Friday TV

I actually don't watch any TV on Fridays, but my DVR is in full swing! 

Actually, I take that back, during the Monk/Psych seasons, I do watch lots of TV.

Currently DVR is recording:

1.  10pm - I DVR Numb3rs (b/c that's just too late for wimpy old me!)

2.  Sometime during the night - Best Week Ever (on VH1)

3.  Some other time during the night - The Soup

Thursday TV

Thursday is a big TV night for Jonathan. Unfortunatly, he plays hockey every Thursday night, so the DVR is working overtime!

1. My Name is Earl - I used to watch Earl, and I just decided to give it up. I'm trying to not watch so much TV.

2. 30 Rock - it looks funny, but I just don't want to watch it.

3. The Office - Jonathan's favorite TV show (he comes home from hockey around midnight, and watches it right away), and I love it too.

4. Scrubs - we started watching Scrubs last year. Then we DVRed any old Scrubs we could find (on Comedy Central) and were caught up with in 2 months. Than you DVR - you saved me from watching a TV show for 6 years and reduced it down to 2 months!

5. Ace of Cakes - when I don't go to Jonathan's hockey games (b/c sometimes they start at 10pm!) I wait at home for him and watch Ace of Cakes (and get jealous!)

Wednesday TV

Wednesday is my favorite TV night!!!

1. Criminal Minds - my (current) favorite TV show. Otherwise known in my household as "the gross show". Jonathan gets a little queasy around blood, and he can't handle this show very well. I remember watching one episode, and I think my heart stopped beating, it's very suspensful!

2. CSI NY - I DVR this, since it's on from 10pm-11pm, that's way too late for me!

3. South Park - I used to watch South Park a lot in the beginning (when it was 'cool'), but I've been recently getting back into it. Since South Park and CSI NY are on at the exact same time, we record the rerun at midnight.

Tuesday TV

I don't watch any TV on Tuesday! *gasp!*

Although I recenlty finished watching The Biggest Loser. I watched the first season (back in, like 2004?). I didn't mean to watch this show, but I accidentally started watching, and then I could not stop!

Monday TV

1. Little People, Big World - on HGTV (I think?). This show is about 2 little people (4' tall) parents, and their 4 kids. As they say EVERY SINGLE OPENING, "3 of our kids are average height, and only 1 it little".

This is a fun show, mainly because HGTV must give them a huge vacation allowance. I think they took 3 vacations last season alone!

Sunday TV

I really enjoy TV. Maybe I enjoy it a little too much. However, if I'm paying $60 for cable, I'm going to watch more than $60 worth of TV!

In typical "Amber-style" I'm going to blog about the random TV I watch, starting with Sunday.

1. WWE RAW - at 3am my DVR faithfull records WWE Sunday Raw. Instead of watching it live on Monday (for 2, sometimes 3 hours), at 3am they show the entire show in 1 hour, cutting out the pointless parts of the matches. I enjoy watching this after work while I'm making dinner.

2. Fox NFL Sunday - My favorite pre-game show. I love the moronic banter between the 4 guys. Although, I admit, I really, REALLY miss J.B. I also love Frank Calliendo, and sometimes only watch the the show for his skit.

3. The Simpsons - I've been watching the Simpsons since I was in 8th grade. Take in to account that I am 32 years old now, that's a pretty long time.

4. Family Guy - My husband got me hooked on Family Guy. I am embarrased to admit, but I think I MIGHT like Family Guy more than the Simpsons.

Top 10 Madonna songs

I spend the weekend listening to all my Madonna CDs. In no particular order ( b/c putting them in order would be way too hard!), my favorite Madonna songs!

10. Cherish (Like a Prayer)
9. Runaway Lover (Music)
8. Till Death Do Us Part (Like a Prayer)
7. Sky Fits Heaven (Ray of Light)
6. Power of Goodbye (Ray of Light)
5. Dress You Up (Like a Virgin)
4. Dear Jessie (Like a Prayer)
3. Angel (Like a Virgin)
2. Some duet song from Evita - I don't know that name, nor have I even seen the movie, but I know I like it!
1. Song #6 on the American Life CD - I don't know the name. Sombody gave me a copy of the CD so I don't have a play list.

