Snickers and Smiles

I'm adding a new semi-regular feature to the blog this week, and I'm calling it Snickers and Smiles. This is where I'll add images, snippets, stories and other tidbits that I've  encountered during the week that made me either snicker or smile. You know, just something quick simple that doesn't involve too much thought or work may or may not bring a happy little warm (or sarcastic) fuzzy to your Saturday.

This first one was a no-brainer. I didn't watch the Royal Wedding. And while I do remember all too well being in high school and playing hooky so I could watch the wedding of Diana and Charles (um, who didn't?), I wasn't quite as into this wedding. All I managed to watch was the appearance of the newly married couple on the balcony at Buckingham Palace, and their not one but TWO royally married first kisses. I must admit, it was sugary sweet and it did make me smile.  But this animated gif I found online made me smile even more, so had to share it.

Whether Harry actually said that to William or not (I don't know), I think Diana would have gotten a giggle out of that gif too. :)

And if it didn't make you smile, well dammit, get the ice out of your veins already! How could that NOT make you smile? Ahem.

Have a good Saturday!

Hash Brown Casserole

Time to make it another Tasty Tuesday here at Tinalicous. This time it's Hash Brown Casserole, which I just made again for Easter dinner on Sunday. It was quite a hit, and really a nice side dish for the ham we had too.

Ingredients

• Large Package Frozen Hash Brown Potatoes


• 1 Pint Sour Cream


• 2 Small Cans Cream of Chicken Soup


• 1 Package (8oz) Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese


• 1/2 Cup Diced Onion (optional)


• Salt & Pepper, to taste


• Garlic Powder, to taste (I use about 1 TSP)

Directions

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Pour into 9x13 baking dish and cover with foil. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 15 minutes more.

And this is a really great side dish because it works for breakfast, brunch, or dinner. That's my kind of dish! And it feeds quite a few people too.

3 Eras of MJ Memes

Today's Michael Jackson meme day features MJ from 3 different eras: the 80's/Thriller era, the Dangerous era, and well, the older MJ era. Something for everyone.  And a couple of them feature some guest stars. ;)

Have a Michaelicious Monday!

6 Random Things

Not that I sit around pondering these kinds of things very often, nor do I have a true need for any sort of explanation, but I thought I'd just share a random list today of Things I Don't Understand.

1. Music on Websites and Blogs. This really confuses me, and it's freaking annoying to boot. The other day I was blog hopping, since I had work I didn't want to do nothing better to do, and I had about 15 different tabs open in my browser. And then all of a sudden music started playing. FROM 2 OF THEM! So there I was clicking on tab after tab after tab, trying to find the source of my irritation, so I could close the offending tabs.

I just don't understand people's desire to play music on their site. Do they think that we don't have our own music? Do they think we need to listen to their music in order to get something out of their website or blog? Or do they just enjoy irritating the crap out of surfing strangers and sending them on their merry way?

Newsflash to the music players of the world: if we want to listen to music, we will listen to our own! And um, if your goal is to drive people away from your website or blog the moment we arrive at it, well then, great job, and carry on.

2. The Hubs' Movie-Viewing Habits. I love my man to death, but seriously, he makes no sense sometimes. I will come into the living room and see him watching a movie on TV that we own on DVD. Now had I asked him to watch that on DVD, he would have sighed or let out an disapproving grunt. And yet he will watch it on TV. With commercials.  I truly don't understand that.

And on a side note, if he's channel surfing and comes across the Transformers movie, he will stop and watch it. Every. Single. Time. Even if it's half over.  Even if he just watched all or part of it three days prior. And um, hello? We own that DVD too. SMH

3. Parallel Parking. I mean, for real. Do I need to elaborate? But I will just say that I think parallel parking was invented by men. To torture women. And old people.

4. Why Women Squat in Public Bathrooms. The Squat. This vexes me. In theory, women squat to avoid sitting on someone else's urine on public toilets. But am I the only woman on the planet that realizes that the only reason urine gets on the toilet is BECAUSE YOU SQUAT?! Yes, girls, I believe that's what we call irony.

5. Why Bags of Chips are Only Half Full. Why can't they just make the bags smaller? Or here's an idea: put more chips in them! It's not rocket science, people.

6. Why People Ask, "How Are You?" Just think about it for a minute: when you ask someone that question, do you really, really want to know the answer? I mean, let's say someone is getting over the stomach flu and their dog ran away and their grandmother died and they're about to go into bankruptcy, do you really want to know that? No, of course you don't. You just want them to say, "I'm fine," and then go along about your day, completely oblivious to the inner turmoil they might be suffering at any given moment.

Which, if you think about it, is why Facebook is so successful. Someone can pour their heart out in their status, and you don't even have to reply. You can just "Like" their status. So, maybe instead of asking "how are you?" we should just Facebook each other face-to-face. One person can say, "Hello" and the other can just say, "Like" and thus bypass all the verbal feigned interest in one's personal well-being.

But Heaven forbid we let Facebook de-personalize the art of  one-on-one conversation, no?

