Happy Friday!

I found this amazing video clip a while ago, and if you haven't seen it, it's really worth it. It just makes me happy every time I see it. Just click on the link and then watch the "Dancing 2008" clip. And have your speakers on, because the music is good, too.*

It's just nice to know, with all the divisiveness and conflict in the world today, that there are still some things that are universal.

Click here.

*I promise, with all my heart, this isn't one of those trick videos that will scare you. I know it sounds like I'm setting you up for that, but I'm not.

A Matter of Taste

My friend Jason posted this meme on his blog and I thought it was cool. I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to trying new foods, so it was fun to fill this out. I encourage you all to do the same! Heidi, Susan, Heather?

The Food Tasting Meme

Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions. Bold all the items you've eaten. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating (or eating again). (Note: I used yellow font on the foods I'd tried, because the bold doesn't show up very well on my background.)

Venison
Nettle tea
Huevos rancheros
Steak tartare
Crocodile (does alligator count?)
Black pudding (I couldn't eat anything made with coagulated blood)
Cheese fondue
Carp
Borscht (yummy with sour cream!)
Baba ghanoush
Calamari
Pho
PB&J sandwich
Aloo gobi
Hot dog from a street cart
Epoisses
Black truffle (I really want to try this sometime)
Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
Steamed pork buns
Pistachio ice cream
Heirloom tomatoes
Fresh wild berries
Foie gras
Rice and beans
Brawn, or head cheese (head cheese...even the name is disgusting)
Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (jalapenos are too hot for me...I'm such a wimp)
Dulce de leche
Oysters
Baklava
Bagna cauda
Wasabi peas
Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
Salted lassi
Sauerkraut
Root beer float
Cognac with a fat cigar
Clotted cream tea
Vodka jelly
Gumbo
Oxtail
Curried goat
Whole insects (no no no no no. Well, maybe if they were breaded and deep-fried, then served with some kind of dipping sauce)
Phaal (again, spicy wimp here)
Goat's milk (remember when we had that goat that lived in the front yard that time?)
Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more
Fugu
Chicken tikka masala
Eel
Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
Sea urchin
Prickly pear
Umeboshi
Abalone
Paneer (I have a recipe to make this, and I want to do it sometime)
McDonald's Big Mac Meal
Spaetzle
Dirty gin martini
Beer above 8% ABV
Poutine
Carob chips (remember stinky beans, and the big carob craze in the 80s?)
S'mores
Sweetbreads (if someone slipped it into my meal and I didn't know, then maybe.)
Kaolin
Currywurst
Durian (yay Cambodia! It wasn't as stinky as people made it seem)
Frog's Legs
Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
Haggis (gross)
Fried plantain
Chitterlings or andouillette
Gazpacho
Caviar and blini (never tried blinis, but the caviar was just salty)
Louche absinthe
Gjetost or brunost
Roadkill (puhlease)
Baijiu
Hostess Fruit Pie
Snail (I would probably gag if I tried them)
Lapsang souchong (closest I've come is hot buttered tea from House of Tibet)
Bellini
Tom yum
Eggs Benedict (my favorite breakfast!)
Pocky
Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
Kobe beef
Hare (I saw this on the cooking channel and the raw meat was dark, like a big chunk of liver, but I might try a bite depending on how it was cooked)
Goulash
Flowers
Horse (...)
Criollo chocolate
Spam
Soft shell crab
Rose harissa
Catfish (tried it, but the texture was reminiscent of what I think bug texture would be)
Mole poblano
Bagel and lox
Lobster Thermidor
Polenta
Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
Snake

The Food Tasting Meme

Virtual Reality Playdate

I had an interesting dream last night. I dreamt that I was playing with Alice, and we were having the best time. She was the same age as she is in real life, and looked exactly like she looks in all of the pictures on Susan's blog, but she could talk in perfect sentences. It was so fun! We were swimming and then lying around on the lounge chairs, and she was talking up a storm. I can't remember everything she said, but one thing she said was, "I miss Gobi." And I was like, "Who's Gobi?" And she put her hand to her heart and said, very melodramatically, "One of my very best friends from long ago, but your mom threw him away." !?!?!? Funny. Bizarre.