#3 and #4 might be my all time "top 10 songs" favorite list ... I'll have to think about it.

Baseball

Every baseball game we go to, I bug Jonathan by jamming my camera in his face and taking a photo of the field reflection on his sunglasses.

I think I can stop bothering him, b/c this one is pretty sweet! Thank you Indian's minor league baseball stadium!

Psych!

I love the TV show Psych (on USA). I encourage you to check it out! Especially if you are a child of the '80s.

Shawn (in the striped shirt) and his best friend Gus solve crimes together using Shawn's (fake) "psychic" powers (which is actually just Shawn's photographic memory).

I enjoy a good old fashioned crime show, and Shawn and Gus are simply hilarious!!!

Twitter!

Arg - I am such a pansy when it comes to peer pressure!!! The tech-savy people at work have now hooked me on http://www.twitter.com/.

At first it sounded really lame (especially b/c it's kind-of geared towards text messaging, which I am to cheap to do), but it's actually kind-of fun.

I can easily describe it as a giant IM session with all your friends, but none of you are talking to each other. You are just talking. Or you can describe it like a blog ... a blog where you can only type 160 characters. That's what a "twitter" is, only a 160 character blurb.

I think my twitter account is www.twitter.com/ahowald308 (but don't quote me on that).

I will trying to convert all of you soon! Muhahahaha!

Aquascape

My friend Julie works for Aquascape in Illinois. They are a super sweet company that creates gorgeous back yard ponds (and I'm sure other things I don't know about).


Ironically, even though they are from Illinios, they come down every year for the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival!

Who wouldn't want this kick butt rock waterfall in their backyard?


This year they did a huge display about saving rain water. Enjoy the photos!

"Hello Aquascapes employees!"

What's hidden in your food?

So I recently purchased a Magic Bullet. It looked pretty sweet for making smoothies and chopping up veggies.

But I recently discovered Jessica Seinfeld's book "Deceptively Delicious" (Jessica Seinfeld = Jerry Seinfeld's wife). Basically, her book is how to hide veggies inside meals. It's for the kids who hate broccoli, but they love brownies. Little do the kids know is that there is broccoli inside their brownies. Muhahahahaha!

Well, so far I've hidden cauliflower inside Jonathan's alfredo sauce. And yesterday I hid cauliflower and carrots inside our waffles. Jonathan usually noticed, b/c I always get a tiny bit of broccoli in there too (I have a mixed veggies packet in the freezer, so they are all stuck together), but he eats it anyway.

I hate veggies too, so I'm all for making my normal foods at tad more nutritious!

Do you believe in Magic?

I do - I bought a Magic Bullet! I can't wait to buy some smoothie supplies and use it.

I've watched the infomercial a couple times. I thought it looked awesome - but all informercials look way more awesomer on TV than in real life.

Then I met my boss - she told me she has a Magic Bullet and it rocks! She even bought one for my co-worker's wedding.

So I folded, bought one on ebay, and it arrived in the mail yesterday. I can't wait to experiment!!!!

I'm embarrased to admit . . .

. . . I've admitted things before, and I'm admitting things again. Join me won't you? It's fun!

1. I collect Got Milk? ads from magazines. I have almost 200.

2. I love WWE (wrestling).

3. I am the slowest driver in the world.

4. I've never used a push lawn mower in my life.

5. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I love black jellybeans!

6. I'm 32 years old and I have a girlish crush on Martin St. Louis (hockey player for the Tampa Bay Lightning).

Dr. Howald is in

A lot of people have been getting sick lately. In fact, I was sick a couple months ago (I was in and out of work for 4 days), and I haven't been sick in about 3 years.

Here's my non-sick remedy:

* Lay on the couch pretty much all day.

* Have at least 2 blankets over you and a huge pillow.

* Watch minimum 3 movies in a row (they must be action/comedy movies. You can't be thinking too hard).

