Busy weekend

As the title says, I had a swimming filled busy weekend and was able to get away for a couple of days. I spent the weekend in Columbia, MO due to my daughter’s swim meet. The last and the most important swim meet of the season (State Championship Meet) was held at Mizzou’s wonderful Aquatic Center. I picked up my daughter from school at 2pm on Friday and headed to Columbia. Traffic on 70 West was horrible. It was jammed all the way from downtown St Louis to 10 miles past St Peters. It took us almost four hours to get to Columbia. My daughter was 20 minutes late for her swim practice, which is not a big deal, but it makes me angry that I couldn’t get her to the pool on time even though I picked her up from school early.

After practice, we went to Macaroni Grill for dinner. I ordered a chicken dish that had a portabella mushroom and melted mozzarella cheese on top. It was served with spinach orzo pasta. It sounds delicious, right? Well, I was actually disappointed. It was a mediocre meal at best. I think Macaroni Grill is as overrated as a restaurant can get. I didn’t care for the atmosphere either. It was crowded and dark inside. I felt like I was eating inside a bat cave. After spending mega bucks on mega bad meal, we came back to our hotel room and hit the hay right away since we had to be at the pool at the crack of dawn.

The swim meet ran incredibly smooth due to the efforts of the organizers. They did a great job. My daughter had an okay meet. She was hoping to get personal best times, but she swam kind of flat. I think her nerves got the best of her, plus she was still worn out from the District Meet, which was held only a week prior to the state meet. But I was still very proud of her due to the fact that she qualified for a state meet at such a young age. It amazes me that she has so much power, strength and endurance for an 11 year old (shamelessly bragging!). My daughter got a big kick out of competing in the same pool that Michael Phelps did. Yeah, Phelps was in Columbia three weeks ago and broke his own world record in 200 fly at Mizzou’s pool. How awesome is that! My daughter and I actually went to Columbia to watch Phelps and other world record holders swim at MO Grand Prix Swim Meet. It was a great opportunity to see so many world-class athletes perform right in front of our eyes. We ended up getting quite a few autographs, including two from Phelps.

After a long day at the pool, we went to Shakespeare’s Pizza on Saturday evening and had a pretty good meal. This place is Columbia’s landmark restaurant and claims to have the best pizza in town. While I thought the pizza was tasty, I didn’t think it was anything special. I think I am becoming a food snob, but that’s a story for another time.

Now I am home and staring at 4 loads of laundry that is calling my name. I think it is time to get off the computer and do something productive, like housework. Fun, fun, fun.

Hope you all had a great weekend!
-D

Restaurant Review

I am really not a big fan of chinese food, but I sure do enjoy eating at P.F.Chang's. I have been there a numerous times and I have never had a bad meal. Their food is amazing. Their portions are huge, the price is decent and the servers are always friendly. This is the only chain restaurant that I feel like I am finally paying for QUALITY in a chain restaruant.

For anyone who is a vegetarian they have lots of choices like their signature dish veggie lettuce wraps. I always get their chicken lettuce wraps or veggie spring rolls for an appetizer. They are so tasty. But of course they have lots of choices for meat lovers too. I have never tried it but I heard their mongolian beef is very good. One recommendation is Mu Shu chicken, which is served with thin pancakes and wrapped by your server right in front of you. Once for dessert, I had the "Great Wall of Chocolate. It is a very rich chocolate, rasberyy cake. We had a group of 5 poeple and one slice was plenty for all of us. They are also famous for their martinis. I highly recommend their key lime martini. It is is excellent. It is like eating a dessert. Yum.

They have two locations in St louis, one in Chesterfield and and the second near Brentwood across from the Galleria. I usually go to the one accross from the Galeria since it is closer. The Galeria location is cozy and the atmosphere is great, but it is not very big, so it gets really packed on the weekends. They accept reservations though.

Trust me, if you go to PF Chang's you will walk away from dinner feeling very satisified.
Well, that's all for now. I need to get out of this house before "I have done nothing for too many hours" feeling sets in. Off I go.

I love Oscar Night

I just got done watching the Oscars and I am not much surprised about the results. Here's a quick rundown on the current Oscar winners:

And the Oscar goes to...

