rare and random vent.

if i trashed rooms or hit people every time they pissed me off, i'd be in jail. so would you. i am so over the bratty, self-entitlement nature of these kids these days. that includes your boy, blondie. tip: forgive yourself and move on. you can't make anyone else do the same. boy bye. click here for the background. p.s. - i'd love to talk about the ridiculous fans who refuse to call a duck a duck. but i suddenly realize that it's not worth the time it takes to type it out.

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carlashes.

does your car need a makeover? how about some carlashes? yes. just what you think. eyelashes for your car. deep down you're a little peeved at yourself for thinking these are kinda cute. go on. admit it.

carlashes.com, $24.99

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betty white is a calendar girl.

america's favorite golden girl, betty white, has her own 2011 calendar. that's right. 12 months of ms. betty. the calendar will be available for purchase in september at the price of $12.99. proceeds will benefit the morris animal foundation.

cute idea. white's popularity is through the roof these days. no doubt these will fly off the shelves.

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counting down!

anniversary #1 - cruise!

i'm crushing.

travis mccoy, gym class heroes

(and nope, didn't know who the heck he was prior to billionaire - that jawn's hot)

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reading rainbow.

ok, so pbs raised us 80s babies. sesame street. mister rogers. pinwheel! but reading rainbow was my favorite. who knew that ms. chaka khan was the voice behind the theme song? i youtubed it and after all these years, still knew all the words. ha!

and if you're truly too young to remember the show, reading rainbow was a show that featured stories centered around a children's book. it had a helluva run from 1983 to 2006. levar burton was the host and recently said that he is considering doing webisodes of an adult version of reading rainbow.

here's chaka singing the theme song ...


click on the music player at the bottom of the screen to mute the background music.

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i'm wearing silly bandz.

if you have kids (or nieces or nephews) then you already know about the craze behind silly bandz. every other year a new concept emerges that sends kids and their parents into a frenzy. for us, in the 80s, it was jelly bracelets, stickers, garbage pail kids and slap bracelets. there's probably more to add to that list but that's what comes to mind. when i was in high school i worked at a party store and the kid craze was pogs. remember those? never quite got the drift of how those worked but the kids thought they were pretty hot.

so what are silly bandz? colorful rubber bracelets that take and keep the shape of almost anything you can think of. stars, guitars, cupcakes, baseballs, dollar signs, letters, animals, cowboy hats, hearts. you name it, they got it. they call them fashion accessories which i guess they are to some. but for others they're just another trading item and a race to see who can collect the most and the coolest.

well i visited that same party store where i used to work yesterday and their entire front counter was covered with silly bandz. i already knew about them because my niece and nephew have about a 100. each! we went out to eat and my nephew dumps them all on the table. the 20-something year old waitress was so impressed she ended up trading a couple with him.

my niece warned that there are real ones - silly bandz - and then there are the fake ones - silly bandz' competitors. silly bandz were the first to come out so those are the most desirable. and like any other major fad, the schools eventually banned them. oh how history repeats itself.

if you take away nothing else from this post, take away this: if you have an invention that sounds stupid to most people - do it! especially if it involves kids. the trends that catch on are unbelievable.

anywho: i was presented with two yesterday. a car and a dog:

i think i need to step my silly bandz game up, though, and grab a few more cooler ones. the kids would agree.

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impressive recycling.

pop pendant light, made of discarded soda can tabs

mauricio affonso

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separated at birth: chaka khan & nicki minaj.

am i the only one who thinks nicki minaj looks a lot like a young chaka khan?

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tag you're it.

i wasn't tagged but i read this on tuesdai's blog and decided to tag myself. if you like it, then consider yourself tagged too:

1. if you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
there's really no place like home but if i could live anywhere, i'd definitely have a pad in miami, london, the vineyards, la, somewhere tropical and anywhere with weather that mirrors arizona's (but of course, not actually in arizona).

2. what is your favorite band/singer?
anything old school!

3. if you could be someone else for a day who would it be?
for fun, i'd be rihanna to rock her sick clothes, party hard and spend her mooga (lol).

or michelle obama, to hear her thoughts and exercise her power (and spend her mooga).

4. concert or broadway show?
broadway show.

5. do you have a theme song of your life?
frank sinatra: nothing but the best.

6. would you choose a fancy dinner at a nice restaurant or a picnic park?
fancy dinner at a nice restaurant. well of course!

7. what's your favorite place to shop?
bloomies! one stop shop!

8. favorite movie?
the color purple ... "you told harpo to beat me"

and charlie and the chocolate factory

11 money etiquette issues.

i just read this fabulous article on money etiquette issues and wanted to share.

how many times has a nosy someone (maybe you even did it yourself) asked how much you spent on your house or car or something like that? how about you go out to eat with your girls and order an appetizer and water while everyone else orders entrees and drink like fish but want to split the bill? or your ballin' friends insist on treating you out but you don't want to feel like a moocher. ever collected for a group gift and someone is suppose to come up with their portion but never do: "i got you," they say, but then get amnesia when they see you.

well this article addresses those uncomfortable money situations. i'm sure you can relate with at least one of the scenarios. check it out:

11 Money-Etiquette Issues, Solved Real Simple

just for fun.

