L Television

The The L Word’s final season begins this Sunday! Woo Hoo! Only not woo hoo. We no longer have Showtime. Anastasia and I will somehow have to wrangle an invite to her niece’s house to watch, or beg for them to tape it and share. If that fails, I’m hoping that AfterEllen.com does recaps like they’ve done in the past. I’ve signed up for Twittering the L Word also on AfterEllen.com, so hopefully even if I am unable to watch it, I can still get my fix and find out what’s going on.

So, if you’re a follower of the The L Word, are you psyched? What do you think of the spin-off? See Showtime Confirms L Word Spinoff. It's called The Farm. Alice goes to prison? Who do you think she ofts? Showtime’s L Word site says Jenny gets murdered? Why would Alice kill Jenny? I’m confused. Maybe Alice doesn't go to prison, maybe another character does, but she vigilantly tries to clear them, and maybe she gets arrested so she can break out the character arrested, ala Prison Break. Maybe all this information fed to the media about both shows is inaccurate to create some hype? Laurie Metcalf is one of three guest stars in the opening episode. I can’t wait. I hope she’s playing one of those quirky, psycho characters she plays so wonderfully.

I missed Gray’s Anatomy when it aired and watched it on ABC.com. Is anyone else getting tired of this Callie/Mc Steamy wingman thing that’s going on? Tell me, if Mc Steamy were an alcoholic instead of a sexaholic, and you were Callie, would you feel confident in having him be your AA sponsor? Seriously! Come on Callie, you’ve dipped your toes in the water, come on in, the water’s fine! Come on ABC, grow some cahonas. You know you want to.

I’m about to give up on All My Children (AMC) and Bianca and Reese. ABC needs to grow some daytime cahonas too. You were so cutting edge with the transgendered Zarf/Zoe and now Bianca and Reese getting married. What happened?

Private Practice, Episode 12 “Homeward Bound”. Well done. If you missed it, check it out on ABC.com. Best line of the episode, “You are who you are, and you shouldn’t have to hide that from anybody.”

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

Random Thoughts and Rants

My daughter has been home 2 and half days and my son 2 days. So far we’ve all survived. Knock on wood!

Tonight we decided for a treat to go to Chicago Pizza Dough**. (They have really good coupons online if you have one near you.) Their pizza is awesome. We got the "Spectacular" which is like everything and the kitchen sink (sausage, pepperoni, black olives, mushrooms, green pepper, red onions.)

There was a lull in conversation during salad, Anastasia looks at me and says “Quick, hold my hand, close your eyes….wow, that was almost like a date! It was as if we were here by ourselves!” I told her to promise not to do that while I was driving on the ride home. LOL!

I dropped Anastasia off at her Mom’s for her Friday night caregiver gig and headed home. Before we drop her off she asks the kids to check the dirty laundry for her driver’s license. I get into the living room last to hear my son arguing on the phone:

Son: It’s expired.
Pause…
Son: Yes it IS.
Pause…
Son: It IS too.
Me: What’s going on?
Son: I found Anastasia’s license and it’s expired.
Me: Give it to me.
Pause…
Me: Give me the phone.
Me: It IS expired.
Anastasia: It can’t be.
Me: It IS.
Anastasia: !@#$%
Me: Let me check online for their hours for Saturday…They’re closed Saturday AND Monday for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Anastasia: !@#$%
Me: You’ll have to go Tuesday.

How do state employees rate 2 days off for a holiday? And the most important question, why didn't they mail her a form? I check incoming mail religiously and always point out important mail. No notice ever came.

How does someone forget to renew their driver’s license? Well, I shouldn’t say that, I did forget once in the 80’s. But in my defense it WAS the 80’s. I worked for a company that I could get reimbursed for all my bar expenses. Nuff said.

Blagojevich’s Lawyer Quits Impeachment Trial. Who the heck is going to represent him now for the Senate impeachment trial? The trial starts January 26th, who on earth would take on a case of that magnitude with no preparation time?

