Some Insider Information...

If you read the tabloids or entertainment news at all, you should be aware that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt (who always has terribly chapped lips by the way, which I find difficult to look at even if the rest of him is pretty darn attractive) are coming out with a new movie about Daniel Pearl and his wife.

Personally, I have no plans whatsoever to see it because it smacks of that schmaltzy, post-9/11 patriotism that annoys me. (Laura, is that witchy enough for you?)

But regardless... I saw an article on Yahoo news two days ago, entitled "Pearl Film Could Help State Bureau," and I did a double take.

Now, if you're too lazy to click the link and read the whole article, it basically says this:

"The State Department's little-known law enforcement and protection arm, eager to raise its profile, is trying to take advantage of the global buzz around Angelina Jolie's film about journalist Daniel Pearl's murder in Pakistan.

The State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security is trumpeting its role in the Pearl case ahead of the opening of "A Mighty Heart" on Friday.

DS, as it is known, focuses on the film's portrayal of Randall Bennett, a Diplomatic Security agent who was posted to Karachi, Pakistan, when the Wall Street Journal reporter was abducted there in 2002. Bennett played a key part in the hunt for Pearl's kidnappers and killers."

I couldn't believe what I was reading!

I worked for this mysterious bureau for almost four years as an analyst before I came back to grad school, and I (yes, me, your blogger) debriefed Randall Bennett when he came back to the US from Pakistan about three years ago (after the Daniel Pearl incident).

Here's Randall...

... well-known for always, and only, wearing all black. And he's very nice & polite.

Anyway, the last paragraph of the article reads:

"With Bennett's help, several men were arrested and convicted for Pearl's murder."

But here's something I (and soon to be you) know that the article didn't say...

Randall explained to me how they tracked these guys down (sorry, can't tell you that part), and how the Pakistani security services drove into a few of Karachi's worst neighborhoods in the middle of the night to find some of the guys who were involved in the kidnapping plot.

He told me that after they arrested about eight guys (each of whom ratted out the other, thus becoming successively more important in the hierarchy), they got to a real bad ass guy who had fought in Afghanistan and was scarred up and tough as nails.

Randall said the guy just refused to crack under interrogation. He said, "I just couldn't believe how long that guy lasted under interrogation."

And I said, "Ohhh, what did the Pakistanis do to him?"

And Randall said, "You don't want to know. Really. But this guy lasted an eternity in there before he finally told them anything. No one could believe how long he could take it."

And then I said, "Oh, did it last several days?"

And Randall looked at me incredulously and said, "No... he was in there about 20 minutes."

Oh.

What's That Little Bump On My Chest?

I recently developed a strange little bump near my collar bone...

(Please gloss over the double chin action in this particular shot.)

Since I go to the pool a lot now and was a bit of a sun worshipper in my 20s, I was afraid I might have a cancerous growth.

After consulting the internet (my personal medical assistant), I diagnosed myself with some type of carcinoma that was malignant, but not likely to be deadly.

Then I called a real doctor.

I had my appointment today for a "total skin check-up" at the student health clinic, which meant that I had to don a hospital gown while a nurse practitioner (who apparently specializes in skin problems) proceeded to tell me that I have permanent skin damage to my chest and upper back due to past sun exposure. Oh, joy! However, she also told me that I am not at high risk for skin cancer because I am not a "moley" person (think Matt Damon skin), and I tan well.

When she got to my collar bone bump, she dismissed my cancer worries with a flick of her hand...

"Oh, that? That's not cancer. That's a wart."

Please allow me to re-enact the expression I believe I displayed at that moment:

"Say what?"

For about a tenth of a second, I actually thought a diagnosis of carcinoma might have been preferable.

I mean a wart is one of the grossest things I can imagine (and to prove my point, I dare you... dare you... to Google "wart" and then go to "images" -- and the first images to pop up will indeed indicate that warts are one of the most foul... yes, foul skin disfigurements, especially in certain areas of the body -- ahem -- which thankfully at least do not include the collar bone.)

And since I am on a webcam kick tonight, allow me to share what my face looked like when I made the horrible mistake of Googling "warts" under "images" this evening...