Best Film: The Departed
Best Director: Martin Scorsese
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker
Best Actress: Helen Mirren
Best Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson
Best Original Screenplay: Little Miss Sunshine
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Departed
Best Animated Film: Happy Feet
Best Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth
Best Original Score: Babel
Best Original Song: An Inconvenient Truth

And of course here's the running commentary and I am reporting live from the comfort of my living room in pajamas.

I guess I should watch the Departed sometime soon, but I don't see how it could be better than Internal Affairs.

I am not surprised Scorsee won. He was passed over so many times that it was his " due."

It has nothing to do with any Oscar moment, but I just love Kate Winslet. Someone give this woman an Oscar, please.

Congrats to Jennifer Hudson. Who doesn't love a good Cinderalla story? Oscar was just the icing on the cake.

Beyonce trying to outsing an Oscar winner? Sorry Beyonce, it can't be done . Better luck next time.

The winner of Live Action Short Film, West Bank Story looks like a great movie

They won me over with the Snakes on a Plane interpretation.

What was up with Will Smith's gray hair?

Paltrow looked pretty but I could see her nipples poking through her dress.

Hated the Celine Dion song.

Jack Nicholson is bringing baldy back. No wait, Britney alraedy brought baldy back.

Eddy Murphy lost to Alan Arkin in the best supporting actor category, and Melissa Etheridge won in the best song category. I think Hollywood really hates Dream Girls.

I love Will Smith but those ears are a bit... ( feel free to insert your own joke here).

Did Forest's speech make you tear up a little? We all love him now, don't we?

How old is Helen Mirren? She still looks very faboulus and sexy.

Jerry Seinfeld needs to host the next year's Oscars

The Academy cannot distunguis between Japan and Hong Kong?

And for the dead people category, this is the part where I always go, "He died?"

Okay, this concludes my coverage of the Oscars. Don't forget to check out the oscar fashion moments

Have a good night.
-D

Random facts

I think Wikipedia is a great site to peruse subjects of interest. I rely on wikipedia a lot especially in areas such as Geopraphy, History and Math. I know it is not 100%accurate, but I don't need 100% accuracy. Pretty accurate is good enough for me.

Here are 10 things I learned from Wikipedia today.

1. The United States tops the world in plastic surgery procedures. Mexico comes next.

2. Libya is the only country with a single color flag

3. In all the countries surveyed, women do more housework than men

4. The United States has the world's highest marriage rate as well as the highest divorce rate.

5. Brazil is the largest Catholic country in the world

6. People in Germany, Belgium, Hungary and Sweden pay half their salaries in tax.

7. Candice Bergen was the first female guest host on SNL and she dated Henry Kissinger.

8. France is the top destination in the world for tourist

9. Per capita, South Africa has the most assaults, rapes and murders with firearms, but in number terms more crimes are committed in America than any other nation in the world.

10. Gerald Ford's running mate in the 1976 presidential election was Bob Dole.

On a side note, I finally got some sleep last night after two weeks of sleepless nights. I slept for about 10 hours,which felt good, and I made sure of that. Because one more late night and I would have looked like my kids grandma rather than their mom. Another good thing with getting a good night sleep is that I feel 75% less like an ass than I did yesterday.

Did you hear that? My stomach is growling with hunger. I am losing the ability to type coherently too. I need to feed myself like in one minute or it's entirely possible that i am going to pass out from hunger. Which might explain the loopiness.
-D

P.S. I have added a few more links to the right hand column, and one of the links is for my youngest daughter's website. Some of the pages on her site has not been updated in a long time, but it will still give you a little glimpse into my family's life.

Celebrate and share the love

Tomorrow is Valentine's day. People always talk about how it has become so commercialized and that it is just a some made up Hallmark holiday to sell more cards. I agree that it is commercialized, but again which holiday isn't? And what is wrong with people celebrating being happy and in love? This is a day that centers around love, so why not show everyone you love that... well you love them. Everyone needs that reminder sometimes. My kids always loved coming down the stairs on valentine's day and finding little boxes of chocolate and stuffed animals. Seeing the smile on their face is why I really love Valentine's day. Sharing warmth, love and gifts with our family, friends and loved ones can be great deal of fun. That's what holidays are about. They are fun and give us an excuse to step away from the mundane routine of our daily lives and Valentine day is no different.

