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Oh, how I miss Pierce Brosnan
Last Sunday, I had to resort to running on the treadmill for my 23-mile run. The hurricane was on its way to my town, and I had no choice but to train for my upcoming marathon race from inside. Luckily for me, there was a Bond movie airing on TV that morning. Even better was the fact that the movie starred Pierce Brosnan—my all-time favorite Bond, James Bond.Ever since Pierce Brosnan has ceased to be a part of the Bond franchise, I have stopped watching 007 movies. The reason being that to me, Pierce Brosnan is James Bond. He simply looks the part. Sexy, sophisticated, suave, smooth and cool are the words that quickly come to mind when hearing the name Pierce Brosnan. When seeing him onscreen, it is easy to see why all of the gorgeous Bond girls fall for 007.
In my humble opinion, Pierce Brosnan is easily the sexiest James Bond ever. His eyes alone can make just about any female feel weak in the knees. But it is not just his physical attributes that make him look so very hot, it is also due to the facial expressions that he makes while onscreen.
Besides his great looks, Pierce Brosnan is also one fine actor. He makes the 007 character comes alive. To this day, I am still upset by the fact that he got replaced. The franchise should have let him portray Bond in at least two more films. Anyways, I am glad to have been able to catch the rerun of Brosnan’s 007 movie during my long run last weekend. His wonderful screen presence was what got me through that long treadmill run.
Challenges of step-parenting
I am remarried and have two girls. My husband has two boys, but they are grown up and out of the home. My two girls live with me, and there are often challenges when it comes to this subject. My husband is very good with my daughters, yet he has never had girls before and he considers himself the step-dad.
He doesn’t always feel comfortable showing them love and isn’t quite sure how to handle the challenges of punishing the kids. This really doesn’t involve my 17-year old daughter because she rarely needs to be punished and he feels like he understands her better because of her age. My 10-year old daughter, on the other hand, is a different story.
She is constantly trying to hug and kiss him and he is not sure what to do. He will hug her back, but is very hesitant to kiss her. He wants to show her love, but he often doesn’t know how and he is so afraid that people will think this is weird. To her, she just wants him to love her.
This is just one of the many challenges involved with blended families. I am very fortunate because there are very few issues between my husband and my girls, but this is not always the case. There are many blended families that have extreme issues that involve much more, and one of these things is disrespect. I am glad to have few problems, yet sometimes the small problems I encounter seem to be big to me.
Play the right games for the right occasions
When you are planning a party, games might be one of the activities you are planning for the event. Games are great for people of all ages, but it is always important to choose games that are age-appropriate. For example, the games you will choose at a child’s birthday party will be different from the games you will choose for a bachelorette party. The nice part about games is that there are games for every age group. Senior citizens even play games at various events, such as Bingo.
The game of Bingo is a great game for seniors, but it is even a great game for kids and for adults. The nice feature about Bingo is that you can customize it for the group of people that will be playing. For example, if you are using this game at a baby shower, you could choose a bridal shower Bingo game.
One of the important things about choosing games is making sure that you have enough. This is especially important for children's birthday parties. If you are having a group of children over for a party, you will want to plan for more games than what you think you will be able to play.
The reason for this is simple. You will want to make sure that you keep the children busy the entire time they are over. If you don’t, kids will get bored and they may end up getting into things they shouldn’t. Games are a great part of all parties and gatherings, so plan appropriately.
Cooking new meals
I get so tired of eating the same things over and over, but the problem is that when I look at recipes, there are not a lot of them that actually look good. A lot of them seem like the same things that I already make, or they are things that no one in my family would like.
One of the hardest things for me to do is to come up with new things to make that everyone would like. My husband likes almost anything, but my kids are very picky. If a try new recipes, my husband and I will always eat them, but my kids will not. They will often look at the dinner I’ve prepared and stick their noses up. They will then eat a salad or a sandwich instead. This drives me nuts and it makes me not want to even try making new things.
The point of me cooking meals is to provide my family with good things to eat and with things that are nutritious, but if they won’t eat these things, why do I bother making them? I know I am not alone. There are many mothers out there that have this same problem.
The other common problem I have is that it takes me trying about 10 recipes to find one that I really love. Some of them might be good, but I really only like making things that are exceptionally good. I want everything I make to be good enough to serve to guests that come over.
