Looking for a show?

You need to watch Auction Hunters. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Meet Allen and Ton. I'll let you guess who is who in this picture. You'll find them on Spike TV, except you won't find them right now. They're on a break right now. I believe they were one of the first shows in a string of auction house / storage facility / pawning reality TV shows. Now you can also find Auction Kings, Storage Wars, Pawn Stars, and American Pickers.

Not only is Allen nice to look at, but the show follows this twosome as they obtain abandoned storage units in an auction. The rules for the auction state that when the door is opened, you can look, but can't go in. Based on a quick view inside with a flashlight, the team decides whether or not to bid on the unit. Allen has 20+ years of auction and antique experiences. He was raised by collectors and antique dealers. He uses those skills to know exactly how much items are worth during the short viewing period. Of course, the episodes show them winning most of the units they big on ... but it also shows both the smart purchases AND the worthless units.

The shows comes back on Tuesday, January 25th. You might be able to catch some reruns between now and then. I highly suggest recording it (who watches TV live anymore?) when it comes back. Let me know what you think!

Oh, and you're welcome :)

Just kidding ... .. .

Kristin, Emilie and I spent the majority of our visit in Chicago "being" Judy Grimes and then laughing uncontrollably. You can imagine how much Julie liked us by the end of her visit ;)

This one is good, too!

Here are a few more Judy Grimes videos if you haven't had enough, just kidding, you've had enough, you should stop watching, just kidding, watch me, just kidding, watch TV, just kidding, TV is bad for you, just kidding, TV is a great baby sitter, just kidding, babies are TV sitters, just kidding, just kidding, just kidding!

I would love to be in this room!

I've never watched Jimmy Kimmel on TV ... I'm more of a Fallon/O'Brien fan. Somehow, when I was flipping through channels last night, this was on and I stopped to pay attention as soon as I saw the beginning.

The clip is a bit long, but I think it's HILARIOUS! Check it out! :) "Show of handsome!"

I love you, Conan!

Conan O'Brien's statement

Conan O'Brien released a statement regarding NBC's plan to shift "The Jay Leno Show" to the time slot currently held by "The Tonight Show."

Conan O'Brien released the following statement regarding NBC's plan to shift "The Jay Leno Show" to the time slot currently held by "The Tonight Show."

People of Earth:

In the last few days, I've been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I've been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I've been absurdly lucky. That said, I've been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.

Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.

But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.

Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35. For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn't the Tonight Show. Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.

So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn't matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.

There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.

Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it's always been that way.

Yours,

Conan

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2010775198_conanstatement12.html

Even Italians like Glee!

I'm following a couple of the Glee cast members on Twitter & one of them shared this video today. I'm always amazed (and get emotional) by Flash Mobs!

There are TONS of videos on YouTube if you don't know what I'm talking about. Molly also shared one that she thought was cool on her blog early last year. If you still don't know what a flash mob is, you've probably seen this GIANT version that took place in Chicago just for Oprah!

Anyway ... watch & enjoy! Oh ... and if you aren't watching Glee, you've got a few months to get caught up on Hulu, Netflix or get the DVDs before it picks up again in April. It's one of my all-time favorite shows. A must for anyone that likes music!

Canine Instincts

I think it's so funny to see dogs (that have NEVER been wild) show their canine instincts. Just a few weeks ago, I shared a video of Minnie howling, which I had never really heard her do. What was she howling at? A fire-truck driving by. Seriously.

One of the other things she does is pretend bury things in blankets or comforters. When I have my phone laying on my bed, Minnie finds it immediately and starts burying it with my covers. Where did she learn this? She has NEVER buried anything ... we don't even have a yard!

I was quick enough to grab my camera tonight to take a short video of the latest treat she was burying. Do any of your dogs do this?

P.S. If you listen close enough, you can hear when I was doing on my kick-ass Saturday night. Yes, that's SNL playing in the background. I decided it was too cold to go out ... AND ... I have from now until January 4th to enjoy my break!

Zero Tolerance Gone Too Far?

Thanks to Dad for passing this hilarious Colbert Report clip along.

My favorite part was Steven calling birth control Fallopian Dope or Baby Proofies!

*

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Nailed 'Em - War on Birth Control
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Tasers

*

We have a zero tolerance policy on bullying at our school and some of the parents don't understand why we make records of bullying, no matter how small the situation was. I think it's important in that case, because bullying at a small level can lead to more dangerous or painful problems. However, when it comes to zero tolerance policies with drugs ... there is a fine line between ridiculous and meaningful!

I babysit Ellen on Tuesday ...

I'm fairly confident that this is what I'll be teaching her in between naps!

*

*

Ellen also has some baby friends that might like to join in on the fun. Who else is interested in lessons?

Hey look! There's a hummingbird outside my window!

Check out this Funny or Die video. Our family friend, Tuc Watkins, plays one of the detectives in this video. If you are someone that likes crime dramas on TV like I do, then you will like this. Feel free to vote "Funny" after you watch it :)

*

The Sentimentalist - watch more funny videos

*

KU March Madness!

Pretty cool commercial!

