May 15, 2009

There's so much going on in TV-land this week!  American Idol is down to the top two finalists now (sorry, Danny, I didn't vote), Dancing with the Stars is down to the top three couples, Gray's Anatomy had their season finale episode last night, and The Biggest Loser wrapped up this week. Those are the big ones I know about and I'm sure there are lots of others.  But do I care about any of these shows?  Nope.  All I care about is one thing…Lost!  Wednesday night's episode is the last one that I'll see before the final season starts.  I think I'm mourning it already.  Lost is the one show I faithfully watch without fail.  I'll watch Idol and enjoy it, but it's no biggie if I miss it.  Do I miss a minute of Lost?  Oh, hell, no!

So what happened Wednesday night?  What didn't happen!  These are the notes I scribbled down to talk about with my fellow “Losties”:

• So Jacob met young Kate stealing?  And young Sawyer at his parents' funeral?  And Sayid when Nadia died?  And Alanna in bandages? And John Locke after he flew out the window?  And Sun and Jin at their wedding?  And Jack at the hospital?  And Hurley outside the prison?   And he was speaking all those languages?  And flying around in time?  What the heck does it MEAN??

• What's in the guitar case Jacob left in the cab with Hurley?

• How long had Jacob been living at the giant statue?  Why is there only an ankle and a foot left?  How did Jacob get there?  Who was the other guy who wanted to kill him?

• Is Jacob really dead?  How could he let Ben kill him?  Surely he knew it was coming!

• What's the deal with Jacob being so kind and caring?  Didn't we think he'd be monster-ish?  He was downright nice!

• Why did the other plane survivors, led by Alanna, turn weird?  Or maybe they were always weird and we're just now seeing it.  What does it mean that they think Lapidus is a candidate?

• We were all digging the new confident John Locke, right?  But now we have a question.  WHO IS THE NEW LOCKE??  Did the dude looking for a loophole just assume John's identity?  What??

• Hasn't Jack changed a TON since getting back to the island?  First, he's Mr. Philosophical Man…it's our destiny, the island wants this or that, blabbedy blah.  Second, he's Mr. Gun-Toting Man.  Have we ever seen him shoot anyone?  I can't recall it if we have, but he was shooting anything that moved this week, like he'd just channeled Dirty Harry.  And, thirdly, now he's Mr. Fight Club?  He and Sawyer have definitely been building up to the Mother of All Fights for years, but this was a bloody doozie!  What would have happened if they'd been allowed to fight to the death?

• On a lighter note, what was the point of finding Bernard and Rose playing house in the jungle?  I was kind of hoping we'd seen the last of wimpy Bernard.  But it was nice to see that dear old Vincent was still a survivor.

• Once the nuke had been tossed into the hole, why were these people all standing around the drill site pickin' their dirty noses??  Wouldn't you run like heck?  I would.  But that's just me.

• Ok, as much as I loved this last episode, there's one thing I'm just not buying, and that's the whole mind-changing thing going on with the girls.  Juliet is so convinced – by her nemesis Kate, no less – of the wrongness of Jack's bomb plan that she gives up her last chance to get off the island, while she's in the ding dang sub, for cryin' out loud?  But 5 minutes later, she's changed her mind?  Huh?  And increasingly-annoying Kate is on her self-righteous white horse to stop Jack from making this mortal error, but five minutes later, she's changed her mind too??  What?  I get it…a woman's prerogative is to change her mind, but I didn't buy it this time.  Sorry, it seemed contrived to me.

• So we think we've seen the last of Juliet.  Finally!  Whew!  Isn't it ironic that she's been so periodically untrustworthy and generally irritating, and now she may actually turn out to be a martyr and secret hero for cussing out the bomb and bashing it with a rock?  That is, if the bomb plan worked…once it blew, did it work?

Those are my thoughts, although I should say those are my questions.  Isn't that what we love about Lost though?  That as much as we learn, we always have more questions and we can never predict what will happen?  Oh, and there's one more thing that I love about Lost.