More cake mix cookie recipes
Making homemade cookies is fun and rewarding, yet it takes time and you must have the appropriate ingredients on hand. Cake mix cookies are easier to make than regular homemade cookies because they require less ingredients and this makes it faster to whip up a batch. Here are two great cake mix cookie recipes.
First:
To make this one, you will need one cake mix in any flavor, 1 stick of butter and one egg. All you have to do is mix these three ingredients together and drop the dough by rounded tablespoonsfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Keep the cookies at least two-inches apart for spreading. Bake the pans of cookies in the oven at 350 degrees for 9 to 12 minutes. If you would like to add other ingredients such as chocolate chips or nuts, that works out great too. You can also frost these cookies and they will taste like small little cakes.
Second:
This recipe requires several more ingredients, but the results are great. You will need:
- 1 pkg. Devils food cake mix
- ½ c. oil
- 2 eggs, beaten
- ½ c. pecans, chopped
To make these, mix all of the ingredients together and drop the dough in teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes and remove to wire racks.
Both of these recipes are very easy and the results are great. If you don’t have a lot of time or if you don’t have all of the ingredients to make regular cookies, try one of these recipes.
Hurricane Sandy: Part II
Devastation is the only word to describe what Hurricane Sandy has done to my community as well as many others. I'll stick to writing about the effects in my hometown, but my heart goes out to the rest of the East Coast that has also been directly hit by Sandy.
Today is day three of the schools in Cape May County being closed. There is still no entry to any of the barrier islands (Cape May, Wildwood, Ocean City, Avalon, Stone Harbor, and Sea Isle City). Fortunately, my family that remained on the island are all safe. No one can get to them, but they have plenty of food and water and some even have generators. I have other family members that headed the evacuation orders, but aren't allowed back home.
The 59th street pier in Ocean City is completely gone, as is a good portion of the Atlantic City Boardwalk. Many of the access roads to the islands, in addition to roads that connected the islands together have been torn apart and are no longer usable. Most of the homes in Reeds Beach, which is just down the street from me, are demolished and uninhabitable. The photos that are surfacing are heartbreaking. It will take months to fully recover from all of the damage done to our towns.
There are two million people in the state of New Jersey without power, and over 22,000 in my county. Most of these are individuals that live on the island. Those of us that live 15 minutes out on the mainland fared much better.
How has the hurricane directly affected me? My special needs daughter hasn't been able to go to school for three days, my roof lost more shingles, which means a new roof that I can't really afford, because our trash day was Tuesday, we are getting skipped this week altogether and I have family members that I can't visit because no one is allowed on the islands.
See the damage for yourself with these videos:
NCAA Division I Women's Conference Results
The women’s field in NCAA Division I cross country has some great story lines building up for the NCAA Championship race. With a plethora of seniors dominating the scene, the championship marks the end of an era for some dominate forces. Though we still have a few weeks until the race, the conference meet gave us a lot of excitement in preparation for the big dance.
Pac-12
As early season polls predicted, the Oregon women are tough. They proved it by besting the field, and winning with a score of 47 to #2 Arizona’s 69. Stanford came in 3rd with 82 points. Stanford senior Kathy Kroeger beat Oregon’s Jordan Hasay for the win, in a time of 20:05. Arizon’s Elvin Kibet came in 3rd. The Oregon women had 3 in the top 5, but saw a drop of from runner number 4.
Big 12
Iowa State decimated the field with an incredible score of 18 points. Oklahoma State placed 2nd in a score of 38 points, narrowly defeating Texas who had 44. The entire field behind Iowa stayed very close, keeping the team scoring very exciting.
Iowa State's Betsy Saina and Meaghan Nelson went 1-2 in times of 20:08 and 20:10, with Sara Sutherland of Texas placing 3rd in a time of 20:19. Iowa State had four in the top ten, and their five scoring runners all placed within the top 15.
Big 10
The Michigan women proved they are a force to be reckoned with by defeating Michigan State 55 to 75. Penn State came in 3rd with 96, while the Wisconsin women dropped all the way back to 5th with 147 points.
The individual race was won by Junior Sara Kroll of Michigan State, in a time of 20:12. Sara is the sister of professional runner, and former Iowa State runner Lisa Uhl (formally know has Lisa Kroll). Mareike Schrulle of Iowa came second in 20:16, with Rebecca Addison of Michigan rounding out the top 3 in 20:21. Wisconsin had a strong 1-2 punch with Ashley Beutler and Gabi Anzalone coming 6 and 7, but the rest of the team couldn’t stay with their top 2.
