Prove It

I just hopped onto the Blood Type Calculator to make sure that The Dude wasn't switched at birth.  (That would have been rich since he looks like a perfect combination of my parents.  Clarification-- the combination is perfect, not The Dude's looks.  He's a good looking fellow, but there's no need to refer to a sibling's appearance as perfect.  Am I overly worried about sibling creepiness because I'm reading Game of Thrones?  Perhaps.  Final digression-- a very lovely young lady started talking to me about Game of Thrones last night when she saw me reading it on the T.  My first thought was that I should lend the book to The Dude and he can spend his evenings holding it up very conspicuously on the Orange Line until he connects with the pretty gal.  I'm a good sister when I'm not trying to prove that my brother may have been switched at birth.)  Anyhow, with one parent an A and the other a B, my AB+ type seemed a logical conclusion.  It has been ages since I studied biology and I couldn't remember how an O is produced.  Well, it turns out that my parents could have had a kid with every single blood type, so I can't rule The Dude out of my bio family because of his O+ blood type.

While I'm discussing the ultra fascinating topic of blood types (so hot right now!), I would like to state that as AB+ is the "universal recipient," I want my family to be very selective about my donors if I am ever in a crisis situation.  Don't tell me that they go to the blood banks before soliciting donations from friends and family.  I want the good stuff.

Also, bummer for The Dude, who is absolutely ravaged by mosquitoes when he steps out into nature/our parents' yard.  Turns out mosquitoes are attracted to O-type blood.  (My distaste for puns is outweighing my desire conclude this post with a Ron Weasley quote.)

Olympics/I'm Not That Strong A Swimmer

This SNL skit never gets old.  I'd rather watch Martin Short and Harry Shearer practice their synchronized swimming on a loop for two hours than try to slog through the London opening ceremonies again.  I'm such a sap for Olympic opening ceremonies, and when you factor in London's inclusion of Mary Poppins, these should have been a home run for me.  They were not.

Nightmare City

Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad was amazing last night and I got a bit of insight into a lot of plot lines I was not aware of.  I did see the actor who plays Jesse on Jay Leno and he dominated The Price is Right a few years back.  Check it out:

$1 dollar, yo

Great shower

My hotel room this week has a regular shower head and then a circular one coming down from the ceiling, so its a little dual Dutch action.  I need one of those for my next place.  Double shower stream is twice as quick at cleaning and is very relaxing.  Score one for the Marriott.

Goodbye my friend

Bibi Jones, AKA, Britney Maclin retires from the Adult Film Industry. I just found out via Twitter when I noticed Bibi Jones had turned into Britney Maclin and she posted a Youtube video announcing her retirement. This is worse than when Bird had to retire due to chronic back problems. Wait a tic, wonder if Bibi also had chronic back problems? Either way, goodbye, Bibi and Britney.......you're unfollowed.

 

 

Lights Out

I lost power for a harrowing 45 minutes tonight.  No TV, no internet, no fans or AC, and of course no lights.  The lights were of little consequence.  As a child of The Boss, I'm used to functioning in the near dark to save 64 cents on the electricity bill.  Plus, I enjoy candle light.  The downside was that having candles sparked up in multiple locations provided the cats with some close calls.  I don't usually have candles in my bedroom and both dopes nearly lit themselves on fire jumping onto my bureau tonight.

Might be time for a new cell phone.  I don't need any bells and whistles, but my current phone holds a charge for all of half an hour of talk time.  I had to make some decisions about a summer rental tonight and I needed a juiced cell.  I found a place with four nights available during my vacation week, but I don't think I can get the last-minute logistics together with traveling, pet sitting, etc. so I'm not going to pull the trigger.  Now I will have something to regret each and every day of my vaca next week.

Dangit!  The power went out for a few minutes while I was whining about vacation.  New outlook:  any place with electricity and without the need to set an alarm each morning will be a delight.

Facebook

Guess who's back, back again
The Dudes's back, tell a friend
Guess who's back, guess who's back,
guess who's back, guess who's back,
guess who's back, guess who's back,
guess who's back...

Now this looks like a job for me
So everybody just friend me
Cuz we need a little controversy,
Cuz it feels so empty without me

Pinkman Returns

Season five of "Breaking Bad" starts tonight.  There hasn't been any quality programming (non-late night) on TV for two months now, so I'm looking forward to finally being caught up and watching "Breaking Bad" with the rest of the country rather than going on crystal meth binges of entire seasons in a weekend.  I'm especially looking forward to having Aaron Paul's Jesse Pinkman back on my screen.  The Dude emailed me this image today:

I started reading Game of Thrones last week.  I'm hoping that the A Song of Ice and Fire series will pull me in next week while I'm on vacation.  I have the first four books in my possession so I'm ready to start cracking.   We'll know I've really liked the series when I change Luna's and Weasley's names to Daenerys and Tyrion.