*

*

Old Man Stewart - Shakes his fist at ???

Molly told me she was angry that I hadn't been posting to this blog every day! Since I've quit posting daily on this blog & started posting daily on The View Across Town, I don't know how I ever wrote a whole post each day!?! Sometimes I have a hard time coming up with one good picture to share, let alone something to write that someone might actually want to read.

Well, I've figured out what has made me feel the need to post less on this blog.

Twitter.

That's right, I'm Tweeting. It was just 7 short months ago that I didn't know about Twitter and what it was for, and now I'm hooked! It's basically a shorter (much shorter) way of blogging to let people know what you are doing. You only have 140 characters to share, so that is always a challenge.

I'm now following some friends from high school and college, friends from here, blogging friends, celebs and other random people that I found I have things in common with them!

Here is Jon Stewart "raising his fist" at Twitter last night! Pretty darn funny!

*

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Twitter Frenzy

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

*

If any of you are interested in Tweeting, just let me know. I can now show you how and get you hooked. I'm off to read all the updates that people posted today while I was at work. Some of us can't Tweet all the time! :)

The fashion police were out last night!

After watching the Oscars last night and doing my own version of playing fashion police, I was super excited to hear & read what the media had to say today!

This morning on The Today Show, Meredith & Al did a piece on the Oscars. I thought it was strange that they chose Al to be on the red carpet doing interviews. He chose Heidi Klum's dress as his favorite. Lemme guess why! ;)

Tonight I just sat down to read the Project Rungay. Of couse, they did their own recaps of the Oscar fashion last night and I just about spit my water out when I read the following about Beyonce & her ridiculous dress!


Beyonce in who the hell knows? Probably her mother with the glue gun again.



Lorenzo spent all night putting the pictures together for this post and writing little notes under them. Under these pictures, he offered the following:

"This is offensive."

That about sums it up. This dress is a hate crime.

I agreed with Tom & Lorenzo on a few of their favorite dresses: Tina Fey, Natalie Portman & Anne Hathaway! I did NOT agree with their thoughts on Jessica Biel and Tilda Swinton, I didn't like either of their dresses. Be sure to go check out what they have to say!

He's gonna be a bit busy on the weekends

This morning when I woke up to the news, I saw a crawl on CNN that David Gregory had been picked to be the new moderator of "Meet the Press"!

I'm so excited! I love to watch David on The Today Show, and now I'll get to watch him on the weekends, too! David did a great job with all the election coverage the last few months, I think they were "training him" to be in charge of this long-running show!


Don't get me wrong ... I'm still sad that Tim Russert isn't here to moderate, but I think that David is a great replacement!

It's a good thing I have a 5-day weekend ...

... because the DVR is currently at 97% full!

How does that happen? Scanning through my shows, it looks like Oprah has taken over my DVR. I don't even like her 1/2 the time! I think that means I can delete, delete, delete!

Just got home from dinner & catching-up with great family friends. Now back to the couch to hang out with my Minnie and get geared up for more food and family tomorrow!

Minnie's long-lost family?

Over the weekend, Molly & I went shopping. While she was trying on clothes, I was waiting patiently and watching the TV that was on. Lucky for me, the Agility Dog Competition was showing on ESPN.

I LOVE watching this! I liked watching before I even had Minnie, but when I first got her and I realized she was so smart ... I thought for a split-second that I would try and do some agility training with her. That dream has since come and gone, but it is still fun.

Anyhoo ... when I was watching the obstacle course, a cute Pyrenees Shepherd won. I don't remember the pup's name, but I do remember that he looked so much like a long-haired schnoodle! I came home to look these dogs up and I found some great pics to compare to pictures of Minnie.

Can you tell which pictures are Minnie and which are the Pyrenees?

Who needs a TV when you can watch Shiba Inu Puppy Cam!?!?!

I saw that a friend has posted a link to this website on his FB page. How in the world did I NOT know about a website that has a live feed of 6 puppies sleeping, eating, playing and being cute??

The website apparently started a few weeks ago, and after I googled to find out more, I realized that the whole nation is watching! There is sound to go with the live feed. For some reason, my sound kind of went in and out, but when Minnie heard the dogs barking & whining at one point, she jumped up on my lap to figure out where it was coming from. I wish you could have seen her standing on my lap with her front paws on the edge of the table, watching the moving pups on my laptop screen! It was priceless.

*

*

This is almost as great as the Puppy Bowl that Animal Planet shows during the Super Bowl for people like me who could care less about football!

I love what Gawker had to say about the site:
It's been a week, and the voyeuristic viral puppycam live-feed is still rolling and we can't tear ourselves away. (It may be the most popular live streaming video of all time, reports Alley Insider.) It's not just that they're so darn cute—it's the economy, stupid! The puppycam is a fantasty that cures us of our free-floating anxiety in an uncertain world. We all want to be those puppies: the Shiba Inu fluffballs don't have to worry about losing their jobs, or making money. They are completely provided for in their little box, their mom comes in and nurses them, and they have human caretakers who play with them as well. They've got it made.

