Rocco!

I get a kick out of the fact that when I type Rocco DiSpirito in my Google search box (yes, I was cyber-stalking him), the auto-fill suggests "Rocco DiSpirito gay." And when the search comes up, Google suggests as a related search "Rocco DiSpirito girlfriend." I guess I'm not the only cyber-stalker out there....

Project Runway is Torturing Me!

ARGH! How is it possible that Kenley, that annoying, whiny, disrespectful, one-note hack, is still around? I can only hope that the producers decided to string her along to make that final cut (when she doesn't make the top 3) all the more painful. The best I can say about her is that she looked great with her hair and make-up done (and not done a la that stupid 40's pinup girl that she's been channeling) and that I look forward to the runway beatdown that was previewed for next week.

I forgot how much fall TV kills me. I barely have enough time for DWTS, Project Runway, Grey's Anatomy and Entourage. And pretty soon The Amazing Race will be on. And Real Housewives? At least Project Runway is winding down. But that means Top Chef will be starting up. And American Idol in January. I think I need some more interests....

Goodbye Girl Crush

Poor Edyta. She never stood a chance with that Jeffrey guy, but I was hoping she'd stick around longer than one week. Oh well, I guess now that my girl-crush is gone, I can focus on Maks! And Rocco! I did not think Rocco was nearly as bad the first night as the judges said, and I thought he could have used more hip action last night. No really, I'm not saying that out of my own self-interest. He was so adorably goofy. Sigh. I am also loving me some Warren Sapp. Fat boys can dance! I am shocked at how bad Kim Kardashian is--girl, Bruno is right: what a waste of ASSets. I am also shocked at how much weight Cheryl Burke put on. How does that happen when you dance all the time?

Ouch!

I believe I now need to amend number 51, because I think I was stung by a bee over the weekend. I was taking a golf lesson when I felt a pinch on the back of my thigh, and then pain. I didn't actually see a bee fly away, but a red bump soon formed, and the whole area was red and sore the rest of the day. The pain then developed into an itch. I'm a little bummed that I didn't see the bee, because I would love to definitively know that a) I have been stung by a bee and b) I am not allergic. But, I'm 99% sure that's what it was, so I'll go with it. It's surprising how much a bee sting hurts! And now, a new number 51: I occasionally get these random, weird long hairs, like on my cheek or neck. They're very fine, and tend to grow in the same places. One day I'll just notice these so-called mutant hairs and tweeze them out, but that of course makes me wonder how long they'd been there, and whether anyone else noticed them.

Flerg

This? Was hilarious. I hope Tina Fey pops up a lot this season (that's not a commentary on whom I want to win the election--I just think her depiction of Sarah Palin is funny). One of by-products of this skit has been the proliferation of the word "flerg" (alternate spellings "flurge," "flirge," "flirj"). I, probably like thousands of other viewers, had no idea what it meant so promptly googled it. Google is great for tracing the spread of (mis)information. Lots of people had theories, which I'm sure they pulled out of their asses: first lady I'd rather get elected, first lady i'd rim job (ew!), first lady is really gay. I, of course, went to the most authoritative source: Urban Dictionary. The funny thing is, flirj is now on the home page, but I don't think that's actually the right definition--I think somebody made this up post-skit and it just spread through the worldwide web like wildfire. I think what Amy Poehler meant was flerg, a limp penis. If you look at the date of this entry, it clearly predates the skit. Have I really spent this much time of my life dissecting this? OMG.

Get off my screen!

Kenley has got to go. Her overinflated sense of self, cackle and just general annoyingness have way overstayed their welcome on Project Runway. I had my ups and downs with Terri, but seeing bitter, angry Terri last night made it easier to say goodbye to her. Poor Blayne. What my little orange oompah-loompah lacked in talent and taste he more than made up for in entertainment value and I was sorry to see him go. Overall, this season is just so meh--no real villains to root against, no real talent to root for. I think I'm rooting for Leanne--her dorkiness is kind of appealing. I think Korto is talented, but I wish she'd not be such a sourpuss all the time!

Today is the 7th anniversary of 9/11. Each year, my memories of that day fade a bit, but tears still spring readily to my eyes.

Hugs and Kisses

I kiss my kids on the lips. Apparently, that puts me squarely in the minority, along with Nastia Liukin and her dad. Their mouth-to-mouth displays during the Olympics didn't squick me out a they did a lot of people, but then again, I can't imagine kissing either of my kids on the lips at that age. At what point will we transition from mouth kissing to cheek kissing? As with many things, I will take my cues from my kids--like my cue to stop walking around my room naked when they're around will be when they say, "gross mom, can you please put some clothes on?"

Speaking of kisses, the whole hug or cheek/air kiss thing can be really awkward sometimes. In NY, everyone cheek/air kissed, so that's what I did and when I went in for the lean, it was always a smooth smooch. Here in Chicago, most, but not all, people hug, so the landing can be clumsy when one party kisses and the other party hugs. It just happened to me yesterday when I saw an old friend who just moved back here after a stint in NY. I went in for the hug, she was expecting a kiss, so we ended up with my cheek pressed awkwardly against somewhere between her cheek and lips. I'm thinking I should always lean in with an authoritative and definitive intent to kiss to set expectations.

