I Heard The News Today

When I go to the gym in the morning, I always try to get there in time to watch Today Show while I do cardio.  This morning I was flipping channels so it could have been on one of the other morning shows that I heard that Valerie Harper has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

I remember Valerie's character as Rhoda on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  Mary Richards and Rhoda Morgenstern lived in a big Victorian house in Minneapolis.  The house had been split into apartments and their landlord also lived in the house.  Her name was Phyllis Lindstrom.

The show was groundbreaking because it portrayed Mary as an independent women living on her own with a professional job.  Rhoda was the artsy upstairs neighbor who portrayed another aspect of the independent woman in the '70s.  Everybody loved Mary but I always liked Rhoda the best.

Rhoda and Phyllis both had spinoffs of the show and I watched both.  In addition to the opening for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the openings for Rhoda and Phyllis are still some of my favorites.

After Rhoda, Valerie Harper went on to at least one other television show and also starred onstage. 

I'm very sad to learn that she is dealing with this illness and the outlook doesn't look good.  I did find Ed Asner's comments in Daily News uplifting and it reminded me of what his character Lou Grant told Mary Richards one day, "You've got spunk!"

Valerie Harper has spunk and I hope it helps her with this fight. 

Ramblings of A Caffeinated Mind 13.0

Hey. Did you notice? 13.0

Significance? This blog is a year old. Yes. 1 year old. Happy Birthday to Str8 Up With A Twist!

While Str8 Up With A Twist was on hiatus for a few days the milestone passed. (BTW...hiatus always makes me think of Hyannis which makes me think of the Kennedy's but more on them later.)

I would like to thank all of you who read this either on a daily basis or on an occasional basis. I didn't set a counter on it until August and then I accidentally deleted in November so I can only assume how many hits I have had.

I looked at what keywords have brought people to this site. This doesn't include those of you who have me booked marked or have used a link from a Comments section or from another blog. Here are some of the top keywords:

attyhou

str8up

erik barajas

ryan korsgard

mardi gras party at rich's

world aids day houston

get into the groove

santa speedo run 2007

last night

Interesting huh?

Spunk

My horoscope for Thursday, June 5 said:

Though you might be serious, you have spunk and resilience. Your sense of humor comes out when dealing with someone you care about deeply. A relationship could go from very serious to simply silly in a few hours.

It made me think of the Mary Tyler Moore show (I believe the first episode):

Lou Grant: You know what? You've got spunk.

Mary Richards: Well, yes...

Lou Grant: I hate spunk.

That always makes me laugh because she thought it was a compliment.

I used to get a daily horoscope sent to me but the service is no longer available. I would forward it to Friend Janet and we would try to figure who it was more applicable to. You see...

Our birthdays are just a few days apart. So we would try to figure it out. I mention this because one day in December of 2003 I received an e-mail that said, "blah, blah, blah and look in the mirror and congratulate yourself on how fabulous you are." It applied to both of us and that is by far the most fabulous horoscope I have ever received!

Flasher on Memorial Drive

I'm Not Fit To Run has been trying to acclimate to running in the heat. I used to be able to run in the heat but then I switched to becoming a morning runner and became accustomed to running in high humidity.

So. Being inspired by I'm Not Fit To Run, I decided to give it the old college try. Wednesday and Thursday I was at the park around 500ish/530ish and let me tell you bois and gurls, it was hot!

According to the Tim-o-meter (LOL I just thought of that), it had to be in the low to mid-90s on both days. And it was WINDY on both days. According to the Tim-0-meter, wind gusts had to be at least 20 m.p.h.

Well, I need to issue an apology to anyone who might have been driving on Memorial Drive. You see...

The wind was catching my running shorts and was causing them to fly every which way. So I'm sure you saw my butt and my kibbles and bit. I was doing my best Marilyn Monroe impression to try and keep them down but it wasn't working. Please don't call the cops. There was nothing I could do.

Quote of the day

Everyday I get an email from Runners World. It is called Daily Kick In The Butt. This morning when I opened the email it hit me right between the eyes.

"I think some of the most celebrated moments in human achievement should be those times when everything is going against a person and they are down in the dumps but they simply choose to get up. That's real greatness!" -Ryan Hall

This is Ryan Hall in Houston setting the U.S. record for 1/2 marathon.

Heights Fun Run

I have not done a 5K fun run in 2008 so tomorrow I will be in The Heights doing The Heights Fun Run.

Some of you may think that is an oxymoron: fun/run. It is a run and it is fun. The thing that I like about it is that it has the feel of a neighborhood party even if it starts at 730 a.m.

There is still time to sign up. For info, click here.

Hillary

I haven't given up on her yet. I still have my sign in the window.

I honestly wish things had worked out differently but it is what it is.

