my Mommy does come
I'll try and be nice,
so maybe I'll get just
one whipping tonight.

Don't make a sound!
I just heard a car
my daddy is back
from Charlie's Bar.

I hear him curse
my name he calls
I press myself
against the wall.



I try and hide
from his evil eyes
I'm so afraid now
I'm starting to cry.

He finds me weeping
he shouts ugly words,
he says its my fault
that he suffers at work.

He slaps me and hits me
and yells at me more,
I finally get free
and I run for the door.

He's already locked it
and I start to bawl,
he takes me and throws me
against the hard wall.

I fall to the floor
with my bones nearly broken,
and my daddy continues
with more bad words spoken.

'I'm sorry!' I scream
but its now much too late
his face has been twisted
into unimaginable hate.

The hurt and the pain
again and again
oh please God, have mercy!
oh please let it end!

And he finally stops
and heads for the door,
while I lay there motionless
sprawled on the floor.

My name is Sarah
and I am but three,
tonight my daddy
murdered me."

Gayle Jones Staples, 1975 ?

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Dear Tide (Guest Post)

I did not write this, but I sure wish I had! Sarah forwarded it to me and I laughed my arse off. Also, if you are a loyal follower, you know that I write humorous letters to businesses entitled "Dear (Business)."

The letter goes as follows:

"Dear Tide:

I am writing to say what an excellent product you have! I've used it all of my married life, as my mom always told me it was the best. Now that I am in my forties I find it even better!

In fact, about a month ago, I spilled some red wine on my new white blouse. My inconsiderate and uncaring husband started to belittle me about how clumsy I was, and generally started becoming a pain in the neck. One thing led to another and somehow I ended up with his blood on my new white blouse! I grabbed my bottle of Tide with bleach alternative, and to my surprise and satisfaction, all of the stains came out! In fact, the stains came out so well the detectives who came by yesterday told me that the DNA tests on my blouse Were inconclusive and then my attorney called and said that I was no longer considered a suspect in the disappearance of my husband.

What a relief! Going through Menopause is bad enough without being a murder suspect! I thank you, once again, for having a great product. Well, gotta go. Have to write to the Hefty bag people."

The original email was sent by:

Diana Petruzzi
Outside Buyer
diana.petruzzi@mannpacking.com

And I don't know if she wrote it or found it and started forwarding... kudos to whomever is the author, though!

Friday, September 4, 2009

My Current Job

I've had several people ask me about the job that I have at WIU, so I thought I'd share a bit about it with everyone. I am a tutor at the University Writing Center. I love it! I get to help people work on everything from resumes to research papers to crossword puzzles, lol. I'm even listed in the directory! (Although they haven't put up my bio yet.)

And apparently once upon a time (or last year) they made a video about it... check it out!!!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Dear State of Illinois

I have two words that are heaven-send. They evoke wonderment, hope and promise for a brighter tomorrow: FOUR LANE!

As a person who commutes from a small town in Iowa to Macomb, Illinois as a student/worker at Western Illinois University, I find myself traveling HWY 136 most days of the week. Road rage is such a small potatoes term to the feelings that I get driving on this meager two lane stretch to Carthage where I (thank you, Jesus) get on a 4 lane expressway that takes me all the way to Macomb.

Upon my travels, I find myself getting stuck on said two lane behind people going about 10 miles under the speed limit. Of course I would love to pass them, but being that it is only a two lane, and oncoming cars and semis are constantly approaching, I find myself gripping the steering wheel and wondering, "why oh why, state of Illinois, do you not make this road a four lane?!"

Not only that, but have you just tucked Western Illinois University off in a corner and forgotten about it? The nearest airport to Macomb is in Peoria, but since it is only two lane most of the way, people generally choose to drive farther to Moline in order to enjoy the four lane. And apparently WIU finds many an invitee lost or uninterested in visiting our lovely university due to the randomness of its location and the dreadful two lanes that surround it.

So, please, get on the ball, Illinois! Don't you realize that a four lane is an investment? Just driving to Monmouth makes me want to stab my own eyeballs out! With more four lanes, perhaps people will want to spend more time at these Universities, shopping places and perhaps even just drive around and enjoy the corn and cows!

Sincerely,
hamsterkitten