For more conference action, head to this link. The national meet will be held this year on November 17th in its brand new home of Louisville, Kentucky. You can stay tuned to all the running news by visiting LetsRun or the NCAA website.
NCAA Division I Men's Conference Results
This past weekend saw the conference races for the NCAA Division I. All the favorites raced, and all the favorites dominated their conferences. Below are recaps of a few of the heavy hitting conferences, with teams looking to make a splash at the NCAA Championship Meet in November.
Pac-12
With Colorado joining the conference last season, the Pac-12 is arguably the strongest running conference in the nation. With Stanford, Oregon and Arizona already being part of the mix, the addition of Colorado, as well as Utah, makes this the race to watch. The race unfolded as most expected, with Arizona teammates Lawi Lalang and Stephen Sambu going 1-2 and obliterating the competition. Unfortunately, the rest of their team didn’t show up, and they finished 7th. The Colorado men destroyed the competition with 42 points, securing their 2nd start Pac-12 title, and beating #2 Stanford by nearly 40 points. Oregon came in 3rd.
Big 12
As expected, Oklahoma State continued its long streak of Big 12 Championships, winning with a score of 24 points. Texas came in second with 56, and Oklahoma came 3rd with 62. Kansas was the 4th place finisher, but the drop from the top three to the rest of the field was quite substantial.
The individual race was completely dominated by Texas Tech’s Kennedy Kithuka, who won by over a minute in a time of 22:52. Girma Mecheso and Shadrack Kipchirchir of OK State came in second and 3rd in 23:58, with Tom Farrell of OK state coming 4th 2 seconds behind them.
Big 10
After deciding to activate their top two returners form last season, the Wisconsin men’s team once again became the favorite to win NCAAs, and showed just how tough they are in this race, winning with a score of 33. The Michigan men came in second with 65 points, and were followed closely by the Indiana men who scored 79 points.
The surprise individual winner of the race was Indiana’s Zachary Mayhew in a time of 23:29. He bested Wisconsin’s 1-2 punch of Maverick Darling and Mohammed Ahmed who came in 2nd and 3rd in 23:34 and 23:35. Wisconsin had four in the top ten, but had a small drop from 4 to 5 with their 5th placing 15th. If they are hoping to repeat, they will need a stronger effort out of junior Alex Brill.
For more conference actions, head to this link to see a comprehensive list of all the conferences results.
Tired travel topics
First off, let’s give a round of applause to that alliteration. Nothing sounds better than three T’s in a row. Standing ovation aside, when one becomes a seasoned traveler, they start to see patterns. Some of the patterns occur between people of different cultures, or in landscapes, but some also occur within the realm of people you meet. Though you will inevitably end up speaking the same words over and over, such as where you are from, certain topics need to be put to rest. Here is a list of topics that should be banned amongst backpackers.
Bush bashing to Americans: We know, we know. Bush was an awful president. Sure, he would be a fun guy to drink a beer or two with, but most people I drink beer with I wouldn’t trust them as far as I can throw 'em. Regardless, we lived in the states (or at least were alive and aware) during dubbya’s reign. It’s over and done, so let’s leave it in the past and pray for another 4 years for Obama.
How drunk you were last night: Some people travel to party. That is all good and well, but not everyone is on a mission to get fucked up every night. Just like when your in college, or sadly enough, just like when you are an adult, no one cares how messed up you were the night before. Sure, we’ll entertain your banter about how awesome your hostel bar is, maybe even listen to you talk about other culture’s you’ve got drunk in hotels at, but please, no one cares about the number of local brews you drank the night before.
How much better home is than here: This one is a personal pet peeve. Traveling is a blessing, not a burden. If you can’t handle being out of your own culture, then don’t leave. Please, don’t tell me how much prettier the landscape is back home. I don’t care how much easier it is to get around, or how much better the food is where you are from. If I did, I would be having this conversation with you while visiting your city…but we aren’t there. Stop pissing on the amazing experience you have in front of your face.
British vs. Americans: Barf. Oh wow, we both speak English, but there are some subtle differences. Geeze, there are some similarities between our cultures, but we have some really cute differences as well. Spare me. Americans and Brits are some of the wealthiest and most privileged people on earth. Their passports can get them to nearly all ends of the earth, and their salaries can help them travel the globe. They are everywhere, and their stories about their own shows or way of speaking are nowhere near as interesting as the places and people in the country they are visiting. Let’s all get over how great we think we are, and lay this conversation to rest for good.