Last month I talked about my brother’s favorite Christmas Cookies in my “Christmas Cookie, part 2” post. Well, these cookies can be made for any holiday because cookie cutters come in all shapes and sizes and the icing can be made in any color you want.

Mom wanted to have her friend’s daughters over to decorate Valentine’s cookies and asked Beth and I come over and help her out, so we did. These little girls are so cute. Only 3 of the 4 girls came over and they were hilarious!

After about an hour of decorating cookies we went to the park for a little bit so that they could use up all the energy from their sugar high. It was definitely a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

I was tagged on Facebook by 8 people in this “note” thing and thought I would just post it on my blog instead. Although I don’t really think I have 25 interesting things to tell everyone about me.

1. I feel like a real adult because I am refinancing my house.
2. I’m kind of addicted to Blackberry Messenger.
3. I recently discovered Dexter thanks to my brother.
4. Last year I made 13 pillows in one weekend, which coincidentally was the same weekend that I learned how to sew on the sewing machine.
5. In my imaginary future I would live in Napa Valley and own a winery, so that it would be okay to drink wine whenever.
6. I love 80’s movies, especially Sixteen Candles and can pretty much quote the movie.
7. I would really like to visit all 50 states in my life. So far I have been to 30 states, just 20 more to go!
8. I used to teach classes on how to Scrapbook.
9. My middle initial O, stands for Olson. It was my grandmother’s maiden name and I hated it when I was little because the kids would call me Mrs. Olson.
10. I hate when people I don’t know (well, and people I know) that call me “sweetie” or “honey.”
11. My favorite color is red.
12. I wish that my hair had at least half of the curl that my sister’s has.
13. I had 10 different roommates in college.
14. The veins on the back of my right hand spell out JAY, not sure if that means anything.
15. I record entirely too many shows every week; we constantly have to key an eye on how full it is.
16. Adam Arkin once took a picture of my friends and me in New York.
17. I didn’t become a football fan until I went to A&M and attended my first Aggie football game.
18. I don’t have any living grandparents.
19. I have to sleep with a fan on, for the noise.
20. Ilan Mitchell-Smith (or Wyatt from Weird Science) took over my Chaucer class in college when my original professor got sick.
21. I’m gonna be 30 this year.
22. I recently discovered that I really enjoy making soup.
23. I am not a very good sleeper these days and have a hard time falling asleep and end up staying up until after midnight.
24. I am not a fan of talking on the phone, probably because I spend most of the work day on the phone.
25. I took German lessons when I was little, it was Dad’s idea.

Whew, I actually did it!

This is probably one of the most random posts I have done so far and might ever do, who knows? I have my DVR set to record Oprah everyday and didn’t realize she was interviewing Ted Haggard. You may not know who Haggard is, you may not care. . .but he was the pastor of a mega church in Colorado Springs that in 2006 was outed for having a homosexual relationship.

Again, you may not care. . .but the reason this pops up on my radar is, I’ve heard him speak before. One summer when I was in college our youth group went to Colorado Springs for a conference that was being held at New Life (Haggard’s then church) and he was one of the speakers.

He is popping up again because Alexandra Pelosi (Senator Nancy Pelosi’s daughter) did a documentary on his “crisis” as he calls it for HBO that aired tonight.

I’m not going to comment on him and what he did, rather what I want to talk about is the way the church treated him. In both the interview with Oprah and the documentary he discusses the “punishment” he received from his church. He and his family were exiled from the state of Colorado, forced to leave their home and the kids had to leave their school.

This is so disturbing (or maybe even hypocritical) to me. Church is family, and his family turned their backs on him. That might seem harsh for me to say and I’m aware as I’m an outsider looking in.

I think Haggard summed up my feelings best in the documentary when he said: “They (his church) would have realized that I am their business. Someone struggling with sin is the purpose of the churches on earth. The churches on earth are here to help people with their sin problems.”

(Side note – sin in this case is how his church described his actions, again I am not commenting on the choices he made.)

The ironic thing to me is, he started that church in the ‘80s and he is a big part of what the church is today.

I know that he made some bad choices and has made a lot of people mad but I am amazed at the enjoyment the new media seemed and seems to get from beating him down. I guess being a pastor made this such a dramatic “fall from grace.”

I wish him and his family all the best. Okay, I’m off my soap box now, thanks for letting me rant. See I told you it would be random, but since this my blog and this is what I’ve been pondering I thought I would share it here. . .thoughts? And you can disagree with me. . .

Simply Zinful is the way I would describe tonight’s wine selection. It has some serious kick to it. It is the 2002 Zinfandel from the Rios Lovell Winery in Livermore, CA.