But back to the doctor's office now... so my next question was: "How do you get a wart on your chest?"

The nurse's response: "Don't even think about it."

OK, that didn't help me. That just made me think about it more. I couldn't let it go.

After she finished freezing it and giving me sun screen advice (ie: use it), I went back to the topic of: "How do you get a wart on your chest? Is it normal for people to get warts there? I've never heard of anyone with a wart there. Where could I have gotten this?"

Her response?: "Don't worry, it's not genital warts. It's just a standard wart."

No shit, Sherlock! Last time I looked, I didn't have any genitals on my shoulder. (And let's not picture this either, thanks.) But she still didn't answer my question... I mean, how do you get any kind of wart on your upper chest, for cripe's sake?

Bottom line: She had no answer except to say, "You can pick up a wart anywhere on any part of your skin."

So I have no answer.

Just a hideous wart on my collar bone (which hopefully will be gone in a week).

Caught from an unknown location and an unknown person.

And yes, I have officially grossed myself out.

Could the Cookies Be Helping Me Swim Faster?

I guess riding my bike to work and going to the gym every day is paying off... I clocked my fastest mile swim time ever today at 32.5 minutes. Excellent.

Other than this, my days continue to follow the same script... babysitting, exercising, and laying around.

The only new addition to my rather boring world is the discovery of the world's most delightful cookie...

... which I found quite accidentally in the Mexican foods section.

A little bit of cinnamon, a lot of crunch, and a burst of sugary good flavor. I seriously recommend them.

Back to DC, Babysitting, and Blue Nails

I have three agenda items today:

1. The State Department finally called me to set a start date, and the first day of my new job will be August 20.

This is perfect, really, because my lease ends on July 30. Then my mom is coming out the first week of August to drive back across the country with me. I think we're going to stop in Santa Fe and/or Taos, head up to Denver to stay with my brother's family, and then book it home (there's not much between Denver and Virginia, as I discovered two years ago).

To prove my point, here are some pictures Miguel and I took during the drive in 2005...

This is close to the town where I grew up in Maryland. (I told you it was in the sticks... Hey VM -- this is really close to your old house on Hawbottom Rd.!!!)

This is on the way to Oxford, Ohio...

... near where I went to college as an undergrad. Also in the sticks.

This is either in southern Illinois or in Missouri...

... yet another reason why I avoid the Midwest.

The Cracker Barrel is also evil...


... And Kansas just keeps going and going...


... and going and going and going...

Oh! I can't wait to do this drive again in August in my non-air conditioned 1988 Honda! Woo hoo!

2. On to the next topic... the 4-year old I babysit, AKA "M.," apparently hates me... as of today.

I showed up at their door this morning, and she came skulking up next to her dad and told him that not only did she hate me, but that she did not want to spend one minute with me today. Then she punched her dad in the chest when he got down to talk to her. As a result, she got sent to "time out," and after a mini-counseling session with her father, it was determined that "M. thinks you are strict and have too many rules."

My opinion? I think the sentence featuring the phrase "she punched her dad in the chest" should say it all.

Please let August arrive soon.

3. I am going to Vegas this coming weekend to have a belated birthday celebration with Ingrid and a bunch of our friends ...


In preparation for the big event, I decided to get a pedicure.

I had painted my own toenails about two weeks ago in an effort to save $$$, and I used a pearlescent copper color that I had received as a free gift from Lancome.

When I showed my nails to Ingrid last week, in hopes of receiving positive feedback, all I got was a scrunched up nose, a small grimace, and the comment: "It looks like a color my mom would use."* When I turned to Katie for back-up, she replied, "Well, it's a safe color."

After this complete demolition of my self-esteem, I decided that perhaps it was worth a small sum to achieve at least some level of youthful hipness.

So in a concerted effort to be non-mommish and to eschew all safety concerns, I got a little rebellious at the nail salon and picked this color...

"Greece Just Blue Me Away."

I'm feeling ready for Vegas now. Caesar's Palace, here I come!
____________________________________________
* Although it is unintentional, Ingrid has the ability to slice an ego to the core. Please refer to this blog entry to read about another slap she gave my self image a few months ago.

