Tennis

Has anyone else been watching the French Open Tennis Tournament?

I have, as I love to watch these magnificent players and their on-court mastery of the game.

What I have not appreciated is NBC-Sports! Now here is the deal. I do subscribe to NBC-Sports on my Satellite package, but for some reason, my Amazon Prime did not give me the option of watching without subscribing through them.

So, in the middle of a tense match between Nishikori and Paire, yesterday, they suddenly cut off the feed after a trial period.

I will need to go back in and try to figure it out, but yesterday I was just steaming mad! Fortunately, night fell on Paris and the game was called and I got up this morning and I am watching it on The Tennis Channel Premier, which I do subscribe to through Amazon.

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You see I love tennis. I tried in my youth to learn how to play, but I was depressingly bad, so I gave up. Now, I don’t think it would be good because of all the Titanium in my body holding it together.

But oh, I can watch, and enjoy, and cheer for my favorite players! I look forward to the major tournaments every year!

I Do…I Don’t

I was sitting in my family room this morning when the news hit:

LOS ANGELESKim Kardashian will file for divorce from husband Kris Humphries Monday, after less than three months of marriage.

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Though their marital bliss was short-lived, the reality star is not seeking an annulment and will list “irreconcilable differences” as the cause, TMZ reported.

“Yes @kimkardashian is filing for divorce this morning. I touched base with her, getting a statement in just a few mins,” Ryan Seacrest tweeted in response to the report.

Kardashian, 31, married the NBA player, 26, at a star-studded Hollywood ceremony August 20.

As reported earlier, Kim Kardashian has decided to file for divorce after 10 weeks of marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries. Here is the statement she released on her decision:

“After careful consideration, I have decided to end my marriage. I hope everyone understands this was not an easy decision. I had hoped this marriage was forever but sometimes things don’t work out as planned. We remain friends and wish each other the best.”

Pretty wild, yes? I mean we, mere mortals, planned our wedding to the one we loved, and actually thought about it. We stayed married for more than an instant. We didn’t run off after a few weeks because “Things didn’t work out”! I admit I was married before, but that marriage lasted 11 years! Not 72 days like Ms. Kardashians!

The really hilarious thing is, my wedding to my current Hubby, was a lovely one. I spent all of $5000.00 on my gown, the gowns for my daughter, and my step-daughter, the invitations, music at the reception, a photographer, all the food, and an open bar! Granted that was 23 years ago, but….even with inflation it wouldn’t add up to all that Ms. Kardashian spent (rumored to be approximately 10 million dollars!). Oh yes, and I took my husbands name.

As I get older I seem to find myself having less patience for Hollywood and all the crap that comes out of there. It seems like no one stays married, that people have make believe marriages and then delight in saying, oh yeah, it was just for publicity.

I like real people. Not reality show types. I mean real people like my neighbors. I suppose that was why I always enjoyed “All My Children”. I knew it wasn’t real, and so it was sort of a guilty pleasure. None of these people ever presented to me a 72 day marriage in their real life.

But it seems that the networks want us to swallow these Kardashian types. Ms. Kardashian is, after all, a wealthy woman! She is worth close to 35 million dollars! And E television paid her dearly for their 2 part coverage of her wedding.

For me, I will not watch that bologna!

Love In The Afternoon

So this is the last week that my favorite Soap Opera “All My Children” will be on the air. There are rumors that it will be on the Internet, but I am not sure it will be the same. There is also a rumor that it will become a weekly show, and that is also in the category of, not the same.

I’ve watched it from the beginning. I have seen some really bad acting and some really good acting. Over the years some story lines were a little crazy, but some pulled at my heart and touched me in ways that no other medium could.

Daytime Soaps provided a vast learning area for many actors and actresses. Imagine producing 5 one hour episodes a week, week after week, 52 weeks a year!

When I was a new mother and suffering from sleep deprivation and  postpartum depression, the Soaps were my getaway. As the baby grew, and would go down for a nap, that hour was my time to escape into the world of high fashion, fabulous hair styles, and designer shoes, while I sat in jeans and t-shirts, covered in baby spew!

When I lost my daughter and found my reality was too much to cope with, the Soaps allowed me to escape again, to a place where I didn’t have to feel anything in my own life.

