LOL! That's what I get for skimming only the sentence with the spoiler tag in it as soon as the page loads. I thought you were talking about the 5th season of TAR!!!?!!!

Its Frodo - Frodo dies in the 5th Harry Potter book! or is it that Frodo lives? Macaddict is back from Paris - Whee! So, did you have a good time? Did you run up the stairs at the Eiffel Tower? Did you move past people in line at the Pantheon?

Actually, I got back last night. Eh, Paris is OK if you're into art and culture and architecture and great food and beautiful people. Otherwise, yawwwwn.

The flight back was almost bad enough to ruin the whole wonderful trip. Seated next to me, two residents of Trailer Trash Nation who were apparently on their first plane trip. I'm assuming they drove the pickup to France. Sitting across the aisle? Sneezy McSneeze. But I love those people. They're my closest friends. Because sitting in front of me was a husband, his wife, and their screaming infant. Screamed the whole trip. Or was that me?

On top of everything, Air France apparently had a cancel-palooza on Sunday, so on Monday, when I was flying, they were cramming as many people as they could on the planes. We sat in the plane at the gate for more than an hour as they counted and recounted passengers, and then got caught up in ground traffic at CDG. We made up time inflight, but still landed an hour and half late at Dulles. Did I mention there was a screaming baby? The good news is that the movies included Lost in Translation and Love Actually.

It's experiences like that that make me realize A) I would be a terrible racer, Flo-level even; and B) I have even more respect for the racers who get through the ordeal with grace and humor.

Glad you had a good trip, Macaddict, and sorry about the bad flight. I once wanted to murder a woman sitting across the aisle from me because the only way she could keep her child quiet was to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider nonstop. The main reason I didn't murder her was because I think she wanted to commit suicide after the 3-hour (felt like 20) flight. I couldn't have done that. I'm not patient enough. I would have checked the kid as cargo.


Word. Every time I think about how cool it would be to be a Racer, I remind myself that I cannot manage sleep deprivation at all and that airports are high-stress environments for me.

Oh man, you just reminded me of the time I flew from LA to Seoul -- 12-1/2 hours -- with a two-year-old kicking the back of my seat and my neighbor's seat the whole time. We'd turn around and glare at the parents, but having no common language, they would always just give us a happy smile while their brat continued pounding our rear ends with his/her feet. Sigh.

I guess I'd need to think about things like that if I were to actually apply to be on the race.

Nightmare. That sounds like a situation where a discussion with a flight attendant would have been in order.

Macaddict, sorry to hear about your flight. The screaming kids are what keep me off of the Amtrak from NY to Albany. You think the train would be better, but in my experience, you either end up standing in the cafe bar the entire way or pacing the length of the train (which essentially means I've WALKED from NY to Albany) to get away from the brats.

My worst flight story took place a few years ago. I flew a red-eye from LA to NY. I was in the last row of the plane seated next to a woman that had an eight-month old that she held the entire way. The baby cried all the way, every seat was filed so I could not move, and my chair did not recline. From the Rockies to NY I contemplated which was worse, suicide or homicide. The flight attendants gave me a bottle of wine when I deplaned which they said was from the airline to make up for my horrible flight. I would have preferred a free ticket.

The flight attendants' English wasn't much better than the parents', alas. I also can't sleep on planes -- probably another good reason to never do the Race! -- so I gave up and went and walked up and down the stairs (I was on the upper deck of a 747). Now, as it turns out, that was a good idea to avoid deep vein thrombosis. At the time, it was just an attempt to work the pretzel kinks out!

The more I think about it, the more I realize: I HATE to fly in airplanes! They're cramped, uncomfortable, noisy, with crappy food and bathrooms you can barely turn around in (not to mention always worrying that my ass will get stuck on the seat!)! Why would I want to do the Race, if for no other reason?