A Perfect Day for Swimming and Engaging Parties

I had a busy afternoon/evening yesterday.

After lounging around my apartment in the morning, I went to the gym, raced home & showered, and drove over to Shauna's boyfriend's parents' house in order to attend a pool party in her honor.

She finally got her visa to Iran and leaves tomorrow to study for the rest of the summer... so it was a bit of a bon voyage celebration.

I wasn't sure if I was going to swim because I had to attend Alex & Anna's engagement BBQ a few hours after Shauna's party (and didn't really want to drive in the other direction back home to shower & change again), but in the end I couldn't resist taking a plunge. After all, it was 104 degrees here yesterday, and it felt just about exactly that hot.

We lounged around for a while and then engaged in a spirited game of water polo. Shauna and I were team captains, and I am proud to say that I picked the best team because we destroyed Shauna's team (which consisted of 2 girls, a 13-year old, and 2 grown men versus my team of 1 girl -- me -- and 4 grown men).

After the game, we chilled out in the shade...

This is the guest of honor, Shauna, and her friend Marissa, who she used to work with at the Mexican Tile Store. (BTW, I took three photos of them, and Marissa had her eyes closed in every single one, which she says is a common theme in her photographic life.)

Here is one of my teammates (Faran) with my former academic colleague, Rachael...

Faran just arrived here from Iran and barely speaks English, which explains why he didn't understand any of the directives I was giving him on the water polo field.

Here is Tamara (also from my department) and her husband, Keith...


And here is Faroz, Rouzbeh (Shauna's BF) and his little brother, Ramteen...

Ramteen was a very aggressive little water polo player. He attempted to distract me by screaming like a woman every time I tried to get the ball away from him. Too bad that lame tactic didn't work.

After hanging out for a while with the Persians and the other associated riff-raff (myself included), I decided to just change into the other clothes I'd brought with me and show up at Anna and Alex's house with a faint chlorine scent. Luckily, they never noticed, as I was smart enough to bring some lemon-ginger lotion with me to hide the smell of my recent pool activities.

Here's the happy couple... A & A...

Congratulations, you guys!!!!

Earlier in the evening, Anna's sister, her friend, Toia, and I had fun playing with Anna's pet tortoises on her patio...

This is Turbo at the water dish we forced upon him.

And here's Turbo's brother, Jet...

... who was clearly jetting off to nowhere, as he sat in this corner staring at the stucco wall for what seemed like an hour. We started to wonder if he was retarded. I even hung a leaf of lettuce on his head to get him to move, which didn't work.

Later on, a group of us (mostly Alex's friends... one of whom was a French bakery bread chef!... I harangued the poor man with about a million bread related questions) hung out chatting on the patio till nearly midnight... until a wolf spider jumped off the roof onto Alex's friend Josh, who jumped up so fast out of his chair I thought he was doing a dance move.

I determined then that it was a good time to go home.

And that was my day.

A Quiet Friday Night

It's Friday night, and I have no plans.

So...

I'm making stationery...


Baking cornbread...

(Trader Joe's has the world's best cornbread mix!)

And watching "Arrested Development."


Tobias is my favorite character...

And GOB is a close runner-up.

Look Away, Dixieland!

I have never, in any way, shape or form, ever considered myself a Southerner.

Yes, I was born in Florida and grew up in Maryland (a border state, yet south of the Mason-Dixon line) as well as Virginia... definitely anti-Yankee territory.

But my parents are total northerners, I never picked up any sort of southern drawl (although Miguel has pointed out to me numerous times over several years that I say the word "what?" as "whut?," which seems more hillbilly than cotillion-worthy), and I hardly relate to those Confederate flag waving lunatics in that hot and humid corner of our country known as the Deep South.

However... however... today as I was riding my bike home from babysitting, I found myself singing "Dixie" in my head...



Here are the lyrics:

"I wish I was in the land of cotton,
Old times there are not forgotten,
look away, look away, look away, Dixie land.
In Dixie Land where I was born in,
Early on one frosty mornin' look away,
look away, look away, Dixie land.
I wish I was in Dixie, hooray! hooray!
In Dixie Land I'll take my stand to live and die in Dixie,
Away, away, away down south in Dixie,
Away, away, away down south in Dixie!"