Also, we all know that Obama is about to get his kids a new puppy. That new-puppy feeling that rushed over the country wasn't about the love of dogs: we want to be the Obamas' puppy. We want him to be a paternal figure who will swoop into office and take care of us. We want him to provide for us and feed us and to make our lives safer.

That's also why the people who are running the puppycam have become objects of speculation. All we ever see is the bottom of the man's legs, who comes in to feed them. "Puppies, you want your toys?" you can hear him saying. He's like Curious George's Man in the Yellow Hat, whose character is so sparsely sketched that the reader can project whatever they want onto him. Why did they decide to start a puppycam? How long will it last? Where do they live? WTF is going on?

Meanwhile, Gabriel Delahaye of Videogum thinks the puppycam is ruining the Internet: "Don't even get me started on the livefeed puppy cam and the threat it poses to the rest of the internet... because who cares about any other site? Puppies!"

Quick! Leave my blog! Check out the live feed and then bookmark the page. We don't know how long the site will last, so get your puppy fill while you can! I wonder if I can get to the site from my classroom computer. My kids might like to watch the cam for a few minutes as a reward for good behavior! :)

A bit more of election night

I just finished babysitting Monday night. It was a L O N G nine days away from my own home and from Minnie!

These are some pics I took on Election night. I pretty much was camped out at this kitchen table the entire week. I had to get my internet/blog fix and got a chance to watch a few of my shows.

Anyhoo ... this was me last Tuesday. My laptop on the left to get all the updated election scoop; work laptop on the right putting my kids' grades in the computer.


This was my "score keeping" sheet I filled out for "the kid" for his homework. Yes, I had to help him do his homework ... because he was off at swim practice for 2+ hours. The blue & red lines are his work after he did his coloring for the assignment. By the next morning, the "blue" states had run onto the back! Yippee!

Glad to be home where I can relax on my own couch & sit at my laptop in front of the TV & not have to complete 7th grade homework for someone else! :)

Obama! He's Baracking my world!

To steal a quote from Grace Adler on "Will & Grace" ... she seemed to say it best!

I'm almost speechless. After all my politics chatter ... I just down at my laptop about 10 minutes ago, and thought ... "Hmmmm ... what can I write?"

I almost missed it. I was sitting here at the kitchen table. Trying to get my laptop to hook up tot he internet. I muted the TV for about 2 minutes to help "the kid" finish his homework (coloring the states according to how the electoral votes went). When he left the room, I turned the sound back on and saw it ... "Barack Obama - 44th President of the United States!" Tears immediately starting running down my face. And here they go again ... seeing the whole family walk out to speak in Grant Park. I hope that Emilie has made her way down there. (Em, make sure to fill me on on all the details!)

What an amazing night in history. Whichever way the votes fell ... history was going to be made. I can't wait to read about this in the social studies & history books in the near future!

Just call me Betty Crocker

Today I went to the grocery store for the first time in FOR-EV-ER and got all the ingredients for the big recipe exchange between friends. Mitzi, Adam & Jill, Amy, Rachel, Brenda and I have talked about a meal swap in the past. This weekend, it seemed that Mitz, Adam & I all had some time on our hands and grocery lists to purchase, so we decided to test out the logistics of it.

Basically, the main idea is to make a big batch of something and then split it into servings for one or two people and then trade. Being a single person who lives on her own ... I loathe cooking for myself because it takes me forever to make something and then I'm eating it for the next 5 meals. No fun.

If it works after this first swap, we'll have the add the others to the exchange and get a calendar set up. Jill said she'd try to do one on google so we all didn't end up making and swapping the same type of pasta dish on one day! The keys to the swap are price, taste, how easy it is to make, and I think now that we are going into the winter ... making things that can be frozen would be ideal! That way you don't have to rush home to eat it that night.

Now that I've gotten excited for this, I found a few great recipes that seem easy to make and easy on the wallet. I got all the ingredients today at the grocery store thinking that I would make all 3 dishes tonight. WHAT WAS I THINKING? The others will have to wait a few days. Tonight's first trial was chicken enchiladas that I saw Cristina Ferrare make on Oprah this week. Sure wish the people I talked to about this dish would have told me that things seem MUCH easier when they are doing it in 7 minutes on TV.

1 1/2 hours later, I just finished my yummy dinner with part of my portion! I poached my own chicken, then made 3 separate containers of the enchiladas and froze 2 and heated up one for myself! I was a bit worried that they wouldn't turn out ... but they were damn good!

I should have taken a picture, but by the time I finished, I was so hungry and dove in immediately. I'll be sure to keep you all posted on how well the swap is going! Anyone else in town want to join in?? The more the merrier! =)

I bet Tim would think this was funny!

Tim Russert was known for doing his state-to-state count of the votes leading up to the big elections. Tim started all this on a tiny hand-held white board and then graduated up to a larger white board.

Now that a few people have started to take over his position on the major news channels, they have been playing around with large plasma screens and interactive maps that are like giant iPhones.

This week on the Thursday night edition of SNL, Fred Armisen did a spoof of that on Weekend Update. I thought it was great!

*

*

I especially liked when he shrunk the country to put in his pocket!