Hodgepodge

Mom and Dad got their well fixed. It was a leak or a wire or something, not too expensive.

It's been cold lately and I hear we're getting some serious snow Sunday, Monday and possibly Tuesday. I'm taking my weekly trip to mom and dad's tomorrow instead of Sunday.

I ordered some books from Walmart.com on the 6th. Walmart.com said I would get them between the 11th and 15th. Well, it's the 19th and they are in Cincinnati. Walmart first used UPS and then UPS passed the package on to the US Postal Service. According to the tracking info, these books sat in Philadelphia from the 9th to the 19th. I'm not happy at all with this shipping procedure. I will probably try to buy stuff from other online retailers in the future. After I send Walmart an email telling them how disappointed I am in their shipping procedures. It's not like Walmart didn't send the books out until two weeks after I placed the order, but they did choose the shipping people. They need to know if customers aren't satisfied with the service their shipping people are providing.

American Idol - I'm watching the audition shows. I will probably stop watching once the welcome to Hollywood shows start and then pick it up again when they get down to the last 4 or 5. Like I did last year. I think Simon is mellowing a little. Sure he made the 'bush baby' comment, but on the whole, he isn't as mean as he has been in the past. I think he's getting tired of the show. I know a lot of people like watching the bad singers during the auditions, but I like to see all the good singers. I close my eyes and cover my ears when the bad ones are on. I don't like to think about what the judges will say to them, because some of the bad singers are very sincere and you know any negative comments are bound to hurt their feelings. And some of the singers the judges thought were bad, I didn't think they were that bad. The one guy who sang opera for the foster kids - he was good. American Idol isn't the competition for an opera singer, but the judges could have done more to stress that he wasn't a bad singer. And some of the singers could be decent, every day singers if they just had some lessons. There's nothing wrong with developing a decent voice to sing Happy Birthday or For He's a Jolly Good Fellow. But I think the judges are afraid to encourage anyone but the absolute best singers who audition. Now, as for the talk about Paula Abdul's much-publicized interview in which she was a bit incoherent. There could be a multitude of explanations for such an incident. Personally, I suspect that she missed a meal and was suffering from low blood sugar. Anyone that skinny can't afford to miss any meals, or any insects that may accidentally fly in your mouth while you're yawning.

Speaking of skinny, I've been sticking to the diet and exercise thing. I should have worked out tonight, but I didn't. It's hard for me to get on that treadmill on Fridays. I'm free from work for two days and I don't want to be a slave to anything, including the treadmill. I'm starting to toy with this notion that once I lose the weight again, I could just limit my fat grams to 10 per each meal and or snack. I can easily eat less for breakfast and lunch. It's supper and evening snacks where I fall off the wagon. If I limit supper to 10 fat grams and snacks 5 or so, excluding drinks (gotta have milk), then I can't put on too much weight. Especially if I work out something like three to four days a week. Think about what a 10 fat gram limit would ban: full sized candy bars, more than one slice of non-healthy choice pizza, most likely any and all doughnuts. I'll have to think more about the post weightloss plan. I didn't reall have one last year when I started gaining the weight again.

Phoebe absolutely loves the squeaky toy I got her for Christmas. She plays with it a lot and has started taking to her crate with her at night when she goes to bed. So, I figured I'd better get her a back up squeaky just in case something happens to this one. I stopped tonight at the store and bought one for her.

I got my first and second issue of my National Geographic magazine I ordered a few weeks ago. Hopefully, I will find time to read some of the longer articles. I've read some of the shorter ones and looked at the cool pictures. I always wanted to be a photojournalist for them.

I've started writing another romance novel. One of these days I will have to actually finish writing one too. LOL.

And both tennis and golf are on tv this week. The Australian Open tennis tournament is going on as well as the Abu Dhabi and Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in golf. I really need that picture in picture feature that some tvs have.