My god, I know every word.

And why, you might ask?

When I was in elementary school in rural north-central Maryland (in the farmland north of Frederick), we sang this song every week after the Pledge of Allegiance.

Some days we sang songs like "America the Beautiful" or "My Country Tis of Thee," but at least weekly, we sang "Dixie." And I'm going to admit something to you right now... it was my all-time favorite "patriotic" song.*

I LOVED it when the beginning of this song came over the loudspeaker (Yes! It's "Dixie" day!) and I sang it with gusto. Of course, mind you, I was like 10-years old and had no idea what I was saying... I just liked the tune (and it is very catchy).


This is a t-shirt design. Scary.

So I guess my point is that you might think Maryland today is more of a northern state, but I'm here to report from the inside that it is, in fact, not at all. ________________________________________________

* NPR reports that it was also Abraham Lincoln's favorite song so I guess I'm not a total freak.

To read the very interesting NPR story about the history of the tune "Dixie" and to listen to various samples of the song (which is apparently rarely sung in public anymore -- good grief, how un-PC my redneck school was!)... click here.

Babies, Beauties, and Beasts

I spent my laborious day toiling away in the Sam Hughes neighborhood of Tucson... I had a full day of babysitting (as opposed to my usual half day) today because the mom -- who has a PhD in biochemistry -- had to sit in on and monitor an afternoon class that is using a textbook she's been writing.

In her absence, I swam with the 4-year old in the morning while the baby napped, and we all watched Madagascar and colored after lunch. I'm pretty sure the giraffe in that movie was voiced by Ross from "Friends," who didn't even try to not sound like Ross.

Luckily Baby S. loves playing in her cage... err, I mean playpen...

She has more toys than FAO Schwartz... which frees me up from having to hold her all the time, which would be a serious drag. Of course, I do play with her too, outside of her playpen, but I can't say I'm sad that she's a very self-sufficient child. Not to mention she's pretty damn cute.

And here's her sister, M...

... who is a total coloraholic, which is fine with me since I secretly love coloring. The only thing that annoys me is that she always wants to color on the same page and in the same book as me and then she sticks her head in my way so that I can't see what I'm doing and then she screws up my pictures.

And really... 96 colors in a crayon box?!? I remember being pretty psyched to get 64 with a built-in sharpener. Plus burnt sienna and cornflower aren't the craziest colors in the box anymore... now there's "macaroni and cheese" and "granny apple green" and a whole range of metallic/glitter shades.

I also gave S. a baby mirror to play with today...

... and as you can see, she was thrilled about looking at herself.

This actually reminds me of one of the bridesmaids in my brother's wedding several years ago. She was from the Ukraine and was friends with my sister-in-law and was very possibly the most vain creature I have ever encountered (put it this way, her entire wardrobe was from Bebe and she wore nothing but stiletto heels and cowboy hats). My mom and I actually started counting how many times this woman looked at herself in the mirror before the wedding. Every window, metallic surface, and mirror was fair game for her primping. My guess is that she looked in a reflective surface about 50 times per hour that day under the auspice of fixing her lipstick or hair, but I think she just loved the way she looked.

And speaking of weddings and beauty, I read an article in Gawker this evening entitled "Christina Aguilera's Husband is Huge," that literally had me cackling out loud in my apartment. If you don't read anything else today, I highly recommend you read the post (and the associated Zach Braff tirade) because, well, it's really really funny. And just a little catty.

Beauty and the Beast...

PS - And if you're my mom or someone in that age range, and/or you're totally disassociated with mainstream American pop culture (i.e.: You do not have hours to pore over Perez Hilton's website or the latest Us Weekly headlines), I will just tell you that the article conjectures why the attractive female singer Christina Aguilera might have married her less than attractive husband, Jordan Bratman.

Living the Life of Riley

Right now I'm in an interesting place in my life.

Rephrased... I have no schoolwork, just a part-time job, many good friends, a cheap and fun place to live, and afternoons of sheer selfish enjoyment.

Don't think I don't realize what a boondoggle life I have at the moment... I do.

