Love Is Spelled the Same All Over the World: E-L-V-I-S!!

I'm in a celebratory mood. Graceland has been added to the list of National Landmarks. It joins the White House, Mount Vernon and Monticello in receiving the countries highest designation for historic properties. Every year more then 600,000 tourists visit Graceland to pay homage to the King. I'm happy to say that I have been there. My college roommate and B.F.F. Andrea and I made the pilgrimage and were two of 600,000 back in August of 1993. At the time the tour of the historic home was limited to the first floor because there was still some Aunt living upstairs. I believe the tour now includes upstairs rooms as well as downstairs ones. I suppose the fact that Elvis is buried on site is a major draw for a lot of people. My favorite parts of our visit to Graceland were seeing all of his fabulous jump suits and writing our names on the rock wall out front. It was a great time, I think everyone should go at least once.

Fantasy Bass Fishing????

I was running some errands this morning and when I got home I turned on the TV. ESPN 2 came up and they were discussing the results of a Bass Fishing Tournament. I paused a few moments before scrolling on and in that time I discovered something I didn't know existed...Fantasy Bass Fishing!!! While I'm familar with fantasy football teams, baseball teams and racing teams I had no idea this was part of the world of competitive fishing, but obviously I was mistaken. My curiosity peaked I went online to Bassmaster to get a little more information. It seems to play you have to do the following...

• Select 5 anglers to complete your roster and to make your team eligible
• Each player has an assigned Market Value which will fluctuate with their real life performance in tournaments. The Market Value at which you select a player to your roster will remain locked until you release them. If an angler's value decreases you can "re-negotiate" and keep them on your team for the lower value. If an angler's value increases you benefit from their good performance without your locked value changing.
• The locked value of your five angler team can not exceed 50 points
• Scoring is based on a multi-day system with each angler scored on catches, heaviest weights etc.

I found this to be very interesting. Having never delved into the world of fantasy sports - perhaps this is how most teams are run, the sport of course being the variable. During my research I discovered several anglers that would add some eye candy to your team in addition to some quality fishing. John Crews has been making a name for himself in recent years fishing in two different professional series and Gerald Swindle was the Bassmaster Angler of the year in 2004. Nothing wrong with looking good on the water. I wouldn't throw either of them out of the boat.

Cowboys on the Land...

While I'm on the subject of watching cowboys on TV I thought I would give a little time to another of my favorite things...Bull Riding, the PBR Built Ford Tough Series, to be exact. Airing on OLN on Saturday and Sunday nights, this is the "Nextel Cup" of bull riding. Each event of the 30-city competition pits the top 45 riders against each other to see who can ride the most bulls, win the most money and ultimately be crowned the champion at the finals in Las Vegas Nevada at the end of October. The reigning World Champion is none other then hottie Justin McBride.
At 26 years old he stands a paltry 5' 8" and tips the scales at a lean 140. I don't know what it is with me and guys that size. Another hottie on the bull riding scene is 25 year old, Aussie Brendon Clark who also stand only 5' 8" and weighs in at 155 pounds. In a discussion with my co-worker we were wondering how these lean guys can take the physical beatings week in and week out. It's like I'm back in college when my girlfriends and I would page through the soccer team program to see how many of the guys weighed less then us. Speaking of college, my roommate Andrea and I talked about going to Las Vegas for the National Finals Rodeo, held every December, to see if we could snag us a cowboy or two. We would have been known as buckle bunnies had that road trip ever come to pass. I hadn't given that much thought in the last ten or so years until watching the "King of the Hill", episode where they have to go to the gay rodeo to find Dale's Dad. Bobbie, who finds he has a penchant for rodeo clowning, saves Joseph from a raging bull and as the episode ends Joseph gives Bobbie one of his buckles and Bobbie says "I guess this makes me your buckle bunny." That totally cracked my shit up.

Cowboys on the Sea...

