Would You Like An Egg Roll With That?

My husband and I have discussed this topic at great lengths. We have come to the conclusion that if you would like to open your own Chinese restaurant, all you have to do to select a name is choose from the following list of words:

• Dragon
• Garden
• China
• Palace
• Panda
• Hut
• Golden
• Peking
• Asian
• Hunan
• House
• Village
• Empress
• Hong Kong
• Imperial
• Lucky
• Wok
• Mandarin
• Buddha
• Canton
• Chin
• Empire
• Szechuan
• Fortune
• Dynasty
• Oriental
• King
• Blossom
• Pearl
• Jade
• Pagoda
• Hong Kong
• Springs
• Moon

Any combination will do. You can even use up to three words in a combination, if you would like. For example, "Empire Szechuan Garden".

Once you choose your name, you can go to this link to create your own Chinese restaurant sign!

I Think She May Have Mentioned a 'Tight End'

I went to see the Tennessee Titans play a pre-season football game last night. It was hot. We walked for miles. We had to climb to the top of the stadium. The Titans lost. However, the tickets were free and my friend and I were talking about men most of the night, so I had a good time anyway.

The moral of the story is: If you are contemplating the mysteries of men, it really doesn't matter if your team wins or loses. The game of love is always entertaining--even if no one has scored yet.

Nothin' But a Good Time With Poison

I had the honor of attending a private Poison show tonight in Nashville. It was so great to see those guys live again. I really enjoyed myself. I felt like a kid again back in the 80's.

To top off the night, C C DeVille directly handed me one of his guitar picks during the show!

How cool is that?

I Wonder if the Handcuffs Came Out

I was driving to work this morning and I saw a cop had pulled over a tan SUV. Lights were flashing and it appeared as though the person in the vehicle was asked to get out of the car. I was stopped at a traffic light, so I got to watch for a moment and it looked like the cop asked the driver to open the back of the vehicle. When he did, it appeared as though his car was stocked full of large bulk boxes of Skittles. You know..."taste the rainbow"?. Hard, multi-colored candy. Many, many, large bulk boxes of Skittles.

Is there a law in Tennessee that I'm unaware of?

World Trade Center Movie

I saw Oliver Stone's World Trade Center movie last night.

It allows you to view the events of 9/11 again from the viewpoint of a few of the police officers working that day and those police officers' families. It felt like a real tribute to those amazing people. It felt like a true representation of that day.

However, watching it felt as though I was experiencing an injury all over again in the exact same place. It was a very familiar pain and I was surprised at just how familiar it was. I think I've spent the last few years trying to forget just how intense that day was and not allowing myself to think about it in the detail that I did when it first happened.

I think it's important not to forget how it felt on that day. Even though we want to forget about the horrible act that occurred on 9/11, I think it's important to remember all of the heroic acts of the brave New Yorkers who experienced it and showed the world how to work together on a day of impossible pain.

Mmmmm...it's still August

Grab the towels.

Grab the iPods.

Fill the travel mugs with rum runners.

Grab the sunglasses.

Lounge by pool.

Somehow, spending 2 hours at the pool on a Friday afternoon can make the whole work week seem to go away...

Only My iPod Knows For Sure...

Above: Me, pre-iPod, early 1970's

I've had my iPod now for about a year and 8 months. During this period of time, iTunes has been keeping track of the number of "plays" I have had on each song in my collection. The songs could have played because I selected them, it could have been a random shuffle, they could have been included in a playlist or in multiple play lists. In any case, there are certain songs that just get played more than others.

As of today, here are the top 20 most played songs on my iPod, and the number of times I have played them (so far):

• You Shook Me All Night Long, AC/DC - 36
• Pour Some Sugar On Me, Def Leppard - 35
• Hash Pipe, Weezer - 32
• Back In Black, AC/DC - 30
• Oh Pretty Woman, Van Halen - 30
• Photograph, Def Leppard - 29
• With Every Beat of My Heart, Taylor Dayne - 29
• Hungry Like the Wolf, Duran Duran - 27
• Separate Ways, Journey - 27
• That's The Way (I Like It), K.C. and the Sunshine Band - 27
• Harder to Breathe, Maroon 5 - 27
• Rockstar, Nickelback - 27
• She's a Beauty, The Tubes - 27
• Desire, U2 - 27
• You Had Me, Joss Stone - 26
• My Sharona, The Knack - 26
• Let's Go Crazy, Prince - 26
• Super Freak, Rick James - 26
• Jessie's Girl, Rick Springfield - 26
• Start Me Up, The Rolling Stones - 26
  

That would be quite the compilation album, don't ya think?