V-day is all about expressing love and showing that you care. So go ahead and celebrate this day whether it is with your family, friends, sweetheart, loved one or even your animal. Or be your own valentine. Just celebrate the power of love. After all, everyone needs some cheering up in the middle of dreary February.

With that said, happy love day to all!
-D

Friday Five

These two Friday Fives made me laugh because they seem so applicable to my life today. Feel free to copy it to your blogs. I'd love to read your answers. But anyhow, here they are:
Friday Five 1:

1. Would you rather have a fun job that doesn't pay well or a boring job that does?
As cliche as it may sound, I'd much rather to have a fun job that doesn't pay well. I am usally very unproductive when I'm bored. Though, I need a job that pays enough money for me to be able to at least pay the bills

2. Would you sacrifice your morals for a job?
Nope. I know I'm too idealistic, but it's possible to become succesfull without sacrificing morals.

3. Would you ever take a job that requires you to be in costume?
I'm going to say it depends. If the costume is wearing pajamas, sign me up.

4. What is your fantasy job?
I want a job where I can eat faboulus meals at finest restaurants and get paid for giving my opinion on food. Doesn't that sound like the most delicious job ever?

5. Would you like fries with that?
Do you remember Bill Gates' Rules for Life #5? Well, Bill says: "Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity." I don't know if this is an urban legend or Bill Gates really said it, but I totally agree with this statement. However, I absolutely loathe fast food, so let's hope I never have to flip burgers.

From the Friday five 2:
1. What was the last question someone asked you and what was your answer(not including this one)?
My sister who lives in Turkey just called a few minutes ago and asked how I was doing? My answer was, oh....surviving.

2. What was the last question you asked? What was the answer?
I asked my daughter what she wanted for breakfast and the answer was, "something besides cereal." My answer," How about Eggo's? Her answer, "No, I want chocolate chip pancakes." Make long story short, I gave her a bowl of Cheerios. Who has time to make pancakes on a school day?

3. Do people often ask you questions? Why or why not? How many questions would you estimate you get asked in an average day?
OMG, my day consumes of probably 50%answering questions. My friends are nosy.

4. Do you often ask questions? Why or why not? How many questions would you estimate you ask in an average day?
Yes, I ask a lot too, but not as many as I answer.

5. When you hear a question, do you feel compelled to answer it?
No, I have a choice to respond or not to respons.

In sad news, Anna Nicole Smith passed away at age 39. I know she was a messed-up nutcase, but it is still a tragedy. I'm saddened to hear the news and I hope she's happy and at peace now.

Good News

This is a bit old news, but for those of you living under a rock, John Kerry has decided not to run for the presidency in 2008. I think that's good news! I am glad he had the sense not to run again because he'd never win. I think he's best at the senate. I wish him a happy career of service in the senate. I heard that Presidential hopeful Obama is trying to snap up some of Kerry's advisors from the 2004 campaign. I sure hope that's only a rumor. Speaking of Obama, he's an intelligent man and has a lot of charisma, but I am not sure if he's qualified for the job. I mean the guy has a very limited political experience, he's just too untested. I think he would make a good VP. Well, needless to say, the 2008 presidential race is going to be very interesting to watch with all these well-known candidates. I think there is going to be a good fight between Hilllary and Obama.

On a completely unrelated note, I have a message for that inconsiderate , rude jerk who parked like shit on campus yesterday morning:

Dear Big SUV owner,
As there is not an adequate number of parking places on campus, please be courteous and do not take up two spaces when you park your gas guzzling vehicle. If you have a vehicle, you should know how to use it, which includes parking in tight spaces. If you are worried about someone parking next to you and scratching your vehicle, then leave your precious toy at home and take the bus. I know your big and manly SUV is so much better than my little girly toyota, but please remember that parking lot requires manners.
Thank you,
Annoyed fellow student
-D