I don't think I could live this way permanently though (after all, it's difficult to be totally goal-less for more than a few months... at least for me, anyway)... but I am thoroughly enjoying every single second that I have left here. Sometimes I ride my bike and look up at the palm trees and feel the sunshine and the breeze and realize how great it all is...



My clearance for my new job at the State Department came through last week (sooner than I expected), which means I can start my job as soon as whoever is going to be my boss actually calls me to negotiate a start date.

I'm still waiting for that call... which means either: 1) they didn't expect my clearance to come through so soon and are stalling for time, 2) they're too busy to call and/or train a new person, or 3) they're out of town. Let's hope it's not that they don't want me anymore.

Anyway, I am appreciating every last moment I have here in Tucson... and my total lack of responsibility.

Today exemplified my current life as a slacker.

I rode my bicycle to the house where I babysit, put the baby to sleep, watched "Love Connection" and various other game shows for a couple of hours, played with the baby after she woke up, watched "Little People, Big World" while I fed the baby oatmeal, and then the mom came home.

Yes, more dwarfs...


I then rode my bike onto campus, where I mailed a homemade father's day card (I have loads of time for crafting these days... and it's father's day this weekend, everybody!), read Us Weekly in the campus bookstore, deposited my babysitting money at the ATM, and got a chicken salad sandwich at the food court.

Gerry came upon me eating this sandwich at a table near Chik-Filet (although that is not where I purchased it) as I was in deep contemplation over the complexities of bikini shopping in my newest Lucky magazine -- AKA "the magazine about shopping" -- although I must insert a downside to being a slacker here... I have no $$$ to afford to be a shopper. (One of life's grand disappointments for those of us not independently wealthy...)



Gerry's first comment to me: "Rough life."

Indeed.

My plans after lunch? The rec center pool... where I hung out from 1:30 to 4:30. I did swim laps for a half hour, and the rest of the time I read fluffy magazines and started my newest book, Ethan Frome, while lounging like Cleopatra in a shaded nook.

Then I went to Arabic speaking club at a nearby Starbuck's (in some attempt to maintain my Arabic abilities -- although it appears to be in vain, as I have forgotten at least 25% of what I once learned), and while there, I told my friend Sandy that I had spent half the day at the swimming pool.

His response?... "Sounds like you're living the life of Riley." (Just who is Riley anyway?)

Now I am off to a BBQ at Ben's house.

And then? I have another tough day ahead of me tomorrow. More of what I did today I guess.

Sigh.

My Favorite Coffee

This is how I survive every morning...

... my special ordered Porto Rico coffee, sent via UPS directly from NYC.

As you can see, I nerded out and also ordered their 100th anniversary mug along with my two bags of coffee.

I love that place... and my new coffee mug.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAOLA!

A big shout out to PP, who turns 34 today...

HAPPY B-DAY!!!!

Have a great day and see you soon!

"She's Crafty" Night

In honor of the great Beastie Boys' song "She's Crafty," the girls (Keri, Anna, Katie, Ingrid, and I) got together at Ingrid's house last night to do some serious and hardcore crafting... namely spritz bleaching t-shirts with homemade designs.

Here's an idea of what we decided to do (I forgot my camera so I'm using random photos from craft websites... I don't know these people from Adam)...

First, we laid patterns on dark shirts. Then we spritzed bleach on them.

We wanted the end product to look something like this...

... a shirt made with random mechanical parts.

See more information here and here, if you're interested in trying the project yourself.

Seeing as I have a zillion t-shirts, but only one that I didn't mind potentially ruining, I made a pit stop at the world's scariest thrift shop... which would be called the "Deseret Industries" second-hand shop next to the meth-addict's favorite grocery story, Fry's, that I've referred to in at least one past blog post.

I assure you that the clientele there might just be made up of the scariest human beings you've ever seen in your life (toothless junkies, miserable screaming children, overweight fast-food-eating trailer home residents, etc.).

But... I was running low on time, it's very close to my house, and I needed to buy ice cream for the party that night... thus, a run to Fry's (and, by convenience, the scary ass thrift shop) was in order.

