Oh, I'm looking forward to this flick

'Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.' The book was ADORABLE, hope the movie is as well....

Awesome,

see "made of"...

Nastia Liukin and Shawn "M-F" Johnson.

Adorable- check

Awesome- check

Champions- check

Lovely

Pretty purple nail polish- perfect for end of summer events

Random ten

The "Shawn Johnson is my homegirl" edition

1. Hungry Like the Wolf- Duran Duran
2. Something Kind Of Ooooh- Girls Aloud
3. Love Spreads- The Stone Roses
4. Up the Junction- Squeeze
5. Mr. Brownstone- Guns N' Roses
6. Start!- The Jam
7. Authority Song- John Mellencamp
8. What Katie Did- The Libertines
9. Friday's Dust- Doves
10. Dilly Boys- The Libertines

Bonus-
11. Other Side Of the World- KT Tunstall
12. Stuntman- Kasabian

As much as it

makes me happy that he's happy, this statement from John "Freaking" Squire makes me sad-

"Music has been put to one side for good," explained Squire, who first exhibited his artwork designing The Stone Roses' album sleeves. "I'm enjoying this [art] far too much to go back to music."

And it's Russell for the win!

DEFAMER: We'll start out easy before we get a little more obscure. Here's a gimme: Lindsay Lohan.

RUSSELL: Lindsay Lohan is an actress. I believe she was in a Herbie film? She's become notorious for her off-stage and -screen exploits and her tabloid lifestyle. I believe she has been connected to drugs, sauciness, and sexiness in equal measure, though she seems like a nice girl to me.

DEFAMER: She does love the Brits. She had a British boyfriend, and now she's got a British girlfriend.

RUSSELL: Her girlfriend is British?!

DEFAMER: Yeah, Samantha Ronson.

RUSSELL: That's fantastic! I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Lindsay Lohan for her promotion of English sex.

to yellowstone

to yellowstone, originally uploaded by richietown.

Sweet Jesus,

I love Mr. Walcott nearly as much as I loathe Tim Daggett...

"A disaster of epic proportion" is how NBC gymnastics analyst (and former gymnast himself) Tim Daggett described Alicia Sacramore's butt-landing last night in the team competition--a phrase that might be more judiciously deployed to label a monsoon or earthquake that wipes out multiple thousands, or the aftermath of aerial bombardment. A gymnast flubbing her tumbling pass doesn't quite qualify as an epic disaster, even if this is the Olympics and the entire world is riveted to the screen from the sanctity of their leisure modules.

But rhetorical overkill is Daggett's signature yelp, treating every bobble or half-step on the landing as a potential fatal rip ("this--is a nightmare") in the fabric of the heroic narrative he and colleague Al Trautwig have collaborated on behind the mike as they pump up every gymnastics showdown into psychodrama, soap opera, and Nietzschean feats of will.

Hyperbole is the chant they sing, but where Daggett relies on a few stock phrases of cheer or doom, Trautwig fancies himself quite the troubadour, translating the gymnasts' thoughts for us as if their interior monologues were as wordy and portentous as his exterior ones. Gad, they get on my nerves.

Sounds about right

MUSIC legends from the Hollies to Morrissey to Oasis have already put Manchester on the map.

Now the city has been ranked rock 'n' roll capital of Britain, according to a new survey.

It revealed that Manchester has produced more rock stars per head than any other British city.

The survey, by guitar website guitarrockstar.co.uk, checked where 500 of the most successful rock stars and bands from the 1950s to the modern day were born and brought up.

Manchester finished top at producing rock stars, above Liverpool, Sheffield, Glasgow, Coventry and Oxford.

West London suburb Shepherd's Bush was named the rock 'n' roll hotspot with one rock star to every 1,222 people.

Manchester has one rock star per 17,855, followed by Oxford, with one in 24,100, and north west rival Liverpool, with just one per 29,073.

How yummy does this sound?

Grilled sausages and summer beans with herbs, tomatoes and caramelized onions.

2 pounds your favorite sausages
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
4 fresh thyme sprigs
Kosher salt and
freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of sugar
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1 pound green or wax beans (use a combination for the prettiest dish), trimmed
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup chopped mixed fresh herbs, including
basil and parsley
Fleur de sel or coarse sea salt, for serving (optional).