Oh wait, that's right. Because it looks like fun. :-)

Did you consider smacking the baby on the head with it? They would have been better off giving the baby a glass of wine at the beginning of the flight, then it probably would have slept the whole way. Was it good wine?

Heh, that is similar to my thought process - drug the baby. Yep, I'm going to be a good mother someday. I do try to drug Smokey with Prozac when I know an upsetting situation is going to occur but he's too smart. He knows that the Prozac is what makes him really drugged out and won't take it.

Oh, on the next Amazing Train, we so have to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider. We do have to keep up the description of inconsiderate asses. DariaG, arriving at Tarcon and being asked where is everyone else from DC? "I don't know, someone killed them all on the train" Oh sorry macaddict, someone killed them all on the train.

Hee! You know me too well, M. Darcy. Then again, if I were one of the people singing Itsy Bitsy Spider, someone would probably conk me over the head with a bottle of wine in the first 2 minutes. There's a reason I never go to any of the DC TWoPCon karaoke nights. When I was in grade school and we were putting on plays and such, the teachers told me to move my lips and not really sing.

Yeah, you would look horrid next to all us great karaoke singers. (Ha! As if. mr pseudo showed my dear mother a video of me attempting "Tomorrow." She let out this very unladylike cackle, and for the next couple of hours, she would occasionally and very suddenly let out this huge snort of laughter. It's enough to send a girl to therapy, I tell ya.)


They should have given it to you at the beginning of the flight!

I don't know if it's S.O.P. for Air France, or if they felt sorry about being 90 minutes late, but they plied us with wine for the entire flight.

I understand Steve and Dave also obtain bottles of wine when planes arrive.

My flight nightmare was many years ago on TWA - I was flying from Rome to NYC, then on to Los Angeles. Well, a few days before my flight from Rome, a bunch of terrorists went into the Rome airport and shot the place up with machine guns, killing a bunch of people at the TWA counter and the El Al counter (right next to TWA). So, when my sister and I showed up for our flight, the entire place was, understandably, crawling with police. These police didn't make me feel very safe though. They all looked like they were about fifteen, scared out of their wits, and with their fingers very near the triggers of their machine guns.
Anyway, come to find out that our plane has some sort of mechanical issue, and they are going to try to fix it. Due to security concerns, everyone waiting for this flight is herded into the little gate area, which is cordoned off. There were about 100 seats for 400 passengers. So, my sister being young and healthy, are polite and sit on the floor for the entire 6 hours we are waiting for the plane to be fixed (eventually they gave up and flew another plane down from Germany for the flight). No one is allowed to leave the cordoned-off gate area, except to use the restroom and then must be accompanied by an armed guard. No food or water was provided.
Then we get on the plane, get seated, and lo and behold another mechanical issue arises with the new plane. Due to security concerns (again), we are not allowed off the plane, but are forced to stay in our seats for another three hours while sitting on the tarmac. At least TWA did serve us dinner while we were sitting there.
Sitting next to me and my sister for the entire time on the plane was a little girl, maybe 2 years old, if that. Her family was sitting in another part of the plane. Unbelievably, they chose to sit her next to us - and the entire rest of the family went to the back of the plane, took a bunch of sleeping pills, and passed out. So we were in charge of the little girl for the entire 10 hours or so. She was very sweet, but of course spoke no English and had trouble communicating what she wanted. Then she got violently ill and projectile-vomited all over me, my sister, the seat in front of her, the seats all around her, and so on. The flight attendants did help us clean up (I learned a good trick - sprinkling ground coffee on vomit stains will take the smell out). About halfway through the flight, the flight attendants showed up carrying another little girl - about 9 - who had developed a raging fever in-flight. She was flying unaccompanied, and the flight attendants had noticed me and my sister taking care of the littler girl and thought we wouldn't mind taking care of the sick (fever) girl as well.
No one gave us a bottle of wine, either. I will admit that by the end of the flight I was very attached to the littler girl, and was scheming ways to smuggle her off the plane with me instead of turning her back over to her drugged-out family.

