Spending Christmas with Elmo

This is one of the cutest things I've ever seen!

Oh give me a break, Heidi

Please humor me - let's just take a moment to really process this photo.



While I was at Walgreen's, I happened to notice Heidi on the cover of US Weekly announcing how her and Spencer are no longer engaged. And apparently she sold the story to the tabloid. I'm a little bit annoyed with myself that I had to stop and check out the article BUT at least I didn't spend any of my money on this garbage. Basically it was an interview with both her AND Spencer and even though they're no longer planning a wedding, they're still boyfriend and girlfriend.

This is supposed to be newsworthy?

And then you have this stupid, stupid, stupid photo! (A similar close-up version serves as the cover photo.) I mean, seriously, if you were bummed about having to call off your engagement, would you really agree to pose in a wedding dress with a pouty look on your face holding a photo of you and your former fiance surrounded by bridal magazines? It's just so contrived and insincere and just plain silly.

Ugh. Why do I even care???

Clash of the Choirs giggles

Heehee... did Tracy Morgan just announce the winner of Clash of the Choirs as Team LA-kee?


Or as they prefer to be called, Team Lachey.

Are you f^&*ing kidding me - Jamie-Lynn is pregnant???

Uh, yeah, that's right. According to an upcoming article in OK! magazine, Jamie-Lynn announces that she is pregnant. At 16!!!

I'm about as sad and disappointed as when Britney came out with that awful VMA performance.

I had high hopes for Jamie-Lynn. I was really hoping she would grow up to be the Britney from the good ole days without all the trashiness. And it looked like she was on the right track. She always looks cute and age appropriate and now this... *sigh*

It's going to be so weird to see her pregnant.

My new fave show: Jon and Kate Plus 8

I've recently become addicted to Jon and Kate Plus 8 after it was highly recommended by my sister. It's basically a documentary-style show that highlights the day to day lives of this young couple Jon and Kate and their eight (yep, eight!) kids. And not just any eight kids - six year old TWIN daughters and three year old SEXTUPLETS (three girls, three boys)!

I'm not sure why I'm such a fan of this show. It airs on both TLC and the Discovery Channel and those networks air other shows about couples with "multiples" but I don't find the other shows that interesting at all. There's just something so cute and fascinating about Jon and Kate's family. The couple is impressive, too. Kate definitely rules the house (as most moms do) but when the Dad is home, he contributes as well.

I love how they have a "just go for it!" attitude. They'll take the eight kids everywhere and make sure they have the same experience as most normal kids that aren't from such a huge family. For example, the two of them took the eight kids to the local theme park. Each parent pushed a three baby across stroller - one for the girls and one for the boys. To help keep track of all of them, they made each kid wear matching T-shirts that were numbered 1-8. Oh boy.

They get a lot of help from the community, too. I think their church donated a bunch when the sextuplets were first born. A local hair cut place gave them free haircuts for all the kids until they're five. Kate was able to get free plastic surgery for her belly (which she actually showed on TV! It was very doughy like.) I think Dr. Phil supplied them with free nanny service for awhile, too.

Now that I've watched several episodes, I've learned a lot about the kiddies. My sister and I agree that Aaden is our favorite. He's the little boy with the glasses so they nickname him "The Professor." He also likes to pretend that he's different animals and even tries to imitate them.

Anyway, if you want to feel like maybe your life isn't that hectic, then watch this show. And it's super cute, too.

P.S. You can find more info about the family on their website.

Checking back in with the Newport Harbor gang

MTV sure is nice - while we wait for the return of The Hills - Paris style, we get to check in with our old Newport Harbor friends.

Last time we saw them, Chrissy was headed to college (UCSB) and Clay was returning for his senior year (ooh, she was dating a younger man - did not know that!) and they decided to try a long distance relationship. Well, it looks like Chrissy took my advice and has found herself a cute little honey (with a cute little name - Billy!) at school. But she was still stringing poor Clay along...

And now she is returning back home for a weekend visit - the first time her and Clay have seen each other since she left! (I'd say about two months later) Unfortunately, Clay is leaving town to go visit colleges. So they have this super awkward dinner at his beach house where he wants to keep dating and she's being wishy washy.

The next night Chrissy has a party so it's too bad Clay can't come. But ALL his friends are there! And guess who else is there? Chrissy's sorority sisters from UCSB! And that's not all! They secretly invited... wait for it... BILLY! (Speaking of which, I think Billy looks sort of like a dark haired Justin Timberlake... thoughts, anyone?)

So now Billy is there with his entourage and there's all this whispering of who's that? Are they dating? What about Clay? etc etc Next thing you know, Chrissy is making out with Billy in front of everyone! Including Clay's friends! And her parents are home! DRAMA!