1. Prepare grill or preheat broiler. Grill or broil sausages until browned and blistered and cooked all the way through.

2. Meanwhile, prepare beans. Heat oil in a large skillet with a cover until shimmering. Add onion, thyme sprigs and a pinch each of salt, pepper and sugar. Sauté over medium-high heat until onions are golden in spots and browned around edges, about 7 minutes.

3. Add tomatoes and saute until they start to release their juices, 2 minutes. Add beans and wine and toss everything in pan. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook 3 minutes. Uncover pan, add herbs and continue to cook. Toss beans occasionally, until liquid evaporates and beans are done to taste, 5 to 30 minutes, adding water to pan if it dries out. Garnish with coarse salt if you like and serve hot or at room temperature, with sausages.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Good man

Former Rep. Jim Leach endorses Obama.

"There's a distinction between trumpeting issues and realistically looking at effectiveness," Leach said. "I have never known a time period where the American brand has been in less repair." He said most voters instinctively want the U.S. to work with allies, rejecting the go it-alone approach that has marked the Bush administration.

"If you ask Americans of any political persuasion — conservative, liberal or moderate — whether they'd rather see us lead the world with allies or alone, most people instinctively say we're better off with allies," Leach said. "The public does understand that something is not right about our policies today."

via

Too adorable

Brit Brit looks GOOD and Russell is so funny.... can't wait!

All in all,

I've had a rather enjoyable birthday. Yes, I had to work and the cat woke me up in the middle of the night wanting to be petted AGAIN, but still, it was a lovely day.

Most of my friends and family sent best wishes via phone, mail, email or Facebook, and I was treated to two delicious meals...

Lunch- Salad with roasted red peppers, artichokes, pine nuts and Feta cheese from local cafe

Supper- Fresh corn tortillas filled with pulled pork and roasted chicken with red sauce and homemade guacamole from local very authentic Mexican restaurant. Accompanied by a strawberry rocket fuel cocktail margarita.

Yum.

I know he's not "cool,"

but I have to say, one of my most enjoyable concert-going experiences was the Neil Diamond gig I went to in college.

Toward the end of the concert, right after a string of megahits, including “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” and “I’m a Believer,” which he wrote for the Monkees, Mr. Diamond told the crowd he had no plans for retirement.

“This is my job,” he said. “Someone much greater than me gave me that job. He said, ‘You, you with that stupid look on your face — go out and sing until I tell you to stop.’ I haven’t heard the word yet so I’m just going to keep doing it.”

'Dakota'- Stereophonics

Awesome

Every year at the Iowa State Fair, there is a butter sculpture of something culturally significant, such as the butter Last Supper, Harry Potter (my fav-drove the fundies crazy) and Elvis. Oh, and the traditional butter cow.

This year's edition? Butter Shawn Johnson, the wee dynamo from West Des Moines, currently kicking some ass and taking some names at the Olympics.

Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson, whose likeness is being cast in bronze for the Iowa Hall of Pride, will be sculpted in a more gooey medium in August at the Iowa State Fair.

Butter Shawn Johnson will share the spotlight with the butter cow in the Agriculture Building Aug. 7-17. Butter sculptor Sarah Pratt of West Des Moines plans to incorporate a balance beam into Johnson’s pose, and possibly an American flag.

Seriously, I really can't think of a higher honor in Iowa than to be (temporarily) immortalized in dairy at the state fair.

Thoughts

while watching the women's team qualifying gymnastics competition at the Olympics-

-AAAAAA! Stay in bounds, honey!

-AAAAAA! No, really! Stay in bounds!

-Awwww, little Nastia Liukin did well!

-Get down with your bad tiny little self, Shawn Johnson! (representing West Des Moines)!

-AAAAAA! AN INTERVIEW WITH PREZNIT BUSH? WTF?????

*clicks over to 'Extreme Home Makeover*

-AAAAAAAAA! HE'S STILL ON THE DAMN TV???

My question is, does NBC have ANY idea how unpopular this dipshit is? I'd love to see how much ratings plummeted during that segment...

Update-actual text messages my girl, Case, sent me regarding the interview with the Chimp-

"Is he drunk?"

"He was talking baseball, so I kept waiting for him to pick his nose."