Piggyback

Continuing with The Dude's Dream Team discussion, I have to share this Grantland blog:

How Much Would You Pay for Dream Team Styles?

Hilarious.  And also, I need to see that documentary.

Kobe Bryant is an idiot

Never been a fan of Kobe, both professionally and personally.  The other day he made a ridiculous claim that the current USA Team could beat the 1992 Dream Team.  Magic, Scottie, Charles and MJ all made comments back about how that statement was ludicrous and the 1992 Dream Team would wipe the floor with the current squad.  Lots of good comments back and forth, but my favorite had to be from Larry Bird via Indiana Pacers media:

 
Classic.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bryant's actual quote, "Well, just from a basketball standpoint, they obviously have a lot more size than we do — you know, with (David) Robinson and (Patrick) Ewing and (Karl) Malone and those guys,” Bryant told Yahoo Sports at Team USA’s training camp in Las Vegas earlier this week. “But they were also — some of those wing players — were also a lot older, at kind of the end of their careers. We have just a bunch of young racehorses, guys that are eager to compete.  So I don’t know. It’d be a tough one, but I think we’d pull it out."

Jordan had a great response, "I absolutely laughed.  Most of us were in the prime of our careers, at a point where athleticisim doesn’t really matter. You have to know how to play the game."  Kobe is 34, Jordan was 29 at the time.  Jordan concluded, "I’d like to think that we had 11 Hall of Famers on that team and whenever they get 11 Hall of Famers you call and ask me who had the better Dream Team. Remember now, they learned from us. We didn’t learn from them."

Family Matters

This isn't a post about Urkel, but rather an umbrella for some family business. 

1)  One of my maternal cousins who lived abroad with her husband for several years and now resides on the west coast has RSVPed that they will attend a family wedding next month.  My mum's side of the family doesn't get together often enough and I am genuinely jazzed to have this opportunity to celebrate and catch up.

2)  I have been having some "Sunrise Sunset" moments this summer, realizing that a few of my paternal cousins have grown up to be just as hilarious as our dads.  I am way older than these kids (okay, young adults/actual legit adults. . . ahhhh!!!) but several are now in their early 20s and are absolutely killing me with their comments in person and via emails.  My father and his five brothers are some of the funniest people on the planet, so it only makes sense that the humor has trickled down to the next generation, but I am still so amused when a young cousin busts out a remark that could have come directly from my dad or uncle's mouth.

3) I started off this post thinking I'd give it a cousin-related title.  The Patty Duke Show theme song popped into my head, though I only really knew the, "They're cousins, identical cousins" part.  So I looked up the lyrics, and good gracious.  The Patty/hog dog part is classic.

Meet Cathy, who's lived most everywhere,
From Zanzibar to Barclay Square.
But Patty's only seen the sights
A girl can see from Brooklyn Heights --
What a crazy pair!

But they're cousins,
Identical cousins all the way.
One pair of matching bookends,
Different as night and day.

Where Cathy adores a minuet,
The Ballet Russes, and crepe suzette,
Our Patty loves to rock and roll,
A hot dog makes her lose control --
What a wild duet!

Still, they're cousins,
Identical cousins and you'll find,
They laugh alike, they walk alike,
At times they even talk alike --

You can lose your mind,
When cousins are two of a kind.

That's A Tough Choice

I didn't see the Taxi episode when it originally aired, but this has to be one of the funniest sitcom clips of all time.

Little Lions

I'm sleeping in my guest bedroom tonight since it gets a better breeze than my room.  (I got my first electric bill since using central air conditioning and I feel encouraged to go with a fan whenever possible.)  Across from the guest bed is a window with a bookcase on either side.  There's a cat perched on top of each bookcase, very symmetrically.  They look like my very own New York Public Library lions.

Jurassic Pork

Ross Geller and his friends have been busy diligently working behind the scenes to discover that dinosaurs had sex doggy style, according to the Huffington Post. 

This begs the question - should the term doggy style be changed to dinosaur style?  Dinosaurs did come before dogs, so  I'm 100% behind it.

If you counted 3 puns in this blog posting, you're a winner...and a quasi perv.

Signature Jam

I just downloaded The Dude's signature tune, Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It."  While on iTunes, I noticed a sale on '80s hits.  Of course I had to check it out.  I was disappointed to realize that I had already purchased just about every song on the list-- or had it on CD.  Almost all of the remaining songs were stinkers.  Some lucky duck is going to walk away with Steve Perry's "Oh Sherrie" for a mere 69 cents.  I proudly paid full price for that gem.