$9, fredflare.com

tequila cupcakes.

so when a girl friend texted me yesterday to tell me she made patron cupcakes and they were good i had to get to googling to find a good recipe for my ski trip next week. i found this one on ehow.com but the patron will definitely have to be replaced with don julio:

what you need:
cupcake liners
1-1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup soft butter
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp orange liqueur (definitely grand marnier)
2 tbsp tequila (don julio)
fresh squeezed lime juice
buttercream or vanilla frosting (+ tsp of lime juice, grand marnier and don julio for frosting)

1. preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. prepare your cupcake pan with the liners
3. in a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients first: flour, salt, sugar, baking powder
4. add the wet ingredients: egg, butter, milk, lime juice, grand marnier, don julio
5. blend well by hand or mixer (on low speed) and add batter to cupcake pan. bake until cupcakes appear brown or toothpick comes out clean - about 15-20 minutes. do not overcook.
6. add lime juice, grand marnier and don julio to ready-made buttercream or vanilla frosting. spread frosting after cupcakes have cooled.

sounds interesting, huh? no. it actually sounds kinda gross. i need to find a pina coloda cupcake recipe or something. that sounds a whole lot better than some tequila. but i may just give it a try and see what everyone thinks. you can also check out another patron cupcake recipe over at fiercefoodie.com.

eat and be merry.

spell check is your friend.

just today i was thinking that facebook needs spell check. yes, i was an anal english major and although i sometimes have no room to talk (miss write-everything-in-lower-case; excessive comma use; write how i talk ... yeh, yeh, i know) i always notice big, dumb spelling errors on my fb folks' status updates. oh well. and if you use an iphone like me and are still getting used to the touch screen, you probably have big dumb errors on everything you type, too.

well, whoever (or is it whomever?) handles the street signs down in atl may need spell check too. or better yet, a proofreader. they finally corrected this sign after 2 years of being wrong. dead wrong.

come on atl. 2 years, though?

the husband pursuit.

just read this story the latest essence and had to share. neenah pickett, 43, launched a nationwide search to find a husband. she says after a year without a date, she needed to take control of the situation and find herself a man.
so she launched www.52weeks2findhim.com. her requirements: laid back, sense of humor, between the ages of 39-51.
so far she's talked to over 200 prospects but hasn't found mr. right quite yet. she's confident that she'll find him by the end of the year.
well get it girl. what do yawl think? is she determined or pitiful?

ba'bye sidekick, hey iphone.

after about 2 years, i've laid my sidekick to rest and joined the iphone lovers over at at&t. after a week with it, i know exactly why people are so goo-goo gah-gah over their iphones. it's probably the most practical phone i've owned. it just makes sense; every function seems to be exactly where it should be. and it took me about an hour to figure out how to use it.

still, you know i have a couple issues with it. like three actually.

1. although the touch screen sounds like a cool, forward idea it is a pain in the butt. i was typing like 80 words per minute, like the commercial says, with my sidekick. with this iphone, i spend more time correcting my texts. i wish i could use my nails because i stay typing R when i mean to type a T, a G when i mean to type a H and so on so forth.
2. i'm still figuring out the internet on it. it's much quicker to connect to, unlike the sidekick, but i can't figure out how to make the internet pages bigger and switch from page to page. i'm sure my dad or brother can help me with this one.
3. and why do i need to open an i-tunes account in order to add the facebook app?

i also was a little disappointed that the white one wasn't available in the $99 version iphone but black will do. other than that, i love this frickin' phone. i stay playing with it. thinking of converting? i highly recommend it.

pretty eyes.

i bumped into this picture - tom mckinney's "pretty eyes" - and was reminded of my ole days back at umes. i had this on my room wall at one point. isn't it cute?

phish food.

yeh, it may be a problem. last night, i made a sudden drive to the store for some of this <----. 7-11 didn't have it. so i went to shoppers. bingo.

i'm a fiend for my phish food. my goodness, there is a God. can anyone relate?

"women be trippin."

shout out to dalipstickbandit who posted the following picture of lil' kim on a slightly different topic and caused me to go off on a completely different tangent. and here it goes. bare with me. yawl know i get a little long-winded sometimes.

ok, so unsung on tvone is one of my favorite shows. last night i re-watched the phyllis hyman episode. is it just me or was she one of the most stunning beauties ever? homegirl was gorgeous. she didn't think so, though. trippin.

then i recall one of my facebook friends' status update last week: I NEED TO GAIN ABOUT 10 LBS. AND QUICK. CAN SOMEONE TELL ME HOW TO GAIN WEIGHT? and she said it just like that. in all caps. i figured some dude, either directly or indirectly, had her thinking that she's too skinny and needs to get thick. grow a fat ass. brickhouse. etc. let me tell you. prior to my 30s, i wanted to gain weight too. i had been small most my life and wanted to be "thick but not too thick." a chick turned 30, got a boyfriend and i then started wishing for the naturally small frame again. i'm still on the smaller side but trust when i tell you, now when i eat that kristy kreme, it's gonna show. small or thick, mine as well enjoy what your momma gave you. trippin.

and oh yeh. so when i saw the knifed-up version of lil' kim on da lipstick bandit's blog, i had to smh. why the heck did she do that to herself? she was already cute. and any minor cosmetic changes (a beverly hills dentist, some good make-up, a stylist like ursula or lysa) would have sufficed. trippin.

we won't even mention that gorgeous girl friend or two that we all have that just won't leave that dude alone. "guess what he did?!" trippin.

and i have no final profound comment. you catch my drift. and i realize i've listed several very different situations; i'm just writing what quickly came to mind. oh and i'm not pms'ing. just a humpday observation that i thought i'd share. see what you started, lipstickbandit!

so do "we be trippin?" and if you say yes, then why? talk to me.

guiness record for most marriage vows.

per guiness, lauren and david blair have renewed their vows 83 times since 1984.

"we love telling eachother we love eachother and looking into eachother's vows and saying our vows," say david.

lawd have mercy. i'm going to need them to go find a hobby. a different hobby. quickly.