I say Potato, they say Tater!

If you are a long time reader of this little online journal, then you know about my obsession with "As Seen on TV" products...I love them! It's always a good day when I get to purchase and/or use one of my household items that I've watched an entire infomercial for. My mother loves "As Seen on TV" stuff as much as I do. As a matter of fact, I think she's the one that got me hooked on these products. (Although she won't watch infomercials, just HSN.) Anyway, when I moved into my apartment my mother got me a pair of Tater Mitts. If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's a picture...

When I first saw the commercial for these handy, dandy gloves, this was my reaction..."OOOO, I NEED THOSE!!!" If you watch the commercial, it looks like all you have to do is put the "mitts" on, turn on the water, pick up a potato, and start rubbing the potatowith your hands and voila the potato skin comes right off! AND you can use this ingenious invention with other things too, like carrots! I just knew that if I had a pair of Tater Mitts I would be cooking potatoes ALL. THE. TIME. It didn't matter that I didn't know how to cook, the magic of the mitts would turn me into a gourmet potato cooker. When mom first gave me the mitts, I was so excited! I got home, ripped open the box and started reading the directions. I fully expected them to read like this...

1. Put Tater Mitts on your hands.

2. Turn on faucet.

3. Pick up potato.

4. Rub potato under water and between hands.

5. Your done, enjoy your freshly peeled potatoes!

But the directions didn't read like that, what they fail to mention in the commercial is that you have to BOIL the potatoes before you peel them with their so called "magical" mitts. Who wants to boil the potatoes first? Not me. And what about carrots? I thought I would be buying fresh carrots, peel them with my awesome Tater Mitts, and be able to enjoy raw carrots whenever I wanted. But you know what, when you boil carrots they are no longer raw and they don't have that happy, crunchy sound when you bite into them. No, they just get mushy. So, a couple of weeks ago, I made some sweet potatoes that had to be boiled then peeled, I thought to myself, hmmm I can finally try out my Tater Mitts. So I put my mitts on and I'm all excited (like anyone would be the when they first try out an "As Seen on TV" product.) And guess what, the Tater Mitts don't work. They don't really peel the potatoes all that well, and the part that does peel just gets all torn up from the little bumpies on the palms of the mitts. It was a sad day at the Amanda/Phillip abode. Nothing upsets me more than "As Seen on TV" products that don't do what they say they are going to do. The Tater Mitt people are liars. So, if you are in the market for a pair of Tater Mitts, just keep on walking. I would give this product a 3 out of 10.

Until next time...

Amanda

I'm so full, I can't hear.

Oh my God! I just got done eating my weight in low mein, and I'm so full I think I might die. Why does Chinese food have to be so tasty? Whenever I eat Chinese food about half-way through I start to think, "I should really stop eating." But for some reason, I can't. I have to keep going until I'm totally miserable. Okay, moving on...

Memorial Day weekend was pretty good. Nothing overly exciting happened, but nothing horrible happened either. So, here's a recap.

Friday: Got off at 3p and decided that I was going to get my eyes tested. A week prior to this, I pulled one of my contacts out of the case and noticed it was ripped. Thank God I noticed it before I put it in my eyeball...have you ever stuck a ripped contact in your eye, it's not pleasant, I wouldn't recommend it. So, for a week I had been wearing my glasses that are about 4 years old. They have been sat on, stepped on, lost in my purse and one of the lenses has a tiny crack at the top. They are so bad that the eye doctor asked me, "Please take this persrciption and get new glasses." I want to first say, I HATE GOING TO GET MY EYES TESTED!!! The thing I hate the most is the puff of air in your eyeball! But, since I'm one step away from being legally blind, it's something I have to deal with. The eye doctor now has a new machine that I hate almost as much as the puff-of-air machine, I call it the camera-for-the-inside-of-your-eye machine. I think they can use this instead of dilating your eyes (which I hate more than the puff-of-air machine.) They take you in a dark room and tell you to put your face in this machine and look at the green dot and without any warning a bright light flashes in your eyeball, then they want to do the other one. And after that, you have to sit with your eyes shut for a minute. After the exam, the doctor shows me the picture of the inside of my eyeballs...he shows me my optic nerve and something else that I can't remember the name of and says, "Your eyes are very healthy!" I look at him and say, "Well, that's good to know since they don't work worth a crap!" That's when he told me that my eyes had gotten worse since the last time I was there, blah, blah, blah. I put in my contacts and I was in and out of there in less than an hour. I didn't do anything that night, I think we might have went to bed relatively early.