Have a super Saturday, gang.

WTF Wednesday Moments

Well over the course of the last several days I have encountered several WTF moments almost worthy of sharing with you this week for WTF Wednesday.

It started with a toy we got our grandson on Friday evening at Wally World. It was a Paper Jamz guitar. Now if you don't know what that is, it's basically a guitar that's not a real guitar. I guess the theory is that it's made partially of paper, but that's kind of false advertising because it's comprised of far more plastic than it is paper. But I guess "Plastic Jamz" doesn't have quite the same eco-conscious ring to it so they kind of had to go with Paper Jamz to sound better. Or something.

Well the product packaging on that semi-paper guitar pissed me off to no end. I mean, WTF is it with product packaging anyway? Supposedly it is designed to prevent shoplifting, or at least make it a bit more challenging. But, um, hello? IT'S A GUITAR! I don't think too many people are cunningly crafty enough to get away with stealing something that is almost the same size as my 7-year-old grandson. But that doesn't seem to matter to the maker of this guitar. It was so completely locked into the plastic wrap, twisty-ties, and little plastic doo-dad-thingamajigs that it took me darn near 15 minutes to free it from its un-eco-concsious confines! And all the while I'm trying not to curse in front of my grandson, even though on the inside I was screaming at the top of my lungs...W.T.F?!

But oh well. The grandson was happy and quickly got lost in his I-am-a-would-be-rock-star-jamming-on-a-plastic-guitar-world, and that's all that really matters.

Then there was the trip to the movie theater with the grandson to see Hop. We go to a nice theater that is about 25 minutes away, simply because it's far more comfortable and much nicer than our local theater. But my primary gripe with them has to do with their Soft Pretzels. I love their pretzels. They're totally yummy! BUT, they put them on the world's most flimsy paper plates and then give you this plastic thing of cheese that has to sit on top of the pretzel on that flimsy paper plate.

So there I was trying to juggle two pretzel plates, a bag of popcorn, a large pop, and my purse, as we walked up the steps in the theater to find a seat. And because the plates are so flimsy, as we turned to go into an aisle, one of the cheese containers fell off of the flimsy, stinking plate and, you guessed it, the cheese sauce went airborne! So again came the internal WTF?! that is always necessary when the grandson is in tow. I mean, seriously, how hard would it be for them to invest in a paper plate that would actually support the food that's on it long enough to get from the snack bar to a seat without creating a flying cheese sauce panic in the process? Is that too much to ask? I think not.

And then tonight, it was my laptop causing me some serious techno-stress. My laptop is old, OK? Old enough to be an incredibly good paper weight, if nothing else. It's older than my PC...which is older than the Hubs' PC, which used to be mine. So we're talking extreme XP dinosaurs here, people. But we're just trying to squeeze every last ounce of life out of them, since buying 3 new computers isn't exactly gonna be cheap. And as much fun as it is to get a new computer (or two, or three!), we don't want to spend that money until we have to.

Anyhoots, my laptop, it seems strangely possessed at times. And sometimes I think it acts up just to mock me. And that's what it was doing to me tonight when I simply tried to open Paint Shop Pro, and My Documents at the same time. Apparently it didn't like that exact combination of tasks, so it kind of just hung there for a bit. Laughing at me. Then as it often does, it seems to get over its little masochistic hiccup and start working again--only to do the same thing a few minutes later.

Well, since I was just trying to edit one simple piece of digital art, which was what I was trying to open in My Documents but couldn't, I finally just got fed up. This laptop has been mocking me for months. I can only take so much. I'm only human, after all.  So, I looked that damn laptop dead in the monitor and literally screamed, WTF, YOU STUPID PIECE OF TECHNO-CRAP?!

And amazingly, just before I was seconds away from throwing it on the floor and stomping on it with all the pent-up stress and anger I could muster, it started working again. I guess it just wanted me to fight back. Or something.

Too Much Monkey Business

The title of this post makes me think of Elvis. That was actually a song title from one of his movies...no doubt one of the ones he was not too happy about making. But anyhoots, the title is appropriate for today's  WTF Wednesday post. Though, since the image speaks for itself (perhaps too much so), this could really also be a Semi-Wordless Wednesday post...if I wasn't rambling on like this, that is.

WTF?!

What's left to say really?

Happy HUMP Day does come to mind though.

Random MJ Memes Monday

I made some random Michael Jackson memes for today. Sometimes it's difficult to find a good theme for them. So today's theme is hopefully  just about being funny. Or at least worth a small giggle.

This first one is funnier if you know some back story. There's some old home movie footage of MJ and his brothers when they were young--I think it was in the 70's. They're visiting family and such in Indiana, I believe. And there's one shot of MJ talking about how he likes to shop at Goodwill...because they have really good stuff there. Something tells me he didn't shop at Goodwill much longer after he made that statement.

This next one is from when Michael was the half time show at the 1993 Super Bowl. And just as a bit of trivia, you may not know that Michael's performance that year marked the first time ever that the Super Bowl got increased viewers during the half time show. And yeah, MJ was known to enjoy him some KFC.