The writing was almost always good, and when they did on location shooting, it was exciting and new for those of us at home.

I will forever remember “Love In The Afternoon”!

So, ABC TV, I won’t be watching your afternoon TV programs anymore. You’ll be lucky if I tune in any of your programs in the evening. We do not need another talk show. I do realize that TV has changed, but, you had a great thing going and your kid geniuses don’t know what most people do. Those of us who followed “All My Children” for 40 years would have followed for another 40, but we won’t be following just another talk show.  We have a hundred plus channels of shows to chose from, plus 24-7 movie channels commercial free.

To all who worked on,  “All My children” thank you for all you did to make my afternoons full, all these years. To Susan Lucci, I will miss Erica Kane, and the life you brought to her!

And to Agnes Nixon who developed “All My Children” thank you for all these wonderful years! Agnes wrote a poem at the beginning of All My Children”. I reads;

The Great and the Least,
The Rich and the Poor,
The Weak and the Strong,
In Sickness and in Health,
In Joy and Sorrow,
In Tragedy and Triumph,
You are ALL MY CHILDREN

Thursday Thirteen #64

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13 TV Shows That I Am Watching

1. House. Gotta love a guy who just plain doesn’t care what anyone thinks.
2. NCIS. It just gets better every year. Gibbs and Abby. All I can say is wonderful!
3. Two And A Half Men. I love that show. It ALWAYS makes me laugh!
4. How I Met Your Mother. This one cracks me up too. It’s got a wonderful cast.
5. The Big Bang Theory. This is new this year. It’s about 4 total Geek type guys who are so intelligent that they are handicapped by it. Their world gets turned upside down when a drop dead gorgeous woman moves in next door. Hilarious!
6. Law And Order SVU. There is just great acting on that show, along with good writing.
7. CSI, Las Vegas. I’ve watched from the beginning. Still love Grissom.
8. How Clean Is Your House? This is a British import with two cleaning women who are out to reform the slobs in England. They work miracles when they clean up these places, but sadly they sometimes have real slobs who just can’t change. Anyway, I love this show.
9. Desperate Housewives. I really should have this higher on my list because I do love it, but with the advent of the writers strike, they were the first ones shut down for lack of scripts.
10. The New Adventures Of Old Christine. This one took me a while to warm up to. After a while I really grew to enjoy this ensemble cast.
11. All My Children. Okay, this is my dirty little secret. I watch a soap. I’ve been watching All My Children since I was in High School. Gotta love Susan Lucci!
12. Regis & Kelly. I usually tune in long enough to hear their host chat and occasionally will watch (or listen) long enough to hear a good guest. How could I start my day with out Regis?
13. Reruns of All Creatures Great And Small. This is another British import from years ago. It was shot on location in the Yorkshire countryside, and the acting is superb!


What We Did On Sunday

It was a busy day here in Dackel Princess Land. As our cupboards were nearly bare, we needed to go grocery shopping. I also wanted to get paint for the puppy room and in the end I got Hubby a new lawn mower for Father’s Day which is next week.

It was a pretty day and nice for our trip south to the shopping area. As I have mentioned before, we live in the country and aside from one very high priced grocery store, there isn’t much around.

The shopping took a few hours and then we returned and drove the car up and around the side of the house so we could avoid the 14 steps up to the inside of our house. Fourteen steps! What a pain. But I have no one to blame for that one but myself, as I drew the plans for the house. In fact, I remember saying, “Oh that will be good. The stairs will keep my legs in shape”.

What an insane thing to think! How about the reality of grocery shopping and having to make a dozen trips up and down the stairs? Sheesh!

Anyway, we drove the station wagon around to the back of the house where it would be an easy job to unload the car.

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We worked putting the groceries away, and Jackie arrived to play with the puppies. I love when the kids come over, so I let the dogs out for a run with her and her friend, Cameron.

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Jackie

After a bit, the girls left and we let the pups run around the yard a little more. Hubby was putting his new lawn mower together and I was trying to get a few pictures.

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Hubby with his new mower
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Anneliese

It’s wonderful to see the puppies grow and play. They’re 6 months old now! So grown up. Arnie weighs a whopping 17 pounds and Anneliese is a lightweight at 14 pounds. One thing is for sure, they are both beautiful and sweet babies!