I am almost breathless with anticipation...one of my favorite TV shows, "The Deadliest Catch", is making it's second season debut starting Tuesday (3/28) at 9:00pm on The Discovery Channel. Talk about reality TV, an episode or two into last season an entire ship and it's crew were lost at sea before the crab-fishing even began. You can't get anymore real then actual death. These guys are a crazy lot, risking life and limb for the possibility of a huge payout.

The rules have changed for this season, it's no longer a balls to the wall derby style event, with crabbers catching as much as they can in a window of a couple of days. Now each vessel is given a set amount of crab they can catch and all the time they want to do it. But having watched these guys in the past we all know the goal is still to catch all the crabs allowed in the shortest amount of time possible to save on fuel and wear and tear on your boat and your crew.
I'm glad to see the Northwestern, captained by Sig Hansen is back along with the Maverick, captained by Rick Quashnick. On the Maverick Rick's wife is the cook and crew "Mom", bucking superstition that it's bad luck to have a woman on board. I'm sure those guys don't care, they're better taken care of then anyone else on the water - I've seen her cook. Plus I know if I fall on the deck and snap my leg like a twig, I might get a bit of sympathy from her.

Who's The Most Popular

Due to rainy weather yesterday, Nascar's Golden Corral 500 from Atlanta is being run today. With a little luck and some savy tuning on my little transistor style radio I am able to listen to the action on AM 1440 while I toil away at work. Dale Earnhardt Jr started back in the field but seems to have his car dialed in and he's running in the top ten.
While waiting for the race to start I searched online to see if Chex was running the "Most Popular Driver" contest again this year and they are. Voting actually just started this weekend so I'm right on time. From now until November 20th my daily mission will be to cast a vote for my favorite Nascar Nextel Cup driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. I want to make sure he wins the title of Most Popular Driver for the fourth year in a row.

We Need More Manatee's In This Pool

My sister once said that the key to looking slim while filming a music video is to surround yourself with large animals. So for her the choice was simple, manatee's. Lot of big manatee's. I've been fond of the manatee since driving through the Florida Keys, enroute to Key West, in February of 2000 and seeing people with life-size manatee mailbox holders. Something about them struck me as very cool, very islandy. If we ever get back I'm going to get a little one that holds one of those shiny gazing ball things and put it in our little flower bed alcove. Maybe it would scare away the neighbors cat that keeps using the area as a litter box.

The Outdoor Arts Foundation of Tampa Florida also loves manatee's and they have their own special way of helping them out. New York City had cows, Baltimore had fish and now Tampa has manatee's. Life size fiberglass manatee's painted by local artists and put around town for the public to enjoy. The decorative manatee's will be auctioned off in November of this year with the proceed's going to help save the endangered West Indian Manatee. I wish I had use for such a wonderful thing - because I think it's a great idea. Jacksonville Florida did something similar in 2004 & 2005, only their campaign was called Sea Cows for Kids. The proceeds from those auctioned manatee's went to help kids in that area. I checked the list to see where they ended up and most are at private homes. I bet the home owner's assocation in my community would have something to say about that. Though I'm not sure there is a specific rule against large animal shaped lawn ornaments.

I Love Me Some Tai Shan

It's been a slow day at the salt mine today - so I took a little time (okay 45 minutes) and tuned in to the panda webcam at the National Zoo in Washington DC. This webcam allows me, from the semi-comfort of my desk, to watch baby panda Tai Shan and his mom. They were quite active today. Tai Shan was running after his mother, climbing trees, and almost falling out, eating leaves etc. I watched him up in a tree for a long time. He'd sit for a while, then try to turn around and inevitably his bottom would fall between the branches and he'd have to spend several minutes extricating himself. It was a great way to spend those 45 minutes. He is the cutest thing on earth. I visited the National Zoo once, when I was in 9th grade. I used my money to buy a small stuffed panda, I'm pretty sure I still have it. Panda's ROCK!!!

Ewww, I Guess...