I’m hoping tomorrow I can get the kids to go to the movies. We just got our Five Buck cards for our local theatre and there are actually quite a few good movies on the list. Heck, for $5 I might even go see a movie, but I’m either going with Anastasia or ALONE. No Kids! They are not allowed to go to whatever movie I pick!

If you’re Chesley B. Sullenberger III, what do you do now?

Do you get right back to flying because, 'heck I just did my job and I’m going to do my job tomorrow and the next day and the day after that'.
Take a little vacation in Bermuda to calm your nerves.
Retire from your job as a commercial airline pilot and devote all your time to your private venture, Safety Reliability Methods.

I don't know how much longer I can stand ABC Family Channel and Disney Channel. How many times can someone watch "Freaky Friday"? Don't get me wrong, I love me some Jamie Lee Curtis, but enough is enough.

...Please send José Cuervo!

...If you really like me, send Patrón!

(**Disclosure: This is not a paid post, I don't do those, I just love their pizza.)

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

No school tomorrow either

HELP!

I just got an automated message from my son's school. No school again tomorrow. He already has off on Monday for Martin Luther King Day and Tuesday for teacher's institute day.

That means he will be off 6 days!

I think when Anastasia goes to her Mom's house later I'm going to have her stop at the liquor store and stock up.

No word yet on my daughter's school. (She doesn't have off Monday or Tuesday.)

ps. I'm only partially kidding about the liquor store.

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

Noblesse Oblige Award

Thank you so much to Mira at My Barefoot Journey who has given me this award. I apologize for the delay in putting this up on my site. Mira was nice enough to give this to me in honor of my 100th post milestone. For those of you unfamiliar with Mira, she is a stay at home Mom and has 6 blogs! Amazing! These are her blogs:

My Barefoot Journey
My Kitchen Table
Mira’s Web Journal
A Moment to Exhale
Random Thoughts
Scrappy Mommy

Random Thoughts and My Kitchen Table were among my first discoveries on Entrecard. Mira, thank you so much for this honor.

There are quite a few rules that come with this award, these are:
This Award is presented to bloggers who display consistency in any one or a combination of these conditions:

1. The Blogger manifests exemplary attitude, respecting the nuances that pervades amongst different cultures and beliefs.
2. The Blog contents inspire; strives to encourage and offers solutions.
3. There is a clear purpose at the Blog; one that fosters a better understanding on Social, Political, Economic, the Arts, Culture and Sciences and Beliefs.
4. The Blog is refreshing and creative.
5. The Blogger promotes friendship and positive thinking.

The Blogger who receives this award will need to perform the following steps:

1. Create a Post with a mention and link to the person who presented the Noblesse Oblige Award.
2. The Award Conditions must be displayed at the Post.
3. Write a short article about what the Blog has thus far achieved – preferably citing one or more older Post to support.
4. The Blogger must present the Noblesse Oblige Award in concurrence with the Award conditions.
5. The Blogger must display the Award at any location at the Blog.

I want to give this award to the following deserving recipients:

Anne @ Small Town Mommy
Melissan @ Why Be Normal?
Stacy @ Stacy’s Random Thoughts
Debbie @ Mama Flo’s Place
Clair @ Hip 2b Mom

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

I'm Happy I'm Not Attending the Inauguration

I'm glad I didn't win a ticket to the Inauguration. The Daily Beast Blog post "Inaugural Hell Freezes Over" by Laura Winik has scared me off. The thought of having a minimum of 10,000 people per portable toilet pretty much did it for me. (Can you imagine that many people sharing a portable toilet? Ewww!) I have a bladder the size of an eye dropper. I take a water pill for high blood pressure and where ever I go, I go and I have to know where the bathrooms are wherever I am.