There are people out there who are not pleased that she didn't concede the other night. There are people out there who don't want her on the ticket with Obama.

I'm sure deals are being brokered that we won't know about for awhile and if you're naive enough to think that alliances and deal brokering only happen on Survivor, I've got some $4 bills I'd like to sell to you.

I am a bit perplexed as to why Caroline Kennedy is part of the search team. Don't get me wrong, I like Caroline. Being a quasi-conspiracy theorist, I have some thoughts about what has transpired and what is going to go down. Just remember something. Caroline's dad wasn't too thrilled about having LBJ on the ticket and LBJ was too thrilled about being on the ticket but they both knew it was a winning ticket. I'm just saying...

Clouds

The weather today is a bit odd. Still windy. Still hot. Dark clouds sometimes. Vice President Dick Cheney is in town. Coincidence? I'm just asking.

Hard Candy

For the past couple of weeks I have been sucking on Hard Candy and I think I'm addicted.

I can't stop listening to Give It 2 Me in the car or on the iPod nano. I think I've become one of those people that I despise...you know, they dance and sing at the gym and are oblivious to laughs and stares. THEN, the other morning I woke singing Incredible. And I find that every time I have to be somewhere, I start singing 4 Minutes (you know, like in four minutes I'm gonna save the world whenever I get to wherever I have to be?). WTF is wrong with me? LOL

Well, that sort of catches me up for the past few days. Catch up with you soon!

Ramblings Of A Caffeinated Mind 6.0

I got up this a.m. and went to Memorial Park for a 3 mile jaunt. It was a nice morning for a run. I stopped by the office and had an idea on my way in the door. And trust me, this totally threw them for a loop.

Rather than order an Iced Grande Sugar-free Vanilla Non-fat Latte I had the bright idea to order an Iced Grande Sugar-free Gingerbread Non-fat Latte. They were stunned. The whole place came to a standstill because they couldn't believe I was ordering something different.

So here's my review. It was yummy! If you like an iced Chai Tea but you want the jolt of a Latte, I highly recommend this drink.

I just finished watching Dancing With The Stars and I gotta tell you, I like Helio Castroneves. His smile is infectious. He could be the male version of Mary Richards. Who can turn the world on with his smile. Remember that song? I had never heard of Helio until this season of Dancing With The Stars but I have become a big fan of his. And his Brazilian heritage was shining through this evening when he did the Samba.


Which got me to thinking: Whatever happened to The Lambada (The Forbidden Dance)?

OK. So I promised a recap of Saturday. Let's start with Katy's bday party.

Katy invited guests to her bday party at Reef. Cocktails at 700p and dinner at 800p. I had already committed to going to Neighbor Michael's bday party but I knew that I had time for a cocktail or two at Reef.

What a fun time! I didn't know all of the people there but I knew some and I crammed in many conversations in 60 minutes and there was a bunch of laughter...just like it should be at a birthday party.

So after 2 Grey Goose Martinis (straight up with a twist) it was time to head back to NoRO for Neighbor Michael's fete.

I didn't valet park because well, I could park in my own driveway and walk next door. It was a very nice party! Bartenders. Wait staff. DJ down by the pool. NoRO was rocking and I didn't bother knockin'...I just walked in.

Once again, I didn't know everyone but there were many conversations that I crammed into 2 hours and I stuffed my face with the appetizers. Everyday Italian did a fabu job with the food. Neighbor Nina did a fabu job in planning and executing the party.




So the theme of the party was to party like a Rock Star. All day long I kept humming Rock Star by Nickelback. If you're not familiar with the song, the very first line is: I'm through with standin' in lineTo clubs I'll never get in... and this is where life imitated art.

So AttyHou, Everyday Italian and I took a taxi downtown (even though we live 3 miles from downtown but quite a bit can happen within 3 miles when you've been drinking and isn't cheaper to pay a taxi fare than it is to spend the night in jail for a DWI?). By the time we got there, there was a line of folks waiting to get in and all of them (with the exception of a few) are 15 years younger than me, if not younger.

Well, Neighbor Nina had VIP seating but the dude working the velvet rope didn't care. So there's about 10 of us that KNOW we belong in there but dude doesn't give a sh_t.

So Former Dogsitter John and I decide to give it 5 minutes and then we're outta there. Just about that time somebody has made arrangements for us to go in through a back door/hidden entrance. OK...so now I am feeling like a Rock Star.

The 10 of us walk around Bayou Place and up some stairs and down a hallway and once the door is secure another door opens and *poof* we're inside RocBar. There were HUGE bottles of Grey Goose waiting for us and since that's how the evening began at Reef that's how it was going to end at RocBar.

And as I previously stated, no hangover on Sunday...just a bit spent.