Did you think I could leave Lost til next season without a little more deliciosity to get us through these long, cold, lonely months?  Oh, hell, no!

~BigSis

May 8, 2009

Anyone addicted to Facebook? Have trouble focusing at work because you're tempted to look at your Reader ten times a day? Or maybe a particular website you can't stay away from?

Now, be honest!

I'll go first.

I did recently sign up on Facebook after much persuasion from relatives, but I purposely do not look at it every day nor spend much time on it at all. I can see how it could be addicting and time consuming if you let it.

I haven't joined the Twitter craze and probably won't any time soon. Since we are in the cell phone business, I really have no desire to be on my cell phone twittering when I'm away from the office. (Oh, but I guess congrats are in order to Ashton Kutcher for being the first to have a million followers.)

I do, however, have one little confession. I'm a tad bit obsessed with my Google Reader.  I check it every morning in anticipation of finding great new posts from my favorite sites!  Also, during the day, after I complete a task or a big project, I'll give myself a little treat and allow myself to look at my Reader again to see if there is anything new that came in since the morning. And maybe during lunch, after work, before bed and in the middle of the night (just kidding).

If you think you might need a little help disciplining yourself, then check this out. I recently discovered this little tool on this Daily Blog Tips post.

It's really a pretty good idea. Go to keepmeout.com and enter the url of any website that you visit too often.  If you try to access the site more than once within a specific time interval,  the service will block you and remind that you should wait some time before you can go there again.

You know what they say…the first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem. So here goes.

My name is LilSis and I am an addict. I'm addicted to my Google Reader.

~LilSis

May 6, 2009

Who's in da damn house?  BigSis and LilSis are in da damn house, dat's who!  We have the awesome opportunity to guest blog over at our friends'  house today, so come over and check us out at Where's My Damn Answer!  See you back here tomorrow!

~LilSis

April 19, 2009

Hi all!  We hope you're having a most excellent weekend, as we are.  We spent the whole day at the boat yesterday, celebrating LilSis' birthday.

We're headed back out this morning, since we FINALLY have a beach day…the first day it's been warm enough for the beach the whole week we've been here!  So guess what?  There'll be no thoughtful blogging or product reviews or recipes made today!

We're starting a week long series about eye products tomorrow though so stay tuned.  Have a great Sunday!

~BigSis

April 17, 2009

The weather has been cool, windy and cloudy here in southern California this week, so we've gotten a lot of our technical work done indoors.  We won't bore you with the details, but we did make a lot of progress and we're pretty ding dang proud of ourselves!

After all that mental exertion, we're taking the weekend off for some R&R and sister time.  Our plan for the warmer sunnier weekend is beaching, boating and boozing book-reading!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

TGIF you all!  Saturday is LilSis' birthday, so we'll be celebrating it in some funtastic way with SirHoney, Big T, Hay Hay and SisMama.  We'll see you back here on Sunday!  Have a great weekend!

~BigSis

April 16, 2009

We hope you've all had a chance to check out the Potato Ho Down by now!  If not, wander over to dlynz.com to see all of the great spud dishes.  We had a ton of fun putting together our Pink Potatotini!

While BigSis and LilSis have been in the same town and same house this week, we've had a chance to work on our blog a little bit, and are working on some enhancements.  Nothing too fancy, since neither of us are techies, just a little tweak here and there.

• You'll notice that you can now subscribe to the comments on a particular post, which is something we really like being able to do.

• We've also changed how we show our book list.  Instead of a list of our favorites, we'll be posting a link to the book we're currently reading (or cooking or baking from) in our left sidebar.  That featured book will change from time to time.

• All of our recipes will soon be on a separate page that you can access from the top Navigation Bar.

We have some other things in the works, so keep your eyeballs peeled for those, and let us know if you like the changes (or not!).