So Clay's buddy, Grant, leaves Clay a voicemail while at the party to tell him what's up. When Clay returns, he and Grant decide they need to make a trip to UCSB to check things out for themselves.

OK, what??? Grant already saw what was going down - he knows what's up. And now Clay knows, too, so wouldn't it have been simpler if Clay just called out Chrissy on it and be done with it? Is there really a need for the two of these misfits to take an hour and a half trip to SB just to catch his psuedo-GF making out with another dude?

But I don't want to digress from Chrissy's poorly planned PDA... a date with Clay one night where she is too much of a wimp to be honest and lets Clay think they are still hot and steady and then the next night is neckin' with another dude in front of all their friends??? STOOPID.

A movie site that I probably should not have discovered

A long time ago, my old roommate and I had this conversation about how he sat through a really bad movie just because he had to know how it ended. He even joked about creating a website that just gave the ending to movies.

Well, ask and you shall receive! I just recently stumbled onto http://www.themoviespoiler.com/. With such a staightforward URL, I'm surprised I only discovered it now.

I had read this review of the Keira Knightley film, "Atonement", where this young girl makes this accusation about another character and lives are dramatically affected. And well, I was impatient and just had to know what the accusation was so I found the info on this movie spoiler website. It's like a two minute overview of a two hour film. So I loved getting my question resolved right away but then the movie sounded kind of good so now I'm bummed because I already know the ending. (I also now know the ending to "I Am Legend".)

So if you want to know what happens in a movie, but not actually sit through it - see if it's listed here. You've been warned, though - only check it out if you're absolutely sure you don't want to see the movie itself!

James Franco's take on Justin Bobby

I'm currently watching The Hills finale party on MTV. It's cute... they have the whole red carpet thing and so far, I've seen Elodie and Lo make their appearances with Frankie on the way! :P

Anyway, check this out - James Franco and Mila Kunis re-enact a scene from The Hills:

News from the Bravo world

I'm a big fan of Bravo TV. I regularly watch gems like Real Housewives and Project Runway. Plus Bravo had two fun new specials - a Kathy Griffin comedy special and a Top Chef Holiday Cooking Competition.

Anyway, look what I learned. Project Runway's Jack is now dating Top Chef's Dale!

Man candy

Sorry for the lack of posts lately... I've definitely had things to say, just no time to blog about it. (Darn work!)

So it will be just little tidbits here and there for now.

Such as... hello! There was some fine looking man candy out there in TV land last week.

Exhibit A: Henry in Ugly Betty (after sink exposion, ice cream scene, etc...)
Exhibit B: Nate in Gossip Girl (when he was gettin' it on with Blair)

Who knew these boys were so buff???


Note: These comments are made with total respect to the actors that portray Henry and Nate as I am just admiring their physique. :)

Double Take

Has anyone else noticed that Jared's commercial with ballroom dancers at the end? I think it's Edyta and Maks!!!

Getting started on my 2008 New Year's Resolutions

2007 has been a very fun year for me with a bunch of new experiences:

• Exploring Tokyo
• Climbing the Great Wall
• Running my first marathon (twice)
• Going ziplining (thanks, Amanda!)

And I've already thought of one thing that I'd like to accomplish next year:

Change a flat tire.

(Sure would've come in handy last night.)

Happy Holidays!

Aw yeah... it's Christmastime, woo-hoo! I finally busted out the Christmas decor tonight. I don't have much, but I do have enough little items (like my Hallmark snowman below) to make me all merry and festive!



Can't wait to stock up on more Christmas decorations on December 26th! :)

The Smartest and the Dumbest Celebrities

And yet another tip from my sis (maybe she needs to start her own pop culture blog???)

Entertainment Weekly recently published a list with the top 50 smartest people in Hollywood.

Here's the top five:
1. Judd Apatow, director/writer/producer
2. Steven Spielberg, director/producer
3. James Cameron, director/producer
4. Ari Emanuel, partner of the Endeavor Agency
5. Will Smith, actor/producer

In response, the NY Daily News has published a list of the top 50 dumbest people in Hollywood.

And their top five:
1. Lindsay Lohan - poor movie choices ("I Know Who Killed Me"), delinquent behavior and bad taste in men
2. Kim Kardashian - because it is sad when you leak your sex tape and nobody cares
3. Spencer Pratt - who thinks his life on MTV's "The Hills" is reality - and believes we think so, too
4. Jeff Kwatinetz - the man that gave the okay for Britney Spears' disastrous MTV Video Music Awards performance
5. Shia LaBeouf - the 21 year-old "Transformers" star, for getting arrested while refusing to leave a Walgreens pharmacy

Thoughts? Personally, I enjoy any time Spencer Pratt is publicly ridiculed. Surprisingly, Paris Hilton doesn't appear in the dumb list at all which shocks me because she would be my #1, purely for that "dumb voice" she uses intentionally.

