Elizabeth Taylor

More of this story: According to the Today Show, our lovely Elizabeth Taylor apparently died of congestive heart failure. It is widely known that she has been battling this aliment for sometime. Her family was by her side as she passed at a Los Angeles area hospital.

Early in her career she was known for her one takes when making a film -- always being on time with her lines learned. Later, perhaps, she was known for her many marriages, her activism in the AIDs arena, her friendship with Michael Jackson, her branding of herself with perfumes, and perhaps even being famous for simply being Elizabeth Taylor.

Her passing makes me sad.

Dorothy Young

Just an interesting tidbit of information. According to mailonline.com, Dorothy Young, the last surviving stage assistant of illusionist Harry Houdini and an accomplished dancer, has died at 103. Today would marks Houdini's 137th birthday.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1369471/Harry-Houdinis-assistant-Dorothy-Young-dies-103.html#ixzz1HWXBJT1M

Chris Brown

Not a fan of Chris Brown -- but what the heck happened to him yesterday? Storming off stage and breaking a window? I was watching my fav girl Wendy Williams (How you dancin?) when she had breaking news of this story. Then last night I heard on the news that he was allegedly arrested. Can't find any facts to back up the arrest. Is this the new Charlie Sheen of the week? What is happening that people are spiraling so out of control? Has this always been the way? I wonder -- perhaps we just know about more with instant media.

RIP Elizabeth Taylor

Just found out that the lovely and talented Elizabeth Taylor has died at age 79. I don't know much about this breaking news, but I am sure there will be massive reports available soon. Such and icon and an end of an era.

As life rolls on

So many things to talk about! First, I want to acknowledge the devastation in Japan. When I first heart about the earthquake then tsunami, the death toll was at 69. This morning, it was at 7,800. There are still well over 1000 people missing. This doesn't take into account those hurt that will die, nor does it take into account anything to do with the difficulties that Japan is having with it's nuclear power plants. Terrible, awful stuff -- and my heart goes out to them.

The nuclear problems in Japan make me wonder about our own nuclear plants. Some are quite aged. Some are built near active fault lines. I am thinking that neither of these things are good, and perhaps that instead of any new nuclear power structures being approved (there are 4 that are nearing approval in Washington D.C.), that the focus should be on modernizing older plants -- and doing who knows what with those built near fault lines. (What kind of crazy allowed that to happen in the first place?)

Also heavy on my mind is that passing of Blackie Maize. I went to school with his children and am facebook friends with the two boys. Blackie was a well known and well respected member of the Viburnum community that I grew up in, and he will be missed. My sympathy goes out to his family.

Charlie Sheen -- I am wondering if this man is so much smarter than some of us (including me) gave him credit for. Tiger blood and all -- he seems to be making huge amounts of money these days. I wonder if the cost to his personal life (c'mon, no one wants their kids taken away from them) is worth it. Has he played us for fools and staged this? Certainly seems so to me. I guess time will tell on this one. In the meantime, I won't be shelling out the high dollars for his stage show based on his current brand of crazy.

For those of you who know me well enough to know my TV habits -- then you know I love me some Wendy Williams. We are friends in my head! I am an avid watcher of her talk show, love her on facebook, and even am a facebook friend to Shakeetha. Well, you should know that she is on Dancing with the Stars (another guilty pleasure) this season and the first episode aired tonight. I think Wendy did fab, and I used all of my votes for her! If you watched, obviously you see that I disagree with her judges' score -- I know her fans will pull her through to next time though. GO WENDY! (How you dancin'?)

Finally, to anyone who understands, but especially to Sheila -- namaste.

Life's Idiotic Moments

There have been many idiotic moments in my life lately. Unfortunately, I only have 15 minutes with which to write about them. So let me get right to it.

1. Charlie Sheen -- he just slays me with his attitude. C'mon -- he cured his addictions with his mind? Now he is healthy? Is that why he is ranting in all forms of medium; had his two youngest children removed from his home by the police; lost his job. I could go on and on. I think he is in that deep trench of denial, and if not careful, it will become so deep that he will have a difficult time climbing back out. I feel sorry for those around him that are being so affected by his outlandish behavior. That said, for seemingly 90% of the population, they can't get enough of Good Time Charlie. Who, by the way, is really Carlos Estavez.