* Drink cranberry juice/OJ.

* Put frozen peas/broccoli on your forehead (to combat the fever).

3 days later - you're as good as new!

*Bam*

Last Sunday (not Easter) evening Jonathan and I (and 2 friends) enjoyed a dinner at Emril’s restaurant at Universal Studios.

Since Emril’s is a ‘fancy’ restaurant, and since it cost and arm and a leg, I anticipated the portions to be pathetically small. You know when you order a $28 plate of chicken, and you get a thimble size piece of meat with fancy sauces drizzled around it?

Not this place! I ordered the $28 plate of chicken – and I got ½ a chicken, about 1 lb of mashed potatoes and a handful of french fries. I couldn’t even eat it all, which killed me because it was so expensive.

Then all 4 of us ordered 1 piece of banana something pie. I figured I would get 1 bite, and everybody else would get 2 bites (which was fine by me, I was stuffed!). Well the pie comes, and it’s as big as my head. I think I took about 20 bites (so much for being stuffed huh?), and everybody else pigged out on it also.

I can’t honestly recommend the restaurant because I really don’t DO fancy restaurants. Plus it was so blooming expensive. Although I’m glad I went once. Now I can say “I’ve been there.” The only reason we went is because Jonathan got a gift certificate for $100 for Christmas. Thank you Jonathan’s boss!

Sweet website

There is music on your computer! Who knew?!? Ok, everybody but me probably knew that.

My cube-neighbor (at work) introduced me to http://www.pandora.com/ – it’s a free radio for your computer, but you create the station!

I currently have 3 radio stations I flip back and forth between.

You type in a song or a band that you like, and they create a station with those songs, and songs that are similar. You can add multiple songs/artists as well.

When a song starts playing, you rate it *thumbs up* or *thumbs down*. This way, Pandora gets to know you, and only plays stuff that is similar to your *thumbs up* ranking.

I love it! My 3 stations are called Stairway to Heaven (70’s rock), 2 Unlimited (early 90’s dance music) and Foo Fighters (alternative).

Dude looks like a lady!!!

So I was at the Magic Kingdom today. I was wearing a blue t-shirt w/ one of the Muppets on it (the band member who plays the saxaphone) and my Chicken Little baseball hat. My hair was up in a bun.

Since Jonathan was getting his hair cut, I had about 1/2 hour to walk around thru the Emporium shops.

I became a nerd recently and decided to try to collect a certain set of Pirates of the Caribbean pins. With a hand ful of old pins (tradables) I went out to stalk cast members who were wearing pin lanyards.

I found one nice lady. As I approched her, pin in hand, she said, "Hi sport - see a pin you like?"

Sport?!? Am I a 12 year old boy?

The next lady I traded with called me ... shoot, I can't remember now! But it was another boy-ish name.

I really need to wear more revealing clothing!

Earth Hour

I'm not a super eco-champion or anything. Actually I am anal about turning off lights b/c I don't want to pay a giant electrical bill. But I'm all for a kitchy world power outage!

It started with a question: How can people be inspired to take action on climate change?

The answer: Ask the people of Sydney to turn off their lights for one hour.

With Sydney icons like the Harbour Bridge and Opera House turning their lights off, and unique events such as weddings by candlelight, the world took notice. Inspired by the collective effort of millions of Sydneysiders, many major global cities are joining Earth Hour in 2008, turning a symbolic event into a global movement, where on Mar 29 between 8pm and 9pm, thousands will turn off their lights.

To find out more information or how you can participate, please go to...
http://www.earthhour.org/

Google This!

I really, really enjoy googling stuff. Is “googling” in the dictionary, because it should be.

If you google my name, you’ll just find my blog, myspace and my marathon results. Nothing super exciting or scandalous (thank goodness!).

But try googling other people’s names – it’s super fun! And you never know what you’ll find.

Case in point – I googled I guy I went to high school with a couple days ago. John Peshia. My jaw hit the floor when the results popped up. (no, it’s nothing gross or illegal).