Ahh... daytime tv

When you have a weekday job, you dont usually have a chance to watch the morning talk shows. My favorites, aside from GMA, have typically been "The View" and "Ellen."

I worked from home on Wednesday and will be on Thursday this week though; unfortunately, I couldnt find what channel or time slot they moved "Ellen" to in Nashville, so I missed that one, but caught "The View." While I miss a semi-recently departed host, I still enjoy the roundtable discussions (when they dont talk over each other) and some of the guests.

On Wednesday, Tracey Ullman was a guest. I realize she has a much longer history, but I first started watching her on the HBO show, "Tracey Takes On..." I absolutely loved the show... She is a riot and one of the best impressionist/sketch comedians in my opinion. Unfortunately I cant find a video clip of the show today yet.

Anyway, she's about to have a new, limited-run series on the Showtime network and I only had HBO :( but a quick call to Comcast changed that. Luckily, they are running a special 6 month promotional offer, so I was in a happy state to get it for 6 months at least.

If you are a Tracey fan or sketch comedy fan... and have Showtime... or at least Comcast so you can get the promo rate, you should totally check it out. Here's the link with a preview.

'Backwoods Barbie' thoughts

I'd spend an hour trying to review all the songs on the new Dolly Parton album, "Backwoods Barbie," so I will give you a few brief thoughts along with some links to "professional reviews," some that I agree with and one that I dont (like the Rolling Stone review... but I'm including the link b/c you can listen to the album for free by going to the link.

I'm a big fan of Dolly, so I might be a little biased in my thoughts, but... I am really enjoying the album. "Backwoods Barbie" & "I Will Forever Hate Roses" are my favorite singles so far. I enjoyed Dolly's cover of the Fine Young Cannibals single "Drives Me Crazy" and The Miracles/Smokey Robinson's "The Tracks of my Tears."

I'll also point out that the album is on sale at Target this week for $8 and only the Target version includes live versions of "Jolene" & "Two Doors Down." I've gotta make a serious effort to see her Live b/c she's so spunky & fun.

Here are some review links:

I'm on the same page as this one

Rolling Stones review that I understand but dont agree with... but it allows you to listen to the album

Billboard's review that I pretty much agree with

I guess the bottom line is that if you are a true Dolly fan, you wont be disappointed, especially for $8!!! If you get the album or listen to it online, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

Best Week Ever

I love the tv show Best Week Ever on MTV (or is it VH1?). It's usually entertaining, so check it out sometime if you havent seen it before.

I'm feeling pretty darn good today though. It's not really my "Best Week Ever" but it's pretty good. I had a two day class last week that I hadnt delivered before. I usually get nervous when delivering for the first time, even if I do know the material, I just get nervous analyzing if I am presenting it well. Last week was even added stress, as the class was about some things that, frankly, I dont know much about. It was pretty technical about servers, installation and zzzzz....

Yep, thats what happens to me when I talk/hear about servers.

Anyway, the survey results for the class were tied to be my best ever! I was so relieved. One of the students freaking came from Cork, Ireland JUST for that class... she (and the rest of the group) were so much fun.

Anyway, it helped me enjoy this beautiful weather we have today (70 degrees). I celebrated by going to Target to get Dolly Partons new cd, "Backwoods Barbie." I havent listened to the whole thing to give an adequate review, but I like what I did hear... how can you not like Dolly???

Speaking of country music, Carrie Underwood was invited to be a member of the Grand Ole Opry this past weekend. I love love love her as I've mentioned before, so I was happy to hear that.

AND... speaking of the Opry... I'm going this Saturday to see an American Music Treasure (whose identity no one except Josh attempted to guess). You'll have to go to the Opry website to figure it out. HINT: I'm super excited even though I've seen her before. The first experience with her was one of my first blog posts!!

P.S... I just ran across this link on another site, but it's relevant to my blog post title. It's cute animals who appear to be drinking pics on the Best Week Ever blog

You're a hot mess!

If you didnt watch Project Runway this past season, you wont understand this clip... but... they spoofed the PR winner two weeks ago on Saturday Night Live and it is hilarious.

I was sad that the season had to end, but I was so happy that Christian won... and that I can now watch new episodes of Top Chef (also on Bravo).

Check out this clip:

The Snow's gone

I hope you all had a great weekend!!

Friday night with the snow was a lot of fun. It was still on the grass & car when I got out on Saturday.

I went to have lunch with about 11 family members who were about 30ish miles south-east of Nashville. I hadnt seen them since Christmas, so it was a lot of fun.

Saturday night was a a ton o' fun. We went to dinner with some friends at, The Acorn, and followed up with drinks at Rumba.

The Acorn was a new restaurant for most of us. I was hoping for "OMG...that was so delicious" food and it was mostly, "That's good... I like it." In short, I wasnt blown away, but it's definitely not an anytown chain. The service was nice too.

I couldnt find a link to Rumba's website... if they have one?... but it's a tapas & drinks joint. Their specialty drinks contain... wait for it... "Rum." Good times for sure. I enjoyed a few cranberry (and more) mojitos. Of course they had a more cutsie name than that.

Sunday was pretty uneventful & back to work for Monday. I'm looking forward to a more relaxing week than the last!

and I'm out.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

It's the perfect situation. I wrapped up an Uber-Stressful work week this afternoon. I've been dreaming about the weekend ALL WEEK LONG.

The silver lining though... is that it's freaking snowing right now! It just started at my house, and it's accumulating fast!

I havent seen snow this winter (I was out of town when it snowed last week). I typically hate weekday snow b/c I usually still have to go to work, and I hate driving in it.

The good thing about this snow is that it only started on Friday night after rush hour! Woo Hoo. It's awesome... we have plenty of adult beverages for the evening and are looking forward to staying in (and looking out the window). We are supposed to get 2-4 inches. That's more than Hedwig has, y'all!

I hope you had a good week and have an even better weekend.

P.S... I'll really have something exciting (to me) to blog about in two weeks. I'm going to see an American Musical Treasure. Take a guess who in the comments section!

I'm back, y'all!!

Sorry for the blog posting delay! I actually got back from Brownsville, TX last Thursday. I'm sad to report that I didnt find anything to take a photo of though. I even crossed the Mexican border on Wednesday night. The food & beer was cheap... not to mention it only cost 60 cents to crossover the bridge to Matamoros and 30 cents to return.

I didnt venture very far into the border town though... It was kinda late when I got there (7pm) not to mention kinda dark and nothing in close walking distance that I felt safe walking to, despite the plentiful Mexican military around. On one street, one man was trying to let me know he "had a hooker in the car." We all know that was hard for me to resist, right?

Anyway, about the only thing I did was have a couple of beers at an Irish Pub (of all places in Mexico), then checked out Garcia's. It's a little bit of everything... Mexican style clothes & touristy souvenirs, liquor store, restaurant, and best of all.... a lounge-type area with a cover band singing everything from songs in Spanish, to Fergie and Shania Twain. I did enjoy that... plus they were singing The Doors, "Light my fire" as I was leaving.

Anyway, I've been pretty busy since then. I did go to a wine party Friday night, more sofa shopping on Saturday & dinner with the "un-laws."

I'm teaching a class this week, so I've spent a lot of time continually preparing for it. I'll be glad when Friday comes!

Sorry for such a long--and delayed-- post!!!