Ramblings of A Caffeinated Mind 8.0

Festivities
So here is brief recap of what has transpired over the past few days.

Saturday night, AttyHou, Everyday Italian and I loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly...uh, I mean, loaded up The Cal Mobile and headed toward the south loop. You see...Barry was having a post-Christmas/pre-New Year party.

When I first moved to Houston and joined EPAH (Executive & Professional Association of Houston), I met Barry and he would throw fun pre-bar run parties. At that time he was living behind the old Briar Patch (in the Med Ctr) so it was real convenient to go to his place and then go to the Briar Patch.

I liked the Briar Patch because:

• it was a piano bar
• for a buck the piano player would play a show tune
• when I walked in I WAS the pretty one

I'm digressing here. So anywho...Barry moved about a year ago (I didn't know that) and he threw a party so we went. It was fun. Cool house but the guest house was even more cool.

Sunday, I met up with Joe & Eric for Mexian food at Los Cucos. I was tempted to partake of a Margarita but considering that I haven't been running as much (and not burning enough calories), I chose not to partake of the beverage. We sat there and laughed and talked about dogs. It was fun.

Monday night I was invited to a couple of parties and chose to go to one. I've never been a big fan of the New Year's Eve hoopla. There have been a few years that I was actually in bed before the stroke of midnight. I think the phrase from The Perfect Year sums it up for me: It's New Year's Eve and hopes are high..." And I think people have high expectations for something magical happening at the stroke of midnight.

So anywho...I went to Mike & PC's fête. It was a crowded; a good crowd nonetheless and many friends were there. It was fun. So at the stroke of midnight we all sang to a dance version of Auld Lang Syne, drank some champagne, exchanged hugs & kisses, expressed salutations and hallucinations and then I went home. I walked in at 12:33a and The Calvinator was waiting for me.

The party was so crowded that I was never able to sit down which as it turns out will bring me good luck. You see...according to London Preppy, it is a Greek tradition to stand up at the stroke of midnight. It will bring you good luck. And that explains 2007!

You see...when 2006 transitioned to 2007, I was already home AND sitting on the couch with The Calvinator.

Tuesday's calendar had a party scheduled for the evening. Once again, I loaded up The Cal Mobile with AttyHou and Everyday Italian and went to a New Year evening party. Mike and Ray always throw a nice soiree.

The house was decorated to the nines. I'm sure that as they were decorating Ray was playing the role of Auntie Mame and singing We Need A Little Christmas.

This party is always fun because it brings together many different circles of friends. They always have wonderful food. They serve an interesting dish...it is made with biscuit dough, jalapenos, cheese and black-eye peas. I HATE black-eye peas but I like them when they are served this way.

In addition to seeing many of my friends, Elaine & Brandon (from Tropical Depression #46) were helping with the party.

Seeing everybody last night was a good way to start the new year!

Running/Weights
I did a weight workout in yesterday afternoon. I was surprised that the gym wasn't crowded. It was actually nice to not have a bunch of people there.

This morning it was cold so I went to LeFittes for a treadmill run. Worked up a really good sweat.

Project Runway
Just a reminder. A new episode of PR premieres tonight. I can feed my addiction.



I found this picture on Pink Is The New Blog. Thought it was funny.




Banished Words List
The wordsmiths at Lake Superior State University are giving back to English speakers everywhere with their 33rd annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness.

On Dec. 31, 1975, former LSSU Public Relations Director Bill Rabe and his colleagues cooked up an idea to banish overused words and phrases and issue a list on New Year's Day. Much to the delight of language enthusiasts everywhere, the list has stayed the course into a fourth decade.

This year's list derives from more than 2,000 nominations received through the university's website, www.lssu.edu/banished. Word-watchers target pet peeves from everyday speech, as well as from the news, education, technology, advertising, politics, sports and more. A committee makes a final cut in late December. The list is released on New Year's Day.


the years, some copycat lists have made an appearance, but LSSU's list was first.

This year, in a gesture of humanitarian relief, the committee restores "truthiness," banned on last year's list, to formal use. This comes after comedians and late-night hosts were thrown under the bus and rendered speechless by a nationwide professional writers' strike. The silence is deafening.


In this spirit, LSSU presents its 2008 list, a perfect storm of overused and abused words and phrases that pops organic, to a post-9/11 world decimated by webinars.

It is what it is.


Here is the list:

• Perfect Storm


• Webinar


• Waterboarding


• Organic


• Wordsmith/Wordsmithing


• Author/Authored


• Post 9/11


• Surge


• Give back


• 'BLANK' is the new 'BLANK' or 'X' is the new 'Y'


• Black Friday


• Back in the day


• Random


• Sweet


• Decimate


• Emotional


• Pop


• It is what it is


• Under the bus

For defintions, look at the university's website: http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php

I am a frequent user of It is what it is because...it is.