Aaaaaaand this is why I lurves me some iMissEthan. My thoughts EXACTLY, lady. Also: WORD.

Peanutbuttercup, you just gave me more ammo in my case to have children fly as checked luggage in the same cargo section where they fly pets. If you liked the kid, you should have stolen her from those neglectful parents. Now, had I been scheduled to leave that day, I either would have gone angrily weeping back to my hotel and checked in for another week, or I'd have done something to land in prison (which sounds like it wasn't that hard under the circumstances). Seriously, I've had enough parental health emergencies in the last 3 years to learn that if you can't get home as planned, they're not going to miss you that much -- and the cat sitter will enjoy the extra money and water your plants. So staying another week because the airport has a bad case of the stupids? It's a case of "Thank you Mr. Visa and Ms. MasterCard."

And the middle and the end and the...

...I'm with pseudo. For the most part, I don't fly, but whenever I do, I need my fix because the greatest feeling in the world (that I try to avoid almost always successfully) is being over and out. I think one time after I sat down, it was like the very next second when I got bumped on the head with luggage (my cue that we've landed).

My trip was good, and while my plane ride wasn't as bad as Peanutbuttercup's it really wasn't enjoyable. I spent 7 hours in a seat with 15 year old girls behind me painting their nails, spraying perfume and kicking my seat. All the movies I really wanted to watch were locked out, so I ended up watching Sylvia (about Sylvia Plath, starring Gwyneth Paltrow) and I enjoyed it immensely.

I saw Bruce Willis at the Eiffel Tower when I was there. He may be 30 years older than me, but he is hot. I didn't have my camera with me but one of my friends got an excellent picture of him.

mel42024, you must post that picture of Bruce. I think that he's hot too. Diehard flicks are the best.

Speaking of hot, I finally saw "X-Men" (the first one) and am now wondering why it is when my husband first tried to get me to see it, he talked about how cool it was and made no mention of Hugh Jackman shirtless.

In the commentary, the director talked about how in some scenes, Hugh was pudgier because it was earlier in the shooting and he kept working out the entire time. I looked very closely and I still don't see what he's talking about. I see no pudginess. I told my husband I was doing it for verification purposes. Yeah, that's it. I just wanted to see if the director was correct.

If you think Bruce Willis is hot, clearly you haven't seen Pamie's latest entry on the poster for "The Whole Ten Yards".

auntlada - it's not so much that he was actually "pudgy", it's that they filmed the beginning fight scene much later in the process, and he was much more "cut" when they filmed that than when they filmed him running around the x-lab without a shirt on, which was (I think) the first day of shooting). You have to pay attention to things like his abs to really notice.

man, i've watched that movie too many times.

I'll post it once I get it, KonaKini, which will hopefully be soon. Oh, and call me mel. :)

I forgot to add one thing about my trip. I spent an hour or so in Grindelwald, and it is very picturesque, as Miss Alli said in the 3-8 recap. I probably even saw the chalet that was the pit stop, but all of the buildings looked the same basically. It was very weird to see snow in the background and people skiing while it was 20 degrees Celsius there.

The stray cat I named after Flo was back in my yard today. She was right at my back steps, snuffling in the garden. As soon as she saw me, she dashed for the back fence, vaulted up to the top of it, then turned around and stared at me for a while before jumping into the alley. She's all black with green eyes, just like my cat Eddie, who'd been watching her intensely. I don't think she's a pet that goes out, I really do think she's a stray. But she's not starving; she definitely ate well enough over the winter.

Bart Ender has posted something just for us TARflies on page 4 of this weeks Pixel Challenge.

Voila! There is the link. And I must have been typing so*****g on my French keyboard. Whoops!

Is "something" a dirty word now? :)
Oh, and can someone post a link or at least tell me where that is?