Dressy Bessy!

I found a photo of me holding Dressy Bessy as previously mentioned in this blog from last Friday. Dressy Bessy was cool.

Sign of the Times?

Today, I saw a boy who was about 10 years old, riding his bike and talking on a cell phone like it was the most natural thing in the world. Seriously. Come on. What is up with that?

Friday Feast

Here is my Friday Feast - Happy Weekend, Everyone!

Appetizer

Tell about a toy you remember from your childhood.

Dressy Bessy. She was a doll, and with her sown-on clothes and accessories, you could use her to practice buttons, zippers and tying shoes. I was a big fan of Dressy Bessy. (The boy version was "Dapper Dan"). I also liked the Easy Bake Oven. Still tempted to buy one now just for the ability to make little cakes in just a few minutes.

Soup

If you could make one thing in the world absolutely free for everyone, what would it be?

Air travel, so you could fly all you want, as much as you want and see a good portion of the world before you die.

Salad

Approximately how many times per day do you think about your significant other?

Countless times. Everything from thinking, "I wonder if he gave the dog her allergy medicine" to "I wonder when he is getting home from his business trip" to "I like him. I'm glad I married him." It just happens a lot over the course of a day. I don't think I could even guess a number.

Main Course

What is something you believe in 100%?

There is a God. No doubt on that one.

Dessert

Name one thing you have done this week that you would consider a "good deed."

Nothing like a question like this one to make you feel like a complete schmuck. I don't think I've done any good deeds this week. I've been too busy working, doing laundry and paying bills. I'll try to squeeze something in over the weekend. Unless you count writing out a check to World Vision to help feed a child in Africa. Then, I suppose I did a good deed (although I think that is more in the charity category). But I didn't help any little old ladies across the street or anything.

Enjoying The Thrills Of Life

I love amusement parks. I have always, as long as I can remember, loved amusement parks. Above is a picture of me with my Dad on the boardwalk in Wildwood, New Jersey in 1978. This is right at the beginning of my love affair with thrill rides.

This past weekend, my husband and I drove from Nashville up to Cincinnati to Paramount's Kings Island--just to ride roller coasters. Think about it--we left work early, got a dogsitter, booked a hotel for 2 nights and drove 4.5 hours each way just to ride roller coasters.

While we were there, we determined that there are a lot of advantages to being children disguised as grown ups. We can (and we did) eat chili dogs for breakfast at Skyline Chili. We can ride our favorite rides over and over. We can eat blueberry ice cream with sprinkles before dinner. We are tall enough for all of the rides. We can stay until the park closes. Then, after the day is over, we can have a cold beer with our 10:30PM dinner at Outback Steakhouse and then stay up too late watching TV. Sometimes, life as a grown up is good.

We got to ride Delirium, a non-coaster thrill ride, which made me laugh and whoop out loud. (And it takes a lot to make me "whoop".) It was a huge spinning wheel that would swing you back and forth at incredible speeds to incredible heights. I loved it and we excitedly got in line for a second ride later in the day.

But the greatest thrill of all--the reason for going to King's Island in the first place--is The Beast. The Beast is the world's longest wooden coaster. It is over 25 years old (built in 1978--the same year as my Wildwood trip) and it is still rated as one of the top wooden coasters in the world.

The die-hard Beast fans line up as the sun starts to go down because that is when the true thrill begins. Riding the Beast after dark, especially in the front car, is one of the coolest experiences ever. After dark, people cheer as they ride the coaster up the first hill. When they return, the whole train applauds. People in line knowingly line up for the front. It's dark. It's fast. It's scary. At times, it feels as though death is certain. And the whole ride is almost a full 5 minutes long from beginning to end.

At the end of the day, we were bruised, tired, dehydrated and our feet hurt--and we can't wait to do it all over again.

Love is...

Love is a husband who gets out of bed for you to kill a spider lurking in the bathtub before going back to bed and acts as though this is a perfectly normal request. This is the true definition of love.