This is actually my sister Beth’s wine and I stole a glass for the second time this week. She opened the wine on Saturday and she let me have a glass to try it. Then she was nice enough to let me have another glass tonight so that I could accurately blog about it. Okay, to be honest, I just wanted a glass of wine tonight. He he.

The first glass I had was a little overwhelming to me, for my tastes. It had a serious spicy kick to it. But the second glass, despite still being spicy was surprisingly smooth this time around.

My aunt and uncle were out in Livermore for a wedding in December of 2007 and picked up a bottle of wine for both Beth and I when they visited the winery. My bottle the 2003 Estate Merlot didn’t last too long in the house. But Beth patiently let her bottle age another year.

If you are into spicy wines, I definitely recommend giving this one a try. And if you are in the Livermore area, this winery looks really nice. Check out: Rios Lovell.

We got to head out of the office early today a little after 4:00 because of the threat of the ice storm that was about to invade the Dallas area. Fortunately nothing arrived until after I made it home.

Mom made Spaghetti Casserole for us; she always says it tastes best in cold weather. After dinner we watched a few more episodes of Dexter, this time Beth was there to enjoy it with us. As we were watching we could hear the sleet falling and hitting the windows.

After several attempts Beth got Mom’s fire going to help us warm up.

And after being parked in mom’s driveway for few hours, my car had a nice layer of ice on it.

Here’s to hoping we get to sleep in tomorrow morning, even if it is just for a little bit. With the highs reaching into the mid 40’s I think hoping the entire day off is a long shot. Mostly I’m just hoping I don’t have to get out and drive on icy streets in the morning. . .scary!

Oh and don’t forget to check out the Bachelor recap blog, it’s hilarious this week.

This week I’ve mostly been reading rewrites of my own book. Trying desperately to get through this last round so that I can finally say I am finished. So I don’t have any new books to recommend this week. Hopefully I will be able to put the updated chapters up online soon so you can read them at your leisure.

I have been working on finishing Love Monkey, so I can return it to Kandice. The character that is Tom Foley thinks and speaks at a rapid and witty pace that makes me want to keep reading. In fact, Kandice and I were talking about how impressive it is that Tom’s thoughts are all over the place yet you can still follow them and understand him.

I will definitely have this book finished before next Monday and will have a new review.

But for tonight I am busy watching Dexter with my mom and brother so happy reading! Don’t forget to send me your suggestions for what I should read next.

Since my main activity this weekend has been laying alternately on my bed or the sofa, the only thing I can really say I accomplished is getting completely caught up on the DVR. In fact I am so caught up that I set the DVR to record a few more movies I wanted to see.

Tonight I watched the SAG Awards. I don’t remember really ever being a faithful watcher of the SAGs and I’m not really sure why.

I was disappointed to learn that the Guild voted Alec Baldwin as the one who deserved the title, best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. I must admit I haven’t ever watched 30 Rock but I am not an Alec Baldwin fan.

The photo montage for James Earl Jones’ Life Time Achievement Award was fun to watch. I have always found him to be a fascinating person. To me he represents class and dignity. I know that it is inevitable that we all must age but it is also sad to me to see someone who has been such a steady present in the entertainment industry getting older. As he accepted his award he exuded humbleness and gratitude and then quoted the book of Genesis; thanking his fellow actors for the work that they do not mentioning himself once.

It was fun to see the former Mrs. Cosby, Phylicia Rhashad, I haven’t really seen her much since the Cosby days. Unfortunately she didn’t win the actor for Lead Actress in a TV Movie or Miniseries.

As a fan of Jack Bauer and 24, I was very sad that Kiefer Southerland did not receive the actor for Lead Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries.

It was really no surprise to me that Heath Ledger won the Actor for Male Actor in a Supporting Role. I thought it was a nice tribute to him as he did do quite a good job in Dark Knight. But I can’t help wondering, would he have been nominated if he were still alive or would his performance been over looked?

Meryl Streep’s excitement at her award for Female Actor in a Leading Role was cute and energetic, the way she ran to the stage with her hands over her head in celebration. Although maybe it would have been a good to not run up there so that she wasn’t out of breath while accepting her award.

A very clearly cold, Katie Holmes announced that Sean Penn had received the actor for Male Actor in a Leading Role. I thought it was especially nice of him to say in front of all of tonight’s winners that the outcome of the awards ceremony wasn’t what he had wanted and belittle their awards.

My conclusion from tonight is that I need to head to the theater, there are so many movies I want to see: Slumdog Millionaire, Rachel Getting Married, Revolutionary Road, The Reader, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and the list could go on.

I do. . .it seems to be the theme of my weekend. Jealous? I know you are. This crud seems to have taken a hold of me. But if nothing else it has given me an excuse to take a break an relax which has been nice.

