The lovely and talented Maureen McGowan tagged me for this fun exercise. Be sure to drop by her blog for great film reviews and notes on writing. Okay, here are the rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book.

2. Open to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the next three sentences.

5. Tag five people and post a comment to the person who tagged you once you’ve posted your three sentences.

The book closest to me at the moment is a rhyming dictionary, so I'm going with the second book that's closest to me: Lady & the Vamp by Michelle Rowen.

Here are the three sentences:

If she really had been there, she was gone now.

Holding his hand against his wounded stomach and trying to ignore the pain, he began to make his way through the crowded club, being jostled on every side. As he passed the long bar, the blondes eyed him again like hot-bodied vultures.

My poor Quinn! Will he survive? Will his stomach be scarred for life?

Oh, sorry about that, just got caught up in the moment there. I know I'm supposed to tag five people, but I'm gonna be a party pooper and leave it up to whoever wants to do it. There's enough pressure out there with it being Memorial Day weekend and all. ;)

And I am so glad the little snippet of page 123 didn't contain anything that would make me blush...or start speaking in euphemisms in case the relatives drop by again. Whew!

Labels: fun

When I first heard about two vandals attacking Stonehenge with a hammer and screwdriver, a few things came to mind:

What had Stonehenge ever done to them?

Did Stonehenge fight back?

Then, when I read the news report, I discovered these gentlemen were merely souvenir shopping. Well, obviously the gift shop wasn't open, since it was the middle of the night.

A coin-sized hunk of rock was removed, leaving behind large scratches and a divot.

Now, I don't know about you, but I'd much rather have a t-shirt or necklace than a hunk of rock, even if it is 5,000 years old. I mean, there are rocks all over the place. Some of them even have googly eyes stuck on them and serve as pets for those still lost in the 70s.

And, since only one hunk of rock was removed, how would the vandals share it? Would they each take turns holding the treasure? Or were they waiting for a bounty?

Aha! They're rock pirates! Traveling the world to take chunks out of it, one monument at a time.

The missing nose on Mt. Rushmore? Rock pirates. The Sphinx? Ditto. Wonder why the Leaning Tower of Pisa is leaning? The rock pirates got there too.

Of course, it wasn't the same two men who wreaked this havoc on all these monuments. The two come from a long line of rock pirates. You might say they're a chip off the old block. Hardy har har.

Now if only stoning was still legal in Britain -- that would be an appropriate punishment for those two. Arg!

Labels: adventures, ideas

Ugh. Now I know where I earned the moniker of "gym loser"!

I won't lie; this episode was hard for me to watch. Especially since it basically compared Nicole, the hot actress, to me, the couch potato who tends to fill her cupboards (and stomach) with carbs.

At least I can identify a sweet potato. Because we're totally related. ;)

It was very scary for me to go to a gym for the first time. There were so many questions running through my head:

What the heck do I wear?
Would there be chocolate fountains?
What kind of people would be there?
Would they all be skinny?
What the heck do I need to bring?
Was there a snack bar?
How about a steam room?

And most importantly:

Would my trainer Olga suddenly become the shouting-in-your-face Biggest Loser type of trainer I feared?

Turns out my imagination is a lot worse than reality. Though there were no chocolate fountains or a steam room, everyone seemed friendly and no, they weren't all skinny bitches. Olga even said she wanted to start things really slow...probably so I'd keep coming back.

But it wasn't a picnic. Not for a woman who felt that walking up the stairs once was a major workout. And, if I was carrying a can of Diet Coke as well, that counted as an extra half-flight. It was freaking hard. Muscles I didn't even know I had were the ones shouting at me, not my trainer.

So when Nicole told us that she was doing FIVE HOURS of cardio a week, I had a minor heart attack. At that point, Olga had me on an hour a week -- divided up into 20-minute sessions so I wouldn't get overwhelmed.

So there was Nicole, getting blisters on the bottoms of her feet, while I was gasping for breath once I got 3 minutes into my 20-minute workout. The tread on my sneakers still looked brand new.


Hopefully Aden will forgive me for sneaking into his chocolate stash. He made me pinkie-swear that I wouldn't do it again -- especially on camera. ;)

So, what did you think? Ready for next week's episode?

Labels: Stuck

"Life is running 'round inside of me like a little squirrel."
--Olga Katrina, Grand Duchess of Russia

That's one of my favorite lines from the play, You Can't Take It With You. Mainly because it's delivered with such joy that you can't help but be swept up in its meaning. For me, it sums up the celebration of the little things.

You know, like having enough milk to make your morning cup of tea. Like meeting a puppy for the first time. Like watching a child create a work of art just because the markers and paper are there. Like stopping to listen to the rain.

For this change in perspective, I have to blame a yoga class. And spending some quality time with new friends. And then, once I got home, I finally picked up the phone to call my Grandma and my aunt, who both have at least two squirrels running around inside them at any given time. Oh yeah, the holidays are always fun with my family.

It's amazing how much faster time flies once you're at a certain age. Maybe it's because life's training wheels have finally fallen off. ;) Not that we don't have more to learn; it's just that we should know how to learn by now.

And I find it even more awesome to know that someone besides Dad and my TRW pals is reading this blog. Dolly: welcome and thank you!

So today, to celebrate Victoria Day in true Canadian fashion, I will boldly go outside in the cool May weather and yank out some weeds. Hopefully the squirrels won't attack.

Labels: fun, ideas