Saturday: I got up early and had some errands to run around 9am a customer called needing a drum of oil...on Saturday, Memorial Day Weekend. My boss was on his way to Lake Charles via boat, so guess who had to come to the office, you guessed it, ME. I forgot to mention that Saturday was Mom's birthday, so after we got the drum of oil delivered and everything at work was situated I went shopping for the best mom in the world's birthday gift. She will be closing on a house in the middle of June so I wanted to get her something for the new house that had something to do with mermaids. (She collects them.) I found the perfect gift! It was a mermaid door knocker for the front door. It is really cool, but not nearly as cool as what Phillip made her. He drew a mermaid and then painted it with water colors. It is absolutely beautiful. When I get batteries for my camera I will take a picture of it and post it. So, that night we went to our local bar for Mom's birthday and as a bonus my uncle's band was playing. Saturday was a good night!



Sunday: I got up early again and had every intention of going to church. The night before, mom drove to our apartment and we all three rode together to the bar and since mom had been drinking I told her she would not be driving anywhere, I didn't care if her apartment was half a block away. So, when I woke up mom was sitting on the couch watching TV, Phillip got up and cooked breakfast and I decided to skip church. I forgot to mention that Saturday night I got a message from my friend, Suzanne, asking me if I wanted to go to the ballet with her on Sunday. Of course I said I did. So, around 11 I started getting ready since I had to be at her house at 1p. I wore my favorite dress and I have a certain pair of cotton boy shorts that I always wear with it, you are probably wondering why I'm telling you about my panties, well when I put them on Sunday, they were too big! So, I thought that was exciting. Anyway, the shoes that I wear with this dress are a pair of red, patent-leather peep toe pumps and sadly, I haven't had a chance to get a pedicure lately so since I was running late I painted the big toenail on each foot, since that's the only toe that you can see in these shoes. So, now I'm walking around with one blue toenail on each foot. We went to the ballet and it was beautiful. It was the Three Classics and Five Tangos! All I can say was AMAZING!!! We went out to eat after that and then I went home. I drank wine with dinner then drank another glass when I got to the house. I had promised Phillip that I would watch all the Indiana Jones movies with him, since I haven't seen any of them, so we started watching Raiders of the Lost Arc and I fell asleep.

Monday: I did nothing all day long. I never even got dressed, I was in boxer shorts and a t-shirt all day and you know what...it was wonderful!

If you've made it this far in the post, congratulations, this one was not one of my best.

Until next time...

Amanda

I can't do that, it makes me sick to my stomach.

Have I ever told y'all that Phillip likes video games? Well, he does. When I was younger I had a Nintendo and I miss the days of Super Mario Bros., California Games and Tetris! When I was a teenager, I upgraded to a Sega Genesis and I was damn lethal at Mortal Kombat. When he moved in, his XBox 360 and Gamecube also moved in and I had not really played any video games since the days of ripping some one's spinal column out of their body via their chest cavity. Do y'all remember the brew-ha-ha over how violent Mortal Kombat was??? Anyway, Mortal Kombat is NOTHING compared to some of these games. Anyway, I'm not sure if it's because I'm old or the video games are just different now, but the majority of the games he has, when I watch or play them, they make me sick to my stomach - kinda like being car sick. It's horrible. There are only a couple that I can actually play....Devil May Cry 4 is the only one that gives me no motion sickness at all. Even though the graphics on these games are better, I really don't think they are as fun as Super Mario Bros. or Tetris. All you're really doing is running around and occasionally you slice something with a sword, shoot something with a gun or blow something up with a grenade. I miss the days of running as fast as Mario's legs would go and jumping over the flagpole. And with today's games...you never die! What's up with that? What happened to three lives, but if you get enough coins or the "1Up" mushroom you get an extra life??? I actually feel sorry for this generation's children...they will never know the satisfaction of actually getting all the blocks lined up just right that when the long straight one comes down, not only do you clear the board but the screen lights up and you get the "Wow you just cleared five lines" music. And with today's games you can save the game right where you are and turn the console off and come back later...I remember the good ol' days when I would come home and start a game and time would come for me to go to dance class and I would pause the game and threaten people with their lives if they turned my game off. Sadly, it was usually Nanny that had come back to our house and started her own game. I couldn't say anything to her, she would just tell me to quit being a brat. I will tell you a funny story about me playing Resident Evil recently...Phillip thought I might like it and he said he didn't think it would make me sick and he was right, it didn't make me sick...it scared me. The Resident Evil game he has is for the Gamecube and the Gamecube doesn't have wireless controllers. So, I'm sitting on the couch and he tells me to go into this building, what he didn't tell me was that there was a zombie hiding in the building and as soon as I walked in the door the zombie jumped out and attacked me. It scared me so bad that I jumped, screamed and pulled the controller out of the console all at the same time. Here's the sad part, that happened twice. I told him I do not want to play something that freaks me out and scares me to the point of jumping and screaming. If given the choice I'll take the bad graphics, koopa troopas, venus fly-traps, coins, princesses and a short, squatty Italian fellow in overalls with a sweet porn star 'stache any day of the week.