Our receptionist sent us an email with a link to a contest being run by WMMR's infamous duo Preston and Steve. The contest is to find Philadelphia's hottest "MILF". That's right, y'all know what that means. The reason she sent us the email was because four of the 137 pictures currently on the website are of a mother of one of the little girls at the daycare where she works part-time. That's right!! This little girl can some day feel proud that her mother posed in a G-string and corset "seductively" on her bed and then sent the pictures to a radio station so they could be posted on the internet for people to vote on. We're not even sure what you get if you're the big winner. At least the therapist will have a place to start.

This Is One Sexy Pony

VH-1 is at it again. All this week they are counting down the 100 most popular toys on a show called "I Love Toys". If you loved the 70's, 80's and the 90's you'll love "toys". A toybox staple started the countdown at #100, the "Magic 8 Ball". It was great watching various celebrities playing with the mystrious oracle but my favorite was Ricky Martin. Wasn't he too busy with Menudo to play with toys? I was trying to finish a book while watching "toys" but my attention was grabbed as they announced #85, "My Little Pony". I am a big fan of the ponies because my sister and I can boast having had the ORIGINAL ponies. Actually mine was a unicorn but that is neither here nor there. Unfortunately, in the frivolity of our youth we must have thrown them out or sold them at a yardsale. Feeling the emptiness of the missing ponies, brought me to E-bay a year or so ago. I found a woman who had both of the ponies my sister and I had, I knew it must be fate, I had to buy them. My sister had "Snuzzle" shown in the picture above and I had a unicorn "Glory" shown below. Who knows, maybe the ones I bought on Ebay were the ones my sister and I had back in 1983. I'm looking foward to the rest of the week to see what other treasures make their list.

Everything is Coming Up Babies

As I said in an earlier post, this past Sunday was Janet's daughter Rachels baby shower. And boy let me tell you did she make out. I do believe this is the first grandchild for all grandparental parties involved so the gift giving was quite generous. I would have to say my favorite thing that she received was the Fisher Price "Jumperoo" illustrated in the photo at left. I love that it is its own self contained unit. Of course it requires you to have quite a bit of space for baby and his/her stuff to occupy, but I think it's cool. My favorite food related thing was the delicious ice cream cake we had for dessert, followed in close second by the plate of chocolate covered pretzels. I wish Rachel and her husband all the best with their new arrival, which could seriously be any day now. By the time she's 34 she'll have a ten year old. If I got pregnant tomorrow I'd be 44 by the time my child was 10. That's a very scary thought.

She Gives New Meaning to High Maintenance

My coworker and I went out for lunch with the guys from our manufacturing shop today and while we were waiting for our food to arrive one of the guys said that our 21 year old receptionist told them they can't park by our receiving dock because she needs to be able to park there, especially when it rains, because her purses can't get wet. Once the hilarious laughter died away and we wiped the tears from our eyes, my first words were "I'm sorry. WHAT?" He went on to say she told at least three of them that. We were all just completely blown away by the remark. She is definitely living in a material world and she is a material girl.

Is This Really Necessary

I usually fail to mark the "don't send me email advertisements" box when I'm buying things online and occasionally these advertisements show up in my Inbox. When checking my email this morning I had one hawking this wonderful new item. They are called "iBoxers" and they come in a multitude of fashion colors for both men and women. Having never been much of a fashionista I had no idea, until today, that I was missing out. Silly me I carry my Ipod in my purse. I fear though, that with the introduction of this product that a whole group of people will now carry their Ipod's in their underwear. These might work fine for the slim Nano, but not the 40G monster I have. I imagine it would be heavy enough to make these drawers sag and I know that's not hot. I'm anticipating seeing numerous people sporting these as outerwear the next time I'm doing the 8 mile loop at Valley Forge Park. I hope they aren't embarrassed when I point and yell loudly that they must have forgotten their pants - because those are UNDERWEAR!!! Although, I'm certain they won't hear me, because Ipods make you deaf.