Most people don't know it, but sometimes you really can fly.

Long Time No Write

It's been forever since I posted anything, but here I am again. The last month or so has been pretty crazy in some ways, and pretty uneventful in others.

I've had to travel a little bit for work lately, and that's been a new experience. I went to Los Angeles one week and then to Boston the next, and by the time I got back from Boston I was really tired of taxis and hotel rooms and airports. But it was fun to hang out with our client J and the people from the publishing company in New York. J and I totally bonded, which was cool. He told me we'd be best friends if I lived in New Jersey. Mostly because we shared our lust for the same hot guy in the focus group in LA, and because we both think Andy Roddick is sexy. And because we both like Project Runway. And Thai food.

In other news, my rats are getting huge. So are their balls. If human males had balls equally proportional to rat males' balls, you'd see guys walking around with two basketballs in their pants. Literally. Seems uncomfortable to me.

I've also gotten sucked into watching the Olympics. I've been taping it each night and then watching it later so I can FF through commercials. I love watching shows that way. SO much easier and takes less time, too. Michael Phelps is awesome. I hate that the Chinese are winning so many medals—they're going to be all smug from now on. And there's something in the water in Jamaica that makes people faaaaast.

I admit it, I watch the sporting events like people watch Nascar. I really want to see errors. I get a little bored when it's one perfect routine or perfect dive after another. I perk up a little and get more interested when someone falls or trips, or there's a false start. Or when people get disqualified. I do feel bad for them, but it definitely ups the entertainment factor of the show.

Okay, I'm a horrible person.

Anyway, things have been all right lately, and I can't believe the summer is almost over. And today's my Mom's birthday. Happy birthday, Mom! :)

When the nest is empty, every night is date night.

What You Don't Know Can Kill You

Sidebar ad on my email sign-in page today:

The Simple Mistake That Could Cost Your Life

And of course, if you don't tune in to Eyewitness News on channel 5, you'll never know what it is, and you could DIE. (cue screeching violins from Psycho)

What is it with all the fearmongering on the local news? Every commercial I see for the news lately is some kind of ominous teaser about dangerous medications, home repair horror stories, deadly insect invasions, or how your next-door neighbors are most likely plotting to kill you.

Is it any wonder that people are so depressed by the news anymore?

When I was young, I got my paranoia and fear from the back-of-the-toilet copy of the Reader's Digest. That's where I learned all about the symptoms of every major disease, including some very rare ones. I also learned the signs for a heart attack and glaucoma. I also learned that any time you go out to sea on a small boat, you're probably going to be lost and have to drink your own urine and fight off sharks at some point.

Finding out that there were so many things to be afraid of was just one huge, vicious cycle. It opened me up to the possibility that there were all kinds of other things—diseases and military weapons and natural disasters—that I might not currently know about, that could kill me. In my young life, I already had enough anxiety over cancer, heart attacks, house fires, dogs, and thunderstorms. I didn't know if I could handle any more.

I kept thinking that knowledge—information—would relieve my fears. But the information just kept getting worse and worse. This was one big, scary world and no one was safe.

Now I'm old and those scary things still exist, as well as a whole crop of new scary things we didn't even imagine in the late half of the 20th century. But somehow, I'm finally okay with that. Things don't scare me much anymore. Sure, I'm concerned about things, but that pounding, gut-wrenching panic isn't there.

I guess I look at it like this: It's just life, and no one gets out alive.

Obey gravity—it's the law.

Living in a Fantasy

I recently found some episodes of Fantasy Island on the On Demand channel, and I watched a couple. I remember when I was a kid, Saturday night was a big deal because we'd watch The Love Boat and Fantasy Island. I had a big crush on Mr. Roark, and my favorite episodes were the ones where he had to fight against the devil or other various forces of evil.