Hope your weekend has been more exciting than mine! Though I did find a suprisingly entertaining movie: Love and Other Disasters.

The one thing that has been puzzling me through my sickness is, which would I prefer to have a Snuggie or a Slanket? Your opinion please. . .

So far only two boxes of Kleenex are empty and one bottle of cider is down, what can I say, the warmth feels good on my throat.

Dedication – starring Mandy Moore & Billy Cudrup
I needed to watch this movie so that I could send it back and get the next movie in my Netflix que. This movie was weird, though I guess it was a bit of a divergence for Mandy Moore from her typical romantic comedies.

Then on to TV shows:
Eleventh Hour
Brothers & Sisters
Private Practice
CSI
Criminal Minds

As you can see I’m a fan of the police dramas, but I needed to watch things on the DVR so that we can empty it off.

Nearing Grace – this movie was awful, I couldn’t stand it and after about 20 minutes turned it off.

300 – starring Gerard Butler
Do I need to have any other reason why I watched this movie? This movie was full of blood and abs. To me this movie was all about war, not much else to it.

Under Cover Blues – starring Dennis Quaid & Kathleen Turner
I hadn’t seen this movie in forever but I noticed the other day that the Smiths were watching it and I saw that it was on TV so I recorded.

The last 30 days of free movie channels has been fun. I’ve caught up on all the movies I’ve wanted to see over the last year or so. And since there aren’t very many appealing options for day time TV I was grateful the DVR was full of options.

During this presidential campaign both Obama and McCain made several appearances on the late night shows. These appearances allowed us a glimpse at a “relaxed” version of our future president. But on Tuesday night when Jimmy Kimmel’s interview with Obama from this past summer was rerun, I couldn’t help but wonder, does the title President still evoke the sense of honor and respect that is has in the past?

Surely SNL was one of the first barrier breakers. I can’t remember a time when they weren’t making fun of the current or past presidents from my lifetime. Jimmy Kimmel asked Obama, “Do you guys (basketball buddies) shower altogether? Or do you shower separately?” I thought he very appropriately answered, “Jimmy, were not gonna discuss that.”

Has our access to “celebrities” and “politicos” through the lense of the paparazzi and sites like Perez Hilton made us more at ease with the current President?

I don’t feel like I should refer to the President as Barack; Obama is about as casual as I will get, and that is because I am too lazy to have to type President Obama each time I mention him.

On the flipside I do think it is cool that Obama and his team are utilizing social networking to reach out to the masses and get everyone interested in politics. The White House now has a blog (launched on Tuesday) and I’ve heard that Obama is on Twitter, but I haven’t verified that because to be honest I don’t really understand Twitter.

What do you think about all of the access to celebrities and politicians? Is it good or bad? Does it hinder our abilities to show the President the respect he is owed?

Tonight I went back to Pinot Noir, it was a nice compliment to my Zouppa Toscana I made over the weekend. Since it is in the mid 70s today I wish that I’d had this bottle in the wine fridge and cold have enjoyed it nice and chilled.

Nevertheless, this is the third time I’ve had Mark West’s Pinot Noir. The first time was at a New Year’s Day happy hour at Kandice’s house, the second was later that week and third, tonight. This is the 2007 vintage and I thoroughly enjoy it. This bottle has a bit of a nice balance of pepper and sweetness.

Another bonus is it is right around $10, and I always like to find a good bottle of wine for that price. Which leads me to my new discovery, a really cool website, called “Drink for Less,” you will notice a link to their site under the list of blogs I read to the right of the screen. Check it out, they offer free shipping on orders of $100.00 or more. They even sell this Pinot Noir.

Happy Sipping!

I have been pondering all day long where to start this historic (he he) post and which things to discuss. I realize that today is a historic day for not only this nation, but for the African American community. Though, by the time I read the fifth Facebook status this morning along the lines of “blank is watching history,” I kind of wanted to gag. Everything discussed today was “historic,” is that how the next four years will be described?

I for one am more curious about the future. Not curious because I didn’t not vote for Obama or because I don’t necessarily agree with his politics, but curious because of the enormous amount of pressure that has been placed on his shoulders. He has a lot of people watching him and tracking him. I wish him nothing but success as he leads this country.

Mostly I just pray for his safety and the safety of his family, because let’s face it, those daughters of his are so stinkin’ cute! I am hopeful the media will leave Sasha and Malia to grow up in peace, but that’s not very likely. Seeing as how the news felt the need to inform us that their first meal at their Washington DC school was some sort of pasta dish (obviously I didn’t pay too close attention).

Also, I would like to say welcome home President Bush. . .who knows maybe I will run into W and Laura out and about in Dallas, that would be cool.

P.S. Did you check out this week’s Bachelor recap post? It was hilarious; maybe even the best one yet.