I found two tank tops, a khaki colored t-shirt, and a black v-neck shirt (unfortunately covered in several long and curly hairs that I had to pick off with my fingernails in complete horror), which totaled the grand sum of $8.00. Not a bad deal, if I don't say so myself... and it almost made having to touch random hair worth it.

We all brought several shirts -- and we had a number of objects to bleach... from gears to doilies to wrenches to cookie cutter designs to grape leaves.

I had the idea to write out Arabic words on a sheet of paper and then cut them out with an Exacto knife. I then bleached the cut out areas.

Here are my shirts...

This one says "Why?" in colloquial Arabic.

And this one says "Love"...

For the record, I'm not the type that would ever wear a t-shirt that says "love" in English (and I f***ing hate any piece of clothing that has hearts on it... and lace or ruffles or capped sleeves and that is pink or featuring any other cute horrible thing)... but I knew how to spell it in Arabic (important, that is) and it's not so schmaltzy written in a cool script like Arabic. Note that I didn't add any hearts on it anywhere though.

I tried to put stars on a navy blue tank top I'd bought -- even though I was gravely worried that it was going to turn out cheesily patriotic -- but it refused to accept the bleach. (Perhaps for the best.) It just stayed navy. Ingrid had the same problem with one of hers (ahem, I mean, one of her husband, Joe's, shirts that she stole out of his closet despite his warnings not to mar his stuff with bleach designs).

This was my last design of the night... and you can tell I did it in the near darkness of Ingrid's back yard...

... because the doily was obviously completely off center.

Thank goodness I only paid $2 for that shirt.

Then we had dinner (Keri brought a Mediterranean salad feast, Ingrid baked chocolate "Wacky cake", and I brought chocolate peanut butter ice cream... my favorite) and we raided Ingrid's bookshelves! She lent me Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights (as part of my Victorian moralist summer reading extravaganza) as well as Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which I'll get to later.*

All in all, it was a splendid evening... I hope we do it next month too!

* Reason being... I stopped in to Bookman's used bookstore today and got the following novels (more or less from the same 18th/19th century genre... I'm addicted!) which I feel like I should have read earlier but never did -- and am finding that I absolutely love:

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence (yes, I know it's pretty much soft porn, but there's nothing wrong with that... it's a classic!)

Diego's Drug Binge

I have a short but amusing anecdote today.

I was babysitting this morning, and I was coloring in a "Dora the Explorer" coloring book with the 4-year old girl...


She insisted on coloring every square inch of the page, often ruining my perfectly decorated creations.

We were coloring a picture of Dora's male friend Diego, when she demanded to color in the whites of his eyes.

She chose the color pink to surround his green eyes (colored by me).

While she was coloring, I muttered: "Oh look! Isn't that cute! Diego now looks like he's been on a crazy, all night drug binge."...


About a minute later she stopped coloring, looked at the picture and said: "I'm a good colorer. And Diego looks like he's been on a drug binge..."

I laughed out loud on the inside... then found myself hoping she never repeats that to her parents.

The Phoenix Cousins

I drove up to Phoenix yesterday and back again to Tucson this morning.

There's not a lot to see on that drive, although yesterday the wind was buffeting my car so strongly that I had to hold on tightly with two hands almost the whole way there to avoid being blown off the road and into a tumblebush patch. I felt like Granny Apples.

I always enjoy getting close to Phoenix because you start seeing these signs...

OMG! L.A.!

I think because I grew up on the East Coast, I am always taken aback a little to see signs for California cities. I always feel kind of cool when I drive under them. Like, oooo, I could go to L.A. if I wanted... but I won't.

Anyway, I had a great time in Phoenix at my cousin Ardith's house. She cooked up chicken curry salad with a tasty assortment of side dishes, and my other cousin, Mali, brought deviled eggs, which just might have been the most delicious deviled eggs I have ever eaten (and I'm a huge deviled egg fan... sometimes I will just boil one egg to make a single tasty treat for myself, but mine never taste as good as Mali's did... her secret appears to be ranch dressing.)

Here are the chefs...

... my second cousin Mali (in the center), Ardy on the right, and Mali's daughter Laura on the left (who I guess is also my cousin in a more distant sort of way).