Until next time...

Amanda

It's not like he wasn't forewarned...

Most of you who read this online journal know me personally, I call the majority of you close friends. Well, for the people who know me this won't be a shocker, for those of you who only know me in this arena I will let you in on one of my biggest flaws...I'm a slob. But, I will say, I'm not one of those really disgusting slobs that has food crusted plates under the couch and funk growing in weird places...no, I'm more of the cluttered variety of slob. I hate doing housework, I hate washing clothes and the thing I hate the most is the vacuum cleaner. Just the sound of that stupid machine make my teeth clench. Guess what Phillip is...a neat freak. Yep, so you can probably guess what our first argument was about. In my defense, I told him before he moved in that I was a slob, Terra & Lyndon even made jokes about it. It's not something I'm proud of, I try to not be slobby, but I just can't. But, I will say this, I"m weird about the bathroom, mainly the toilet. I might have a pile of clothes on the floor of the bathroom that needs to be washed, but my toilet and bathtub are typically CLEAN! Now, the counter surface around the sink...not so much. I don't know why it's so hard for me to put things up when I'm done, but I'm also a little freaky about when I DO clean there is a specific spot for everything and if it isn't in that spot once the cleaning is done, all is not right in the world. Usually, I have makeup scattered about, my contact case is on the sink along with the contact solution, a couple of hairbrushes, my toothbrush has to be plugged in so it's out and my Chi iron stays next to the sink. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, Phillip & I were at Target and he suggested that we get a shelf for the bathroom. I wasn't sure what for, since everything has a home, but I went ahead and got a little, white decorative shelf. Before I continue telling you about the shelf, let me first explain that the week prior to that I was noticing little, red beard hairs around the sink. This seems odd to me, I didn't understand why he couldn't aim his beard trimming directly over the sink. Anyway, so last Sunday when I got home from church, I walked in the front door and he said go check out what I did in the bathroom. I walked into the bathroom and noticed there was NOTHING on the counter around the sink except a yellow kitchen sponge, then I looked to my right. Everything that was on the counter was now lined up on the little, white decorative shelf. I took a deep breath and the conversation went a little like this...

Amanda: What did you do?
Phillip: Well, the bathroom counter was disgusting, so I put the shelf up and moved all of your stuff to the shelf.
Amanda: But that stuff doesn't go on the shelf, now the sink looks like a hospital sink. We need the pretty stuff around the sink.
(I proceeded to put the makeup in my makeup box, the hair styling stuff in the hair styling box, the lotion dispenser and electric toothbrush base back on the counter, etc... The only thing left on the shelf was my glasses, contact case and solution)
Amanda: See, everything has a place.
Phillip: (voice raised, ever so slightly) I can't brush my teeth or wash my hands in here, it's DISGUSTING!
Amanda: (voice raided, ever so slightly) DISGUSTING! What about the little beard hairs between the faucet and the mirror???
Phillip: How am I supposed clean up the beard hairs if your stuff is all over the place???
Amanda: Why can't you trim your beard over the sink?
Phillip: You ask any guy with a beard, the beard hairs fly all over the place. You need to start putting your shit up!

Now what I heard was you're a slob. And, it's perfectly okay for me to call myself that...but not the man who supposedly loves me unconditionally. So, I just look at him and walk out of the bathroom. I go and change clothes and I started doing something in the kitchen, then I hear him walk out the front door. While he was outside I walked upstairs so I could clean the bathtub and the toilet. When I lift the seat of the toilet to clean it guess what I saw...there was evidence of a man around the toilet. As gross as it is, I cleaned the toilet then got my scrubbing bubbles out to clean the tub, that's when I noticed it. The spot on the wall where the little, white decorative shelf once hung was now bare. The only proof that I had that the shelf was there were two little holes. So, I go flying down the stairs and I look at Phillip and say...