Sure I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to be among the elite, the mucky mucks to attend the inauguration. Oh the stories I could tell. The anectdotes. Maybe a few brushes with celebrity. The political celebrities for sure, because as the guest of the Mayor I'm sure I would have the opportunity to meet some of Illinois' leaders. Heck, I could even meet Mr. Big Hair himself (if you haven't been reading lately, I mean Rod Blagojevich) and I wouldn't even need to drop $10,000 to do it! I could possibly meet some real celebrities! I hear that Ellen is attending, (I would LOVE to meet her, I wonder if Portia is attending?) Melissa, Brad, even Leonardo is said to be trying to get a ticket. See, I'm on a first name basis with them already!

Oh Hells Bells! (And not the AC/DC Hells Bells.) What am I talking about? I would be pleased as punch just to have a mini vacation! (Pleased as punch? Heck, I'd be over the moon!)

The Mayor of our community graciously set up a lottery for the extra inauguration ticket he wasn't using. There were 2 catches, you had to be a resident of our community and you had to have voted in the Presidential Election. I qualified! I figured the odds couldn't be that astronomical. I mean consider the population of our community, deduct out people under 18, deduct out people who didn't vote and deduct out people who could not get off work or who were afraid to take off work and deduct out people who didn't even know about the lottery. I figured the odds were pretty favorable, considering the odds in the Mega Millions Lottery or the Illinois State Lottery games. I didn't think it was a slam dunk, but I thought what the heck? Turns out I was 1 of only 60 residents who entered the lottery. Pretty darn good odds, but alas, not good enough. Still, I'm happy for the single Mom who won.

I'm glad I didn't win. Depends are kind of expensive, not to mention gross. "TV news crews being dispatched out “in the field” to cover the Mall and other key gathering points are being told to pack for survival conditions, which includes likely toting along a five-gallon jug to use for bodily functions." That's totally gross! What will they be doing with these no longer empty five-gallon jugs? I'm sure because security has closed off all the bathrooms at the Metro station due to them being possible targets for bombs, they will also likely take away all trash receptacles for the same reason. Do you think the news crews are going to carry those no longer empty containers?

I really feel badly for all the people who work in the area where the city is being shutdown and who must go to work. I can't imagine having to sleep at the office, although once I considered it when a co-worker fudged up the computer system and I was at the office until 2:30am.

Can you imagine how these office workers will have to adapt that have to sleep at their office?

They will have to provide for their own food and beverages, don't you think? I mean, how likely is it that they'll be able to order in chinese food or order pizzas for delivery?
They will all have to share bathroom facilities 24 hours a day. That means someone who is shall we say, "bathroom shy" will have to deal with it or burst. (I think you know what I'm talking about.)
They'll have to pack personal hygiene items and at the very least a change of clothing for any of the inauguration balls they plan on attending.
No showering. Ewww! (Can you say whore bath?)
I hope no one is allergic to deodorant, cologne or perfume, because everyone is going to be compensating for the lack of showers.
And what about those office mates that don't get along? That many hours cooped up at the office with someone you can't stand, that's a recipe for disaster.
How about those office mates that get along too well? Ewww. Nuff said.

Between the bathroom issues and the sheer numbers of people they are talking about attending, I'm becoming agoraphobic just thinking about it!

If you are attending the inauguration, or any of the inauguration festivies, please let me know, write about it in your blog and I'll link to you in a future post after the inauguration.

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

Hi My Name I Lola and I’m A Computer Addict

Well, that’s what my family thinks. To be more accurate, I should have typed “Hi, my name is Lola and I’m an Entrecard addict.”

My family is of the opinion that I am doing all sorts of nefarious things online. My son jokes that I am looking for a new partner on eharmony.com. (Note that I have not made their site linkable.) Ahem, son, eharmony is for straight people, no gays allowed. Not funny!
So what am I doing on the computer? I’m dropping Entrecards and creating posts for my blog. Why do they make it so darn time consuming? My goal is to get into the top 3 slots for the Lifestyle Category. I’m in the top 7. I don’t have far to go. What’s my goal after that? I have no idea. I just know that I want to be in the top 3, just once.
If you’re using Entrecard and you’re interested in helping bring about peace and harmony in my household, please consider purchasing an advertisement on my blog and help me reach my goal. If you can help me out with my goal, I would very much appreciate it.
Nothing nefarious going on, I assure everyone. You'll often see my posts go up late at night. I’m up late because I have insomnia. I have a lot weighing on my mind. Finances being number one at the moment.