Michael loved animals, so it's likely the spider on his face belonged to him. But even if it didn't, I'm sure it didn't bother him at all to have it there.

Have a great Monday!

4 Things I'm Obsessed With

It's definitely time for a visit to My Obsessions for this week. So let's get right to it, shall we?

1. My New iPhone. Now I think I need to start off by saying that I've never had a "fancy" phone until I got this iPhone yesterday. I've always been a gimme-the-cheapest-thing-you've-got-but-looks-cute-kind-of-gal. As long as it works and isn't the size of a shoe, almost any cellphone would normally do. But after my studio was robbed a couple of weeks ago, which left me sans a stereo, and after then realizing that my cell phone contract was ready for an upgrade,  it wasn't too difficult to deduce [in my own smartass Sherlock sort of way] that an iPhone would be like killing two birds with one stone.

And so I begged asked the Hubs for an iPhone. And after a lot of little convincing, he caved generously offered to get me one. Yay! So now I am the proud owner of a brand new obsession iPhone. So I'm just a tad obsessed with it, since it's all bright shiny and new at the moment. Call me crazy, but it sort of makes me want to shout, "I'VE ARRIVED" at the top of my lungs. Is that weird?

And speaking of dead birds...

2. Pink Plastic Flamingos. Not because I have them. Nor because I want them. But because I simply don't understand them.  Why do people put those hideous things in their yards?  Who started this mad tradition of tacky plastic lawn decor? And more importantly...WHY?! Someone needs to put a stop it. What's say we hire a pack of pissed off plastic Gnomes to do the job for us, eh? Last I heard they hate the flamingos too. Let's face it: there's only so much lawn space to go around.

3. Robert Pattinson's Hair. [Now seriously, you didn't actually expect me to never mention RPattz in a post about My Obsessions, now did you?]  For real. His hair seems to have a life of its own most of the time. Not that I'm complaining. But it can be very distracting when I come across a photo of him. Sometimes I can't help but stare for far too long. This is probably something only girls can relate to. Twihard girls, to be exact. You feel me, don'tcha, girls?

4. Secrets. No, not the hush, don't tell kind of secrets. I'm talking about the song, Secrets, by One Republic. It's just a freaking awesome song is all. Take a listen...by watching the the video on YouTube, if you like. In HD even.

Secrets, by One Republic

This song was also in the Nicolas Cage flick, The Sorcerer's Apprentice. And since I have an ongoing obsession with Nic, that makes this song quite appropriate.

And what are YOU obsessed with this week?

Meat Department Madness at Wal Mart

OK, so I can't really post this without also exposing the sad and pathetic truth that I occasionally shop at Wally World. So I'll accept all the judgment this entails just to be able to share the madness with you that I encountered while shopping there recently.

The Hubs and I were were grocery shopping, and the grandson was along as well. That always makes for entertaining Shopping Misadventures right there. But things took a sharp turn into madness as we entered the Meat Department that fateful Friday evening. What we saw was simply shocking. Shameless. And seriously F'd up.

What was it, you ask? What got me so worked up in the Meat Department at Wally World that made me question not only their dress code, but also my faith in the future of America? Well, it looked a little something like this...

That's right, people. It was an employee of the Wal Mart Meat Department. Stocking meat. In  Saggy Pants. Boxer shorts laid bare for the entire population of Wally World to see.

Yeah, so this is what a former teacher such as myself would call a teachable moment, considering the 7-year-old grandson was along. So I turned to him, unashamedly pointed out the saggy pants offender (hereafter to be known as the SPO), and said, "See that young man over there? This is exactly how NOT to dress in public."

Dylan looked a tad mortified at what he saw, which made me feel rather proud. And then he just kind of giggled, as if he was genuinely embarrassed for the SPO. Which is a good sign, of course; at least it shows that Dylan not only understands what I was so irked about, it also shows he has compassion for others.

But I honestly had no compassion for that SPO at all. He is old enough to know that dressing like that in public is not only immature, demonstrating a total lack of self-respect, but also a lack of respect for his environment and everyone in it. I mean, his pants were down. His boxer-shorted-ass was hanging out. IN THE MEAT DEPARTMENT. Are there not Health Department codes put in place to protect the public from this kind of thing? And does this young man not have a supervisor or some other superior who should be making sure that he is dressed appropriately for food-handling?

Seriously. WTH?!

Would you want to buy your meat there, with employees who are dressed like that? I think not. Granted, if the employee looked like my favorite vampire, perhaps I'd be a little more forgiving.

Who am I kidding. Twlight be damned. Even seeing RPattz stocking meat at Wal Mart with saggy pants would piss me off! It's gross! (Though isn't it funny and yet predictable how I can work RPattz into a blog post about the Wal Mart Meat Department?)

I just have to end this by laughing a bit, thinking about Wal Mart's little blue vests that beckon...

Help US, Wal Mart? REALLY? You can't even help yourselves.