Amanda: Put the shelf back up.
Phillip: I can't.
Amanda: Why
Phillip: (with a smirk on his face and half giggling) I threw it in the dumpster
Amanda: YOU DID WHAT?!?!
Phillip: You didn't want the shelf, so I threw it away.
Amanda: Just because I said that I didn't want the bathroom to look like a hospital???
Phillip: No, because it's DISGUSTING AND YOU DON'T SEE IT!
Amanda: YOU WANT TO TALK DISGUSTING?!?!? HAVE YOU SEEN THE RIM OF THE TOILET LATELY, AND GUESS WHAT...I KNOW I'M NOT THE ONE THAT MADE THAT FILTH!

Two Hours go by without any words spoken.

We end up sitting on the couch and he puts his hand on my knee and we both look at each other.

Phillip: I don't want to fight anymore.
Amanda: Neither do I. But you have to let me know when things bother you.
Phillip: I didn't think the house bothered you at all.
Amanda: It doesn't really, but there are times when I'm like, OK, it's time to do something with the house. But, can you honestly say that this is all my mess?
Phillip: NO.
Amanda: You act like you weren't forewarned. I told you when we first started dating that I was a slob, you even visited here before you moved in. Did you think I was joking?
Phillip: No.
Amanda: Did you think I was making it up?
Phillip: No.
Amanda: I will try to be better at picking up after myself.
Phillip: Why didn't you say anything about the toilet before.
Amanda: I didn't see it until after we started fighting.
Phillip: Oh.

So, there you go, a run down of our first fight. Surely we're not the only couple that has argued over shelves and toilets...right???

Until next time...

Amanda

Across the Universe

Ok, I just sat down and watched Across the Universe starring Evan Rachel Wood. I haven't decided if I like it or not. I LOVE the Beatles!!! When I first saw the previews for this movie, I thought it sounded really good and I had planned on seeing it in the theatres...but, like most movies I want to see at the theatres, I didn't make it. I think the idea of a musical with all Beatles music is awesome, but this one...hmmm, I just can't make up my mind. There were good parts and then there were other parts that I just didn't get. I've never done acid, but I think this movie might look like what an acid trip feels like.

I wish I could give a proper review, but I'm still a little like...what???

Anyway, I'm not going to recommend for or against this one...just be warned, about half way through you'll understand what I'm talking about. Phillip and I can't decide if it's genius or pointless...if you have seen this movie, please let me know what you think.

Until next time...

Amanda

The freaks are at it AGAIN!

Several months ago I posted this, and had an anonymous comment telling me that I was mean because I called these people freaks. Well, I was looking on Yahoo news this morning and came across this article.

Happy Mother's Day: Woman pregnant with 18th child
By JILL ZEMAN, Associated Press Writer 10 minutes ago
I
t's a happy Mother's Day for an Arkansas woman — she's pregnant with her 18th child.
Michelle Duggar, 41, is due on New Year's Day, and the latest addition will join seven sisters and 10 brothers. There are two sets of twins.

"We've had three in January, three in December. Those two months are a busy time for us," she said, laughing. The Duggars' oldest child, Josh, is 20, and the youngest, Jennifer, is nine months old.

The fast-growing family lives in Tontitown in northwest Arkansas in a 7,000-square-foot home. All the children — whose names start with the letter J — are home-schooled.
Duggar has been been pregnant for more than 11 years of her life, and the family is in the process of filming another series for Discovery Health.

The new show looks at life inside the Duggar home, where chores — or "jurisdictions" — are assigned to each child. One episode of the new show involves a "jurisdiction swap," where the boys do chores traditionally assigned to the girls, and vice versa, Duggar said.
"The girls swapped jurisdictions, changing tires, working in the garages, mowing the grass," she said. "The boys got to cook supper from start to finish, clean the bathrooms," among other chores.

Duggar said she's six weeks along and the pregnancy is going well. She and her husband, Jim Bob Duggar, said they'll keep having children as long as God wills it. "The success in a family is first off, a love for God, and secondly, treating each other like you want to be treated," Jim Bob Duggar said. "Our goal is for each one of our children to be best friends, and everybody working together to serve each other makes that happen."