2. Crazy people in general. OK -- perhaps I have been watching John Quinones' What Would You Do? a bit too much. But yesterday, there was an accident on Highway 44 and the Big Bend exit. I stopped, because it appeared to just have happened and no one else has stopped. What I found was an elderly Bosnian man with very limited communication skills and this jerk -- who was totally trying to take advantage of him, I asked if they needed a phone or anything, and Mr. Jerk told me that it wasn't any of my business -- while the Bosnian man was literally shaking. OK -- I made it my business. Over the course of the next 10 minutes, I got Mr. Bosnian to call his daughter, explained the situation, told her that Mr Jerk was bullying her dad, and that I wasn't going to leave him to be taken advantage of.

Long story short, Mr. Jerk called me all kinds of names (fuck, bitch, cunt, moron); got nose to nose with me -- well, not exactly nose to nose because he was a good foot taller than me and about 100 pounds heavier than me -- but you get the picture -- and told me to leave and that if I didn't, he was "going to take care of me." Guess if I stayed or left? I stayed. I just told him, "OK -- do what you need to do, but I am not leaving." I told him that he was acting like a bully, and that I wasn't going to leave until I was comfortable that Mr. Bosnian was taken care of.

Quick back story: Mr. Jerk wanted me to leave because he was telling Mr. Bosnian that there was no damage and that he was just going to leave the scene. Mr. Bosnian kept saying "Bosnia. No understand. Insurance. Police." Twice Mr. Jerk went back to the car --that he wasn't even driving, by the way, it was his girlfriend's car -- saying that he was going to leave the scene. I had Jacob take down his license plate number just in case.

My boys were with me or course, and as soon as Jacob saw Mr. Jerk getting into my face, he stepped out of the car. It did cause Mr. Jerk to get out of my face. Then when Patrick stepped out of the car, Mr. Jerk turned nice, had his girlfriend call the police, and I stayed until the police arrived. Mr. Jerk did apologize for his language.

I felt it was important to step up in that situation. I would do it again.

3. Time is up. I am off to Yoga class. Yes, me -- and yoga. Idiotic!

Breakfast and other random musings

I made waffles for breakfast this morning. I know it isn't a big deal for most people, by I am waffle maker impaired, The first problem is that the waffle maker I use was purchased for one buck at a yard sale. It works, but came with no instructions. After several attempts in making too small waffles and burning them, I now make them so large that they ooze out of the sides of the waffle maker.

It reminds me of Ivan Ooze from the Power Rangers with his gooey purpleness coming out of the edges and gaps of all sorts of things. Needless to say, it makes quite a mess with the waffle maker and the counter. When I am done, it looks as though there has been a bloody waffle mix war on the counter -- lot of blobs and pools of that thick, sloppy, gooey, paste-like waffle mix.

The kids love waffles though, and it makes me feel good to make them something that doesn't come directly from the freezer to the over or microwave. That is a whole 'nother story!

Waffles aside, the boys and I have been fighting illness. We are better for a couple of days. then sick again. The result is that the house is a total mess -- a wreck! I had worked hard last week to pull it together. It was really looking nice. I am amazed that it only takes a couple of days to turn it into a mess again. Dust clambers onto my furniture at a lightening fast speed. I really think the furniture comes to life once we are asleep, pitching pillows, blankets, and left behind food crumbs into the floor, and just generally creating a bigger mess of things. Those things, combined with two boys and three pets -- well, my house looks like something out of a horror movie -- or the beginning of a house eligible for the tv show hoarders.

Since I haven't felt good, I have been watching more television. I watched the Marie Antionette movie last night. You know, the newer one that Kirsten Dunst was in. It really made me interested in Marie Antoinette -- enough to do some research on her. I learned a lot about the woman, as well as some French history. She was a fascinating woman, and the movie is well worth the couple of hours invested in watching.

Finally, I have been remembering a lot of my dreams lately. Let me tell you, it is not something that I would choose to do. They aren't always pleasant. I have heard that dreams are your brains way of solving problems or issues that you don't do in your conscience state. I wonder if that is true. Perhaps that is something else that I need to research as I don't really know what that would say about me! Perhaps just a confirmation that I am nutty after all!