Yes, this is a shameless ploy to get you to advertise on my blog, but I'm hoping if I successfully meet my goal of being in the top 3 in the Lifestyle Category it will start a chain reaction of other successes. Goodness knows I could use some. Thank you!

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

99th Post/10,000th Visitor/Random Thoughts

This is my 99th post, and I have just surpassed the 10,000 visitor mark. Yeah! Thank you!

STILL TAKING REQUESTS FOR MY 100TH POST.

10,000 Visitor - In honor of that milestone I thought I would share with you how I’ve managed to get to that point.

I think the bulk of my traffic has come from Entrecard.
I get quite a lot of traffic from Blog Catalog.
I also have gotten some traffic from Queer Filter, which is basically a directory for glbt blogs.
I’ve also signed up for Blogerella. It doesn’t appear that many bloggers use Blogerella because I only have 1 person following me there and my ranking has virtually remained unchanged. If you haven’t yet signed up for Blogerella, please click on the Blogerella box on my website (it’s just below the Guest Check widget), set up an account and please put me in your favorites.
I also have been using Twitter, although I don’t really know if any traffic has organically come from Twitter. I actually haven't quite figured it out. Just know that if you do want to have your new posts automatically feed into Twitter, you'll want to sign up for Twitterfeed and set up that feed.
Another way of driving traffic to your site is to Comment on other blogs. Some blogs pull in your most recent post title give you the option to select a post to appear at the bottom of your comment. This is a perfect opportunity to gain new traffic. For blogs that don’t offer this, your blog name in the comment is clickable and re-directs to your blog when clicked.
If you haven't already become a regular at Lola's Diner, please click on "follow me" in the first widget on the right.

BLIZZARD WATCH 2009 - If you live in the Chicagoland area they are forecasting blizzard conditions. Ohhhh. Are you scared? Moreover are you tired of these highly overstated warnings? Are they going to announce school closings in our area tonight in anticipation, like they did for the last snow storm which was nothing like a storm at all?

Roland Burris

He is now our Senator Designee to be sworn in at some as yet announced date. How much you bet we find out later there was some funky business with this appointment?
UPDATE: Roland Burris may be sworn in as early as this Wednesday.

President Bush's farewell Press Conference

It was a snooze, wasn’t it? The only thing I got out of it is that he is a JERK. He mentioned the $350 million left of the bailout and he said that he would not help President Elect Obama get that $350 million unless President Elect Obama specifically asks him to help. The country is in dire straits and he can’t just do the right thing? WTF?
UPDATE: President Elect Obama phoned President Bush shortly after the Press Condference to request his assistance with the $350 million. Nice job President Elect Obama.

Golden Globe Awards

We watched the Golden Globes last night and were struck by the fact that the orchestra didn’t cut in on the looooong thank you speeches. Particularly Kate Winslet’s which was first and had to be the longest ever. Both of Kate Winslet’s speeches were the longest speeches ever.

I noticed something different, I think, or maybe I haven’t watched the Golden Globes in awhile. Didn’t they used to show brief clips of each of the nominees rather than describing each actor’s character?

We had our catty remarks on the various actresses. Who looks ancient (sorry Shirley Maclaine, who’s hairdresser hates her and put her hair in a blender (sorry Drew Barrymore) and who looks absolutely fabulous for approaching 60 (Sigourney Weaver, going to be 60 in October, wow! That’s a MILF.)

Tina Fey rocks!

100th Post to follow, topic not as yet determined. Thanks for stopping by!

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009