Call me Jacques Cousteau

So I was in bed reading an article last night on Boston.com about a guy down the Cape who was "chased" by a Great White shark while kayaking.  I analyzed the photo for a bit and 100% thought that the fin was too small to be a Great White.  I watch Shark Week and felt very confident that I was right........... 

Boom!  Checked out Boston.com this morning and they have updated their story.  Not a Great White, but a Plankton-Eater. 

http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2012/07/10/kayaker-orleans-may-have-been-chased-plankton-eater-rather-than-great-white-shark/45jsLMjEMoSxQIwuRaNlrI/story.html?p1=News_links

Quality Sleep

It is hard to get a good night's sleep when any noise makes me spring up in bed and ask myself if it may have been a cat vomiting.  I just did a quick inspection (bare footed, because I'm a dare devil).  No puke.  There's a bug in the living room, which means the cats will hunt it until they catch it or poop themselves out.  (You'd think that with an insect's ability to fly to the ceiling, the latter outcome would generally prevail, but bugs are not very bright.)

Five Movies

I am sitting here with The Muppets playing in the background.  Easily my favorite movie from the past year.  I have high hopes for Moonrise Kingdom, but I won't see that until it becomes available on Netflix.  Here are the last five movies I watched:

Warrior (2011) A drama about two brothers who are mixed martial arts fighters.  The Dude really liked this one but I wasn't as wild about it.  I gave it a 3 out of 5.
The Woodmans (2010) A documentary about deceased artist Francesca Woodman and her family.  I hadn't heard of Woodman.  I think I would have really liked her photography and her story in my late teens/early 20s when I went through a phase of only listening to artists who had killed themselves (Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, and Jeff Buckley, who didn't commit suicide, but did die tragically young.)  Her parents annoyed me in their interviews though.  3

A Bag of Hammers (2011)  This independent movie about con artist buddies started off trying to be a comedy and then shifted into a drama.  It wasn't especially successful at either.  A low 3.
We Were Here (2011)  A documentary about the AIDS crisis in San Francisco.  Very affecting and just so so sad, although the stories of care taking and friendship were inspiring.  4
21 Jump Street (2012) There are very few funny movies that come out each year.  This one made me laugh a bunch.  Jonah Hill is obviously a funny dude, but I was impressed with Channing Tatum.  His delivery was solid.  4

Ray Allen signs with the Heat

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--heat-gave-ray-allen-reason-to-again-feel-wanted.html


Guess I can't blame Ray for this move based on reading this article and getting some insight into the locker room atmosphere.

Underrated movie

Malibu's Most Wanted.  Love B-Rad's sick free styles:

"Traffic, traffic lookin' fo my chapstick, feelin' kinda car sick, there's a Ford Maverick."

 

"My name is B-rad. Not Robbie van Winkle. I like my lattes non-fat and don't fo-get the sprinkle."

Holy crap - worst movie ever

Don't waste your time - I'm sorry that I did.  With this star-studded cast, one would think it would be at least 1 out of 5 stars for a ranking, but 0%.

Summer Goal

For my apartment to drop below 78 degrees - this place is a hotbox that really holds in the heat.  Good thing I don't have sweating problems.

Alternate Title

Study Links Cat Litter Box to Increased Suicide Risk

or

IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE THAT YOU KILLED YOURSELF, CAT LADY

I Don't Wanna Wait. . .

for a Dawson's reunion.

The real reason for the Holmes/Cruise split:

Tom Cruise Forbade Katie Holmes From Doing Dawson's Creek Reunion

A Ginger Half-Pint

Why is it when a redhead wears braids, people reference the Wendy's logo or Pippi Longstocking and totally forget about Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables?  COME ON!!!

Wendy Thomas

Pippi Longstocking

Anne Shirley

Great news for movie aficionados

In 2013 Anchorman 2 is coming out and I believe there are a few other sequels in the making that are going to be awesome:

Zoolander 2
The Big Lebowski 2

Ahead of My Time

I've always been kind of a trail blazer.

http://news.yahoo.com/americas-generation-y-not-driven-drive-145632280--sector.html

Summer Reading

I like this chart that recommends summer reading based on your interests.  Of the 101 suggestions, I've only read 21, so I have quite a few options.  Here are a few of my all-time favorite books, none of which were listed (what the?):

Anne of Green Gables series, Lucy Maud Montgomery

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Feel free to comment with some of your own recommendations.