Laura's a senior at ASU and plans to teach middle school. She's also a ballroom dancer so of course, I quizzed her to death about it, especially anything related to "Dancing With the Stars."

Here was the rest of the party crew...

... Joanne, Ardy, and Gene (all my mom's cousins... their parents were my grandmother's brother and sister) -- and Gene's wife Gail, who is from Alabama originally and has the world's cutest Southern accent.

Gene is the perfect name for him because he's taken an active role in being our family genealogist. He has gotten in touch with all of my great-grandfather's relatives in Austria, travels there every year, and hosts them at his home in Phoenix annually as well.

They're from a village in the Alps on the border of southern Germany...

... and this is the southernmost town in Germany (Sonthofen) that my great grandfather's family left behind to come to the US in the 1840s.

All I had to ask was... what in the hell were those people thinking? They left that glorious place for central Michigan? Were they crazy? Sorry, Michiganders, but even you have to agree.

The answer: There was a potato famine, and they had no choice. Hmmm... and I thought that only affected the Irish. I guess not.

My opinion? I'd have to seriously be starving to leave that place for the midwestern U.S. Like bloated stomach starving.

Game Show Addict

Another great day...

More or less a repeat of yesterday... babysitting, poolside lounging and swimming afterwards at the rec center, chilling out at home for a bit, then playing "Citadels" at J & A's later this evening.

In order to save money on gas, save natural resources, and help out the environment, I've decided to start biking to my babysitting job, which is about 3.5 miles from my house. I can take a really nice bike trail there through one of Tucson's prettiest neighborhoods, and I almost didn't notice the 102 degree heat today (and believe me, it was close to that even at 7:55 this morning!).

While babysitting (I only had the baby today because the 4-year old goes to day camp on Tues/Thurs), I turned on the television while she was napping. Normally, I read or play around on the computer, but today I discovered that they have digital TV.* More specifically, I discovered that they have "The Game Show Channel."

Have I mentioned that I am a game show freak?

Even better, this morning, there was nothing but old game shows (the best kind!) on the air... the lineup even had "Love Connection" followed by "Let's Make a Deal" and then "Press Your Luck."

Could there be three better shows in a row? I think not.

I used to watch "Love Connection" every afternoon after school with my grandmother in her apartment...

We were rabid Chuck Woolery fans.

On today's episode, every single woman had very stiff looking, feathered hair, and every single man in the date selection videos had a mustache...

This is totally representative.

And remember the whammies on "Press Your Luck"?!?

No whammies, no whammies! I watched that show with my grandmother too.

This was the car that a couple won on "Let's Make a Deal" today ---

... Monty Hall told them it was worth a crazy $6,000! The couple was so thrilled. I wonder what its gas mileage was? It reminded me of the Brady Bunch. My friend Patti's parents also had a wagon like this, and we would ride backwards in the rear seat.

And on a final note, although Tic Tac Dough was not on the Game Show Channel's repertoire this morning, does anyone else remember the show's last segment with the roaring dragon on the blinking tic-tac-toe screen?...


And better yet, does anyone recall the vehicle that the Tic Tac Dough winner received?...

To this day, I cannot see an AMC Eagle and not think of Tic Tac Dough and Wink Martindale. Of course, one rarely sees AMC Eagles anymore, but there is a guy in Tucson who apparently collects them because there are about six parked in front of his house that I ogled at a few months ago. I must admit though, that even as a child, I remember thinking to myself, "Why would you want to win that lame and ugly car?"

* - I know, you TV freaks out there might not believe that I have not once looked at the TV since I started babysitting there in February, but it's true.

FYI: There will be no blog on Wednesday b/c I'm driving up to Phoenix for a family dinner at my mom's cousin Ardith's house. She's inviting her sister and their cousin (also my mom's cousin), Gene and his wife, and a few other second cousins of mine that live up that way. I'm looking forward to meeting the mystery cousin Gene (who is round about 80 now) b/c he's been the "big success" of the family... got his PhD in optical engineering or something mathy like that at U. of Michigan (where my grandmother's family is from) and invented a type of solar-resistant paint that was used by NASA on its space crafts. From what I hear, he's lived pretty well in L.A. for years and recently retired to Phoenix.