Pixel Challenge: Forums--> Other TV Shows-->TV Potluck-->Pixel Challenge: "Damn You Bill Gates!" page 4 has 2 TAR related entries, you'll have to follow the link in Bart Ender's post to see his.

Okay, in the Media thread I mentioned my lower blood pressure, which I said I'd explain in this thread.

I've been thin all my life, but when middle age hit, so did the infamous middle-age spread. And my blood pressure went up to borderline high, and my doctor started giving me a hard time about it. I have to see her every spring to get a prescription renewed, and quite frankly, I didn't want to listen to her bitch at me again. Plus there's that health thing, you know? But the final straw was when my pants got so tight I couldn't zip my favorite jeans. Let's see -- don't change anything, buy all new pants and skirts in a larger size, listen to my doctor rag on me, and risk heart disease, or do something about it.

On February 1, I quit eating sugar in its various forms. No fruit, no honey, no products with fructose, etc., etc. I didn't even allow any artificial sweeteners at first, because I wanted to shut down the sweet tooth. The next day, I could tell an enormous change internally, like I was somehow lighter. I also would have happily murdered anyone on the planet for a piece of chocolate, but I stuck with it. The first four days were awful, because I have a major sweet tooth that dominated my food decisions. The fifth day, I quit feeling the felonious impulses, and by the sixth day, I'd also lost eight pounds. At that point I'd accomplished the major goals -- heart health, eating better, clothes fit, etc.

But I went ahead and dropped most of the other processed foods from my diet, and now I'm eating better than I ever have. I've lost an additional 12 pounds, which happened without "dieting" per se. And I feel great, like I dropped 10 years from my age. At least.

I have my annual doctor's appt. on Thursday of next week, and I'm actually looking forward to it, because I think she's in for a big surprise, and I can't wait to see the look on her face. (I did check at a supermarket blood pressure check station, and I'm now at 110 over 70.)

This was very hard. Very, very hard. I can turn on the self-discipline when I need to, but that doesn't mean it's easy. But it was absolutely worth it.

Woo hoo! Way to go Daria! Though, honestly, if I had to give up chocolate, I'd probably kill myself. What I do actually is buy Hershey Miniatures - this way I can get my chocolate fix in small doses. I am just lucky that chocolate isn't one of the migrane triggers for me.

The other Harry Potter fans might find this interesting. I am taking a one week class at Oxford University this summer on Children's Literature and Oxford. We are discussing CS Lewis and the Narnia Books, JRR Tolkein and the Lord of the Rings, Philip Pullman and the Dark Materials Trilogy, Diana Wynne Jones and Harry Potter.

Macaddict, I don't feel like rereading Lord of the Rings though - what happens to Frodo at the end again?

He goes back to the Shire and has an orgy with Merry and Pippin. Oh wait, that's Bored of the Rings. Nevermind.

That's great news, Daria. I wouldn't so much have trouble with the sugar, but--no fruit? No fruit juice? I couldn't do that. I really don't like most veggies, so I get most of my phyto-nutrients from fruit. Good for you, though.

I'm hoping against hope that was a Jeopardy question.

Per Chris' request in the media thread, and not wanting to get another warning, here's the link to the article about Daniel Lue's being on Tough Enough:

http://www.realitynewsonline.com/cgi-bin/a...2625.art&page=1

So. Hard. To. Stay. Out. Of. Spoiler thread!!!!!!!!

devajd, there are actually some potential spoilers in there so stay out if you don't want to know. It's only a little over 3 months until the start... ;)

Yeah, there are some significant spoilers in the spoiler thread. It's not innocent stuff these days.

Yeah, last season I checked the spoiler thread ONCE and happened to see the spoiler that Monica and Sheree had won. Thank goodness that one was wrong. But I vowed I would stay spoiler free so I will. It's just hard when that's the only thread with a new post!

I already know there are Allison spoilers in there, and I just don't want to know.

LALALALALALALALA!