~BigSis

April 5, 2009

Last weekend I brought my camera on one of my long walks, and recorded some signs of spring that we've just now started to see.  Hallelujah!  We've had a wacky winter, even by Texas standards.  There have been a few nice surprising 80 degree days, but followed by literally 20 degree days overnight.  That's happened several times over the winter, and it surely has to confuse our plant life.  Thankfully, winter is behind us now and we're in the midst of early spring…

Spunky the Squirrel says "Welcome to Spring!"

First Azalea

First weed among new green grass, breaking through winter's dead grass

Beautiful white Indian Hawthorne blooms

Hydrangea, perhaps?

Red Tip Photinia preparing to bloom...so stinky! A-a-a-chooo!!

One little white bloom snuck under the wall to shine on his own

First green shoots that will soon enrobe this tree

Pink Cherry Blossom blooms against a blue sky

Pink against a backdrop of green

More pink...

...and more pink!

Wherever you are, I hope spring will be finding you soon!

~BigSis

April 3, 2009

A Modest Pear from Bent Objects

Have you seen this clever – dare I say, brilliant – site?  It's called Bent Objects and I've never seen anything like it.

Carrots from Bent Objects

I have so much admiration for the kind of creativity it takes to look at a common household object or a piece of produce, and imagine what it could be.  I guess the thing that impresses me so much is that these pieces have SO much personality, and you can almost imagine what they're thinking or saying.

I found out that a book is coming out soon from the creative mind behind this work, Terry Border.  It's called Bent Objects: The Secret Life of Everyday Things and you can preorder it Amazon.  I think this would make an excellent gift for the person who has everything, and as a coffee table book for yourself.  Get one, and be inspired to see things in a fresh new way!

~BigSis

March 24, 2009

Need a good laugh?

I was reading the ladies over at Where's My Damn Answer the other day and their guest post was done by Jenny on the Spot. I love her blog and am very glad to have come across it! While reading through some of her recent posts, I came across this YouTube video.

I might think this is so funny because I've lived with so much testosterone in my house for way too many years! The male humor might have rubbed off on me a bit. (You'll know what I mean after you watch the video.)

And, check this one out! Be patient for at least a minute until she starts the facial exercises…It's hilarious!

Okay, your turn…let's all make the ‘ugly face' together. No double chin for us!

~LilSis

March 20, 2009

Today is officially the first day of Spring. I love Spring! I love all the blooming flowers and the smell of the air. Also, Spring means that Summer, my favorite season, is right around the corner.

I know in some parts of the country, Spring is a time for thawing out, seeing those first signs of green again, and saying goodbye to the winter blues! I spent three winters in Upstate New York, so I can relate. Now, we're blessed to live in a part of the country where we don't have to worry about snow, ice, and sub-zero temperatures.

In honor of the first day of Spring, I couldn't decide what I wanted to talk about here today. I was thinking it might be nice to make a big green Spring Salad or maybe grill some Spring vegetables for dinner, or talk about Spring cleaning tips. None of those really got me too excited.

I must already have Spring Fever because all I could think about was being outside today after sitting at a computer all week. So, while outside, I thought it might be fun to share some photos with you.

Here in Southern California, you can smell Spring in the air! At this time of year, the jasmine are blooming and the air smells like a bouquet of fresh flowers. It's amazing how fragrant these are for being such small flowers!

We have a lot of jasmine in our backyard and they grow in these massive beautiful blankets.

While enjoying the flowers, I thought that this might be a good time to introduce you to Iris. She's my little wood nymph and my latest garden sculpture. She lives right here in the same flower bed with the jasmine.

Instead of Spring cleaning inside, I need to do some Spring cleaning out in the garden. I had to take a picture of the ivy growing on Iris before I cut it back. I love how it looks, but it will get out of control if I don't take care of it now.

I wish that I could take a Mental Health Day today and just work in the garden for the entire day. I guess I should be responsible and maybe just take a half day!

I hope this first day of Spring brings sunshine and happiness to everyone!

~LilSis