Sunday night is the “Soprano”s” finale. Will they kill Tony or not? Will Carm save Tony’s life, or AJ? Will they go into witness protection? One thing is for sure, it’s got the world talking!

This, That and Good-Bye To Two More Puppies

Today was my first physical therapy session. I’ve decided that I could never have knee replacement surgery, because I just do not do pain very well. Anyway, I lay there while the therapist gently worked on the MCL and we sort of talked the entire time. No big deal, right?

Wrong! Tonight I can hardly walk. It’s amazing how much this stupid thing hurts. Nope, no knee replacements ever, ever, ever.

Two of the puppies left us yesterday. Anita has gone to Poughkeepsie, and is doing really well. I got a letter today and pictures of her at her new home. She looks so happy and loved! That makes me so happy! They have decided to give her another name (no big deal, after all Greta’s real name is Xochil!), and she is now being called Gabby! Isn’t that adorable?

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Gabby (Anita) in her new home with her new friend, Rita.

Anja has gone as well. She is just down the road and I am hopeful we will see her from time to time. She is such a pretty girl and shows great promise for blood tracking of wounded animals.

Now we have Arnie and Anneliese. Of course Anneliese is staying, but Arnie is our little orphan. Things just did not work out with the people who had hoped to take him. You know how it is? Life happens. So my boy is up for grabs.

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Greta is doing better today, and we have had the puppies out to play with her a lot. She enjoys the rough and tumble play, but then looks forward to their naps as well.

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I caught Anneliese watching the TV today. I just knew this dog was supposed to be with me. She likes General Hospital! LOL!!!

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All in all, not a bad start to the week.

TV Night

Last night was a banner TV night for Hubby and me. I had taped “The Apprentice” on Monday, so we watched that from 7-8, then we watched “NCIS“, and then “House“. I love all three of those shows, and being able to watch them back to back, well, how good is that? Now some comments on those three shows.

On The Apprentice, I wasn’t very happy that Bryce got fired. I really felt that Lee should have gone. Now I understand that he was observing a religious holiday, (for the second time), and this is admirable. But come on people, this is business and in the real world you have to keep on keeping on even on religious holidays! His team needed him (again), and he was a non productive member (again). Even when he is there, he isn’t. He is dead weight. So I thought Lee should have gone. Of course that’s not PC so I wasn’t surprised that The Donald kept him on. I was sympathetic to Lenny. He was there, and he did try. So what if his ideas were crap! He was present and attempting to be a part of things. The two women also worked hard. So I can’t fault them either.
Hubby and I were torn about which jingle was the best. In the end, I think the decision was made because team “Gold Rush” got to their meeting so late. What is with these people? Haven’t they watched The Apprentice before? Don’t they know that everything takes three times longer to accomplish in New York City, even a simple 2 mile cab ride?
I have not picked out my favorite candidate yet. Maybe because no one really stands out. We shall see…

NCIS. Yes, I’ve heard that one character will die at the end of the season. I’m thinking it will be Jen (played by Lauren Holly). They have suddenly made her very friendly with Gibbs and if she were killed it would be very dramatic for his character. Last night’s episode was pretty good. It dealt with gangs. Quite interesting.

Lastly, House. Okay, last nights episode was a little weird and gross all at the same time. I will not go into great detail about the weird and grossness, but I will say that I like House sharing his bachelor pad with Wilson. They make a great “Odd Couple”. It adds a bit of levity to an otherwise tense show.

Now there is nothing I really watch on the tube until Sunday. Sad, really. I love to watch TV and I am a very loyal viewer. But nothing has been turning me on, so I spend a lot of time watching old movies, or just playing on the computer.

Yesterday afternoon I went in and got my hair colored. I had this strange thing happen with my hair. In the 5 weeks since Shubi died I got a white tuft of hair on the side of my head. Totally white! I feel better now that it is covered and the same color as the rest of my hair. I guess grief will do that to you.

Dirty Little Secrets

Okay. I have hidden this from you all for the longest time. But it is time to confess. I watch the soaps. Two of them. “All My Children” and “General Hospital”. If I can’t be there to actually watch them I have been known to tape them, or, (gasp) watch Soap Network on cable at night to catch up.
Anyone else want to confess with me?