Now, if I told you that that would spoil it for you and you know how much I hate to do that.

Unfortunately. devajd, the Allison "spoiler" doesn't qualify as a spoiler since it was reported as part of the depressing "news" that we got. But Daria is right, there are some very specific, serious spoilers this year.

Spoiler free and happy, la la la.
DariaG, that's very inspiring. I wish I had your willpower, or more to the point, I wish I liked the taste of most vegetables so I could enjoy eating something other than pasta and needing some sugar every day. I had a nice denial going there for a while, like the dryer would actually shrink all my pants, including the ones I haven't worn in over a year and the ones that I dryclean. So I did go ahead and buy one size larger pants, but I'm not happy about it. Perhaps the sight of myself in a bathing suit this year will send me into the no sugar zone.

Daria, that's great! But giving up fruit in addition to processed sugar? That's hardcore. When I'm being good I eat strawberries or some other sweet fruit instead of a cookie.

Yeah, but do you eat "all natural" stuff that includes the sugars pulled out of fruits and added separately?

By the way, strawberries are better when dipped in chocolate and then frozen. You kind of lose that non-sweets thing, though . . .

Nope. There are lots of names for the various sugars, and I'm avoiding them all. I'm not eating much in the way of processed foods at all these days, except for tortillas (great with leftovers), and I'm getting them at the health food store. I kind of had to give up fruit, because if the sweet tooth gets fed by anything, it takes over for the rest of the day. It's the classic blood sugar/insulin overload/crash cycle. However, I'm slowly trying to work some small amount of fruit back into my diet. Most days I have a smoothie made with plain low-fat yogurt, a bit of skim milk, some cocoa powder, and frozen raspberries. That's "dessert." I don't know if I'll do my annual trip to the pick-your-own strawberry patch this year, but they're next on my list to experiment with.

I was directing that to pseudo, due to the phrase "fruit in addition to processed sugar". (I mention this only to elicit a response from pseudo, not to discount your answer, Daria!)

So Daria, does that rule out Shards O' Glass Freeze Pops, too?

Hey everyone!!!! Long time, no post!!! How have you all been? I've been reading the last many many pages of this forum in order to catch up on you all! I have had such an uneventful year, that I never felt like posting anything. But now, with TAR just a mere few months away (hopefully), I thought its about time to get back in touch with you all!!!

tm Rabrab - I did Washington DC to Illinois all by myself, once. I was going to stop somewhere in Ohio, but some huge, national sporting event was taking place in Indianapolis and I wasn't able to get to a hotel until I was about 20 miles from Illinois. So, aiming to stop at about 8pm, I ended up driving until about 12:30am. I was tired, crabby, and alone. *sniff* do you all feel sympathetic yet?

My most fun was driving to San Jose, CA from DeKalb, IL in a powder blue transam with my co-coach, Jody. We were going to the USATF National Youth Track Meet to cheer on some of our team members. We camped on the way out (to save money), stayed in some dorms there (to save money), stopped at the REdwoods Nat. Forest and LasVegas on the way home, and had an all around good time. Except for the javelin he insisted on buying at the track meet that served as an additional armrest in the car on our way home. Seriously...who buys a javelin and transports it 5 days in a transam?...oh...and he would NEVER let me drive.

Cat road trip? Moving from Illinois to Oregon with my mom (dad was already there). Two cats...one who gets as low as possible and, about once every hour lets out this pitiful moan...and another who paces and prowls and meows the whole time. Mom was trying to get the second cat, Muffin, to settle down in her lap. Muffin got restless, mom held her on her lap. Muffin peed on my moms lap. I almost drove off the road I was laughing so hard. Both Fluffy (the first cat) and Muffin have since crossed the Rainbow bridge, but I have many many fond memories.

Bart Ender.....You live in Champaign, IL??? I'm dating someone from there!!!

Rabrab! congrats on the weight loss!! Isn't it a great feeling?