The other Duggar children, in between Joshua and Jennifer, are Jana, 18; John-David, 18; Jill, 16; Jessa, 15; Jinger, 14; Joseph, 13; Josiah, 11; Joy-Anna, 10; Jeremiah, 9; Jedidiah, 9; Jason, 7; James, 6; Justin, 5; Jackson, 3; and Johannah, 2.

I will say this once again...these people are FREAKS!!! When this latest baby is born, they will have had 18 children in 20 or 21 years. Seems a little excessive to me. I really think they need to have their heads examined.

So, to anonymous: guess what, I called them freaks again...I look forward to hearing from you, but since I have dropped my anonymity...please drop yours.

Until next time...

Amanda

I have a question...

When did pictures that look like this become obsolete?

Now they have been replaced with pictures that look like this.

This is my friend Casie and I making fun of all the teenage to mid-twenties that think throwing a deuce and scrunching your mouth to one side is the only way to look cool in a picture. Don't get me wrong, I have LOADS of pictures where I'm making funny faces, but it seems like every picture I see of someone 15-25 they are making this face.

When I choreographed the tap routine, I took the opportunity to ask what the hell the deal was...and this was the answer I got. It looks Gangsta! What the hell are you talking about, it looks gangsta? You are a 16 year old girl, you live in a suburb of Houston, you are wearing a Hollister hoodie with flip flops, and to top it all off you are sitting with a group of other 16 year old girls, who are all dressed like you, while y'all are on a field trip to see the Kilgore College Rangerettes. What about that scenario is Gangsta?

I would really like to slap them and say snap out of it, you look like an idiot and when the boys do it, they just look like straight up douche bags. If I've said it once, I've said it a million times...The youth of today frightens me. And people wonder why I don't want kids.

Until next time...

Amanda

The Spring Show

I think I've finally caught up on my sleep after last weekend. .

The Alumni was AWESOME!!! The theme of this year's show was "50 Years and Still Struttin." It basically took you through the history of the Channelettes. The main alumni dance was to Photograph by Nickelback. This dance was performed by ladies who graduated from 1985 to present. We worked really hard on it and I was told it looked really good. YAY!

Saturday, the 26th, I had to be at the school at 8am to teach another dance to the alumni that wanted to perform in the "Decade Dance." This was a special dance for this show since it was celebrating the drill team's 50th year. We had women from 1965 to present on the stage for this one and we had to learn it in about a 5 hour time frame. We used the song We Go Together from Grease. It was SOOO much fun. I made sure to add dance steps from the last 50 years, including steps from the "strut," all the different marching styles, and even kicks and jump splits! (The jump splits were performed by girls that graduated last year. If I tried to do a jump split now, they'd have to call paramedics to come scrape me off the stage and take me directly to an orthopedic surgeon.) I was told by the current director and by the director that was there from 1962 - 1982 that seeing all of us together on that stage and doing a good job made them cry! That made me feel good since I organized and choreographed the whole thing. Afterwards, we went to Brewsky's and partied like it was 1999! So, here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure...

This is some of the alumni at the Decade Dance practice early Saturday morning.

This was at the reception before the show for the alumni to come and mingle and look at old photos etc. (That's me in the black shirt...we were rehearsing the decade dance.)

This is me at the reception.

(I don't normally look like a common prostitute, that was just stage makeup!)

This is a friend of mine from high school, Jennifer. (She looks better now than she did in 1993. I wish I could kick her, but she's so nice, it makes it hard to hate her.)

This is some of the girls who performed the tap dance that I choreographed. This was probably one of the fastest dances I've ever done and they did a great job!

This was the alumni performing the decade dance.

These ladies were our "Fearless Four." They were the oldest ones performing in the show!

Sadly, this was in the parking lot of my Alma mater. Since when do people take these things in a school parking lot???

This is some of us at the bar after the show...we were dancing to the "Grease Medley."

Suzanne telling Phillip & me something. (She's been the director since 1990.)

And the end of the evening. Then we all went to Suzanne's. I ended up passing out, I'm not sure if it was because I was tired or it was the shots...possibly a little bit of both.

I promise I will post more now that life has settled down a little bit.

Until next time...

Amanda

I'm here!

Sorry for so few updates lately...I've been busy and now that the show is over I have been trying to get caught up on my sleep. I will post about it tonight, complete with pictures.

Until next time...

Amanda