The episodes I watched recently were still good. They're 100% processed Cheez Whiz, but in a good way. And Mr. Roark is still sexy-powerful. In one episode, he had to resist the attacks of a 300-year-old ghost who was in love with him. The ghost kept possessing the body of a woman (played by Tina Louise), so of course there were lots of opportunities for him to grab her while she convulsed back and forth in a low-cut gown. But he resisted the evil (and the ghost's attempts to make out with him), and finally the ghost was at peace. Roark is superbad in that way.

One weird thing: The way they treated Tattoo was really out of sync with today's PC attitude. No surprise there. The characters often referred to his tiny size, and it seemed like the role could be played by a talking monkey or an old-school robot. I'm not at all saying he's a talking monkey or a robot...but his character is used in much the same way. He's comic relief, and always gets the "Oh, that crazy Tattoo" head shake and indulgent smile.

I wish I could find old episodes of The Love Boat. That was a good one, too. I had a huge crush on Gopher. He was so awkward with the ladiesss.

We're too sexy for 2008.

A Little Bit of This and That

A few random things on my mind today:

My house is clean. It's such a great feeling. Heather came over last night and made it look great. Now I'm committed to keeping it nice longer than I normally do. It's funny, when my place is clean, it affects all different kinds of things in my life. I feel more "together," and I feel much more motivated to do things that are good for me. Weird how it's all connected like that. It's such a dramatic difference.

The ratties are settling in well. I cleaned their cage for the first time last night. I can't believe I've only had them a week—it feels longer, although not in a bad way. They're feeling more and more comfortable with me every day, as we're getting to know each other. They've grown a lot even in one week. And they're really entertaining and cute and fun, and I don't at all regret my decision to get them.

I've seen some good movies lately. I'm an On Demand fan, and I watch most of my movies that way. Recently I've seen:

Stardust—I'd heard how great this movie was, but in the beginning I was actually a little bored. It's pretty much your standard fairy tale kind of story, without much more. About halfway through, the story started to grow on me, and by the end I really liked it and even got a little teary-eyed. Seeing Robert De Niro as a gay pirate and dancing around in women's clothing, though...that was just embarrassing to watch.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?—this was actually in the free section. It was directed by Sydney Pollack in 1969 and stars Jane Fonda. It has nothing to do with horses, and it's about a dance marathon during the Depression era. It was fascinating, painful, shocking, and wonderful all at once.

Carlito's Way—another free movie. I love Pacino movies, and this is a classic. Made me want to start going around and calling everyone "mang," as in, "How's it going, mang?" And it finally gave context to the famous line, "Say hello to my leetle friend." ((EDIT: Okay, the "leetle friend" line is actually from Scarface, which I also saw recently on On Demand. Thanks, Jason!))

The Nines—I hadn't heard of this movie or seen previews, but I like Ryan Reynolds so I checked it out. It was GOOD. Hard to explain, but it deals with three different storylines and characters, all played by Reynolds, and then they converge in a really cool way at the end.

Juno—Loved loved loved it. What an amazing character. The dialogue is funny and really stylized, and the story is just crazy enough to keep me riveted, and I loved how there was still a lot of warmth and "realness" in it. I love how this girl actually had parents who cared about her and were trying to help her through this rough time, even though they were mad at her for getting pregnant. And I loved the wrap-up, and who ends up with the baby. It was perfect. And Michael Cera...I don't even know how to express how amazing he is and how perfectly he does that awkward teenage boy thing.

I've read some good books lately. I finished Lay of the Land by Richard Ford, and it was beautiful. I also recently read The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty. It was a quick read, and I loved the characterization. I think it could make a wonderful movie. I just started The Hours by Michael Cunningham last night, and I'm already engrossed.

I learned the Cities and Knights version of Settlers of Catan. It's really fun. Actually, more fun than the classic game. I'm teaching it to my friends at lunch today. Thanks, Raylyn!

Happy birthday to my sister Cathi! I love you and am happy you're part of my life. :)

Admit it, I'm adorable.