M.Darcy I know that was directed to Macadict, but I just have to say that this is one of the funniest movies!! When she's having sex and just has that little smirk on her face as if to say 'thats what all the fuss is about?'. priceless

I watched two good movies these past weeks from Netflix....Secondhand Lions and the Emperor's Club. Very very good, although Haley Joel Osmet is not as cute as a teen as he was as a kid.


Daria G Good for you! Does Alley Cat Allies take care of the costs? If not, you could probably find some vet who would do the spays for a discount. My mom had her barn cats trapped and spayed. She only has one left now...the original...all the baby's and grandbaby's died or were killed by dogs that belong to the stupid people who let their aggressive dogs run loose in a neighborhood.

I just watched the Moonlighting pilot episode (yes...Netflix again) and I couldn't believe how hot BW was when he was younger! I hadn't realized how much older he is now... wowsers

Yay, Daria!!!! I'm getting more motivated to get back on my diet than before. Have you started with an artificial sweetner yet? if so, which one? As for giving up chocolate, my local Kroeger has been carrying Russel Stover low carb chocolates and they are absolutely divine! They aren't horribly expensive, considering that they are a diet food. I like the truffle cups best.

M.Darcy - Try this site...It will help you with other novels you don't want to read. Its sort of like Cliff'sNotes...on speedBooks-a-Minute

I REALLY can't wait until spring break....2 more days...actually 1 1/2 thanks to an all school talent show on Thursday. I should've signed up to have my dogs do some agility stuff. I've got an entire summer's worth of shows to go to....trying to get my older dog finished and my younger one started. Younger one caught a baby bunny saturday...she was so proud of herself. I was sad for the bunny, but it happens every spring. Why doesn't the mother rabbit figure that out and nest somewhere else?

Okay, Novac -- I wasn't sure who you were aiming at, but I'm getting all sorts of weird questions (not here, just in general), so I figured it was another.

And welcome back, labral. Last I recall, you weren't sure about the second dog (which you obviously got) and were in some less than ideal situation with your love life. And now you have two dogs and you're dating someone! That's great. I've tried to avoid artificial sweeteners, because I want to retrain my brain and taste buds away from sweet things. But I occasionally use Splenda (sucralose), which doesn't have that nasty aftertaste the others do and which the body supposedly doesn't absorb. And chocolate that's so dark it's bitter for PMS cravings. As for the alley cats, Flo came up on my back step the other day (the brazen little wench!) but ran off as soon as she saw me. The neighbor who was most likely to get involved with catching them is now pregnant, and it's a high risk pregnancy, so she's not very active these days. We'll see what happens, maybe I can get another neighbor involved. I was glad to see that the ferals made it through the winter, but now they're going to start breeding again, and the kittens don't always survive.

My next big trick (other than once again playing content witch at Tarflies.com during TAR5) is figuring out how to get an old desktop computer from Washington DC to rural Illinois (close to St. Louis). One of my brothers is a high-functioning autistic, and he wants a computer. But he's an easily frustrated optimist, and I really don't want him to cheerily go spend money on a computer, then be upset with it when it doesn't magically read his mind and do what he wants. I have five computers, so the best option would be for me to give him one of mine, if I could just get it there. I hate driving for hours and hours, and I won't do it by myself. I have a new desktop, I need my laptop for work, and I want to keep my old laptop around for emergencies. So that leaves two old desktops. The logistics suck.

Daria, check out using UPS Ground. It should take no more than two days, and with the UPS Stores, if you don't have the packaging handy, you can let them do it.

Do you have a friend or relative where your brother is who could set up the computer for him? The biggest issue is probably setting it up.

When I'm being good, I eat just the stuff Mother Nature makes. But I'm not always good. >:)

Daria, I agree with theschnauzers. UPS is definitely the way to go.

In my neighborhood, UPS makes macaddict and the baby Jesus cry. But that's just because they'll never leave anything with my neighbors.