Before they were famous...

Another tip from my sister - check it out!


They may look like younger versions of Christina Aguilera, JC Chasez, and Nick Carter but nope, it's our favorite professional ballroom dancers!

If you don't know the story, Mark Ballas (Sabrina's partner and now BF) has parents who I guess are legendary ballroom dancers and they lived in London. Julianne (Helio's partner and winner) and Derek (Kelly Taylor's - oops, I mean Jennie's - partner) Hough were shipped off to London at a young age to train with Ballas' parents. Julianne and Mark became professional partners and Mark and Derek became good friends. The three of them had a singing group when they were younger called 2B1G (get it?) and now Derek and Mark play in a band called Almost Amy.

Aren't they adorable?

YES!!! Mystery solved!

Thanks to my wonderful sister, I have now figured out who Real Housewives' Lauri reminds me of! As you can see to the left, it is the puppet (NOT muppet, which explains why my google searches were unsuccessful), Madame. I'm not sure how we know this character - but it looks like she had a talk show in the early 80s. Anyway, I'm so glad someone knew who I was talking about and that I wasn't crazy - figures it would be my sis! (We come from a weird family, I guess - heehee...)

It's so nice to have this all figured out! Ah, I can now finally watch Real Housewives in peace.

"Last Christmas" for the new generation

Did you guys check out the Christmas specials this week? On Wednesday, I caught a little bit of NBC's Christmas at Rockefeller Center special. Ashley Tisdale, one of the many stars of Disney's megahit High School Musical (and its sequel), was one of the hosts and also performed - singing her version of Wham's "Last Christmas". My sister had "warned" me about this because I guess Ashley also performed this number during the Thanksgiving Day parade and my sister's reaction was something like, "hmmm... I don't think that quite works." Anyway, this time I got to see for myself! And yep, it was weird. First of all, was she even alive when this song came out? Well, I googled this and no, she was born in 1985 and Wham released "Last Christmas" the year before. But I guess it's not that weird... it would be like someone my age re-doing a song from 1974. I'd be curious to hear what today's version of "The Way We Were" would sound like!

OK, back to the performance - check it out and see what you think. It sounds like Ashley is one of those "manufactured" singers, you know, not that good but good enough. It sort of sounded like karaoke at a pre-teen slumber party.



Plus - she was lip syncing the whole time! She wasn't even dancing or anything. Inexcusable. I mean, even Britney managed to sing live during her appearance. Ah, the good ole days...

Project Runway Menswear Edition

Sweet P got pretty lucky this time, huh? Her shirt was a disaster! But everyone's outfit was kind of a mess. And on top of that - boring! And if anyone plans to audition for next season's Project Runway, it's best that you make sure you are well prepared to handle the following challenges beforehand:

- Designing for men
- Designing for women that are REAL sizes, not model thin
- Designing with unusual materials - plants, recyclable materials, grocery items, etc

Anyway, this episode brought back a random memory. Did Sweet P's shirt...


... remind you of the designer-wannabe shirt Denise made for Theo?

Another funny SNL clip

While I was home for the holidays, I happened to catch an old SNL episode on E!. Coincidentally, it was the Lindsay Lohan episode that had the Debbie Downer sketch that I had previously mentioned.

Well, there's another moment from this episode that made me laugh out loud. During Lohan's opening monologue, Rachel Dratch impersonated Hilary Duff, Amy Poehler impersonated Avril Lavigne, and Maya Rudolph impersonated Whitney Houston. While all the women were hilarious, Amy's interpretation of Avril was over the top hysterical!!! She appears about 2 minutes into the clip.

What are your recent downloads?

I'm all about iTunes now. I can't even remember the last time I bought a real, physical CD. In fact, I'm not even sure if I download an entire album anymore - unless it was for a soundtrack, like "Hairspray". Mostly, I just download random singles which is why I love those iTunes gift cards. I buy them for myself sometimes when I'm in line at the grocery or Target. Those came in real handy when I was building my marathon mix.

Anyway, so here's my fun question - what are the last five songs / albums that you've downloaded? (Or purchased - if you are old skool. heehee.)

Here are five tunes I've downloaded this month and that I've been listening to endlessly lately:

• Hate That I Love You - Rhianna w. Ne-Yo
  
• Love Song - Sara Bareilles
  
• Do It Well - Jennifer Lopez
  
• No One - Alicia Keys
  
• Because of You - Ne-Yo

Yeah, yeah, I know - I am totally Top 40. I can't help it! I like catchy songs!