Is John McCain Harrison Ford?

I caught the tail end of Air Force One the other night and thought that McCain's campaign should jump on it and point out similarities between the movie and current events: Harrison Ford's president is a brave former soldier-turned president; McCain is a brave former POW who hopes to be president. Glenn Close is a woman VP; Sarah Palin is a woman who hopes to be VP. There was some stuff going on with Russia that led to the hijacking; there's some stuff going on in Georgia now. Spoooooky parallels....

Random thought: How often do you get new nail clippers? I couldn't find my old ones so just bought new ones. Used for the first time yesterday--wow, cutting nails with a sharp set of clippers makes a world of difference.

No running; running for President

The broken toe still hurts and worse, the rest of my foot is not right--running twice over the last week probably didn't help because I'm sure I was compensating for the broken toe, thereby causing me to run with an unnatural gait. So long story short, it looks like no half marathon for me. For someone who still hates running and who was dreading the race, you would think this was a gift, but weirdly, I'm disappointed. It's partly because I did actually train most of the summer, so now all those painful runs seem for naught. I'm sure it's also because of my competitive nature. Anyway, even if the toe/foot felt miraculously better by next week, I have not run any significant distance since early August, so I would be woefully unprepared.

Reading all the armchair quarterbacks coverage of the Palin speech has been interesting. Predictably, both liberals and conservatives huffed and puffed and either got pissed off or gloated, but nobody really seemed to be the voice of reason. So here I am. For all the critics out there who criticized her lack of policy specifics: guess what, this wasn't the forum for it. She was preaching to the choir here and only needed to do exactly what she did: be charismatic and engaging and get the crowd riled up about their opponent. And for everyone who gloated about her hitting it out of the ballpark, it's really not that impressive when you consider the stadium was the equivalent of the pee-wee leagues and she hit it off a tee. I'll be more critical when I see her talk specifics in a debate with Biden. One of the things that pissed me off the most was all the mocking of Obama's work as a community organizer. The idea of individuals getting involved with bettering their communities is, I thought, fundamental to the Republican Party platform--they should be praising him for this activism, which shows local, individual works over big government involvement in action.

The New York Times had an interesting piece on McCain today. In a nutshell, he's a man torn between a genuine desire to serve a higher cause and a selfish desire to succeed. In a way, I think the same could be said of Obama. With either of them, and maybe a bit more so with Obama, I feel like we're on the precipice of something really exciting and different, but that glass half full becomes a glass half empty when I start thinking about whether either candidate can really change business and politics as usual. With McCain, he has historically shown that he is willing to make enemies within his own party and risk his own personal success in the meantime. Obama hasn't been around long enough to show the same, but the way he inspires people is, well, inspiring. Obamaniacs can be a bit annoying though. They're usually the ones crying foul about making the election a personality contest when in reality, they're all about the cult of personality. Policy is what it's all about? Really? Do the Obamaniacs who relentlessly bashed Hilary really believe that their dislike of Hilary was based on her policies? How different were her policies and positions from Obama's? As far as I can tell, not very. They didn't like Hilary because they didn't like Hilary, plain and simple, and to claim otherwise and to talk about policy over personality is pure bullshit. It also ignores the reality that for a large number of people, they do vote on personality. It's the only way to explain how W got elected not just once, but twice, and to ignore that reality can prove fatal to the Democrats this fall.

I love Piper Palin

That girl is a star. The shot of her smoothing down Trig's hair was priceless. And her Miss America waves to the audience at the end of the speech? The girl was born to be on stage. I was actually impressed with Sarah Palin's speech. For somebody who has never spoken to such a large audience, she came across as articulate and confident. Joe Biden might even say clean--ha! I think it was a bit hypocritical to call Obama out on being all rhetoric because I didn't exactly hear concrete plans from her (though the RNC was not exactly the right forum for it), but she will definitely resonate with a lot of people, especially in flyover country. The irony to me is that people view the Obamas as elitist intellectuals, but the truth is they are the very definition of the classic American success story: he's the child of a single mom who pulled himself up by his bootstraps; she's the child of working class parents who dealt with many of the same issues that today's middle-class face. Yet a lot of the country just can't identify with them, whereas the homey-ness and plain talk of McCain and Palin carry a lot of appeal. Before last night, I thought Palin might be a ploy to skate through the convention and then have her withdraw so McCain could pick Lieberman, but now I think Palin is in in for the long haul. Most of my friends are predicting an Obama landslide, but I say don't count McCain out just yet. It's easy to not "get" it living in our urban environment, but I also don't "get" why NASCAR is the most popular sport in the country and the Ford F-150 is the best-selling vehicle in the country, but the fact is, they are.