Is anyone watching Survivor: Gabon?

Here are my two favorite contestants:

Marcus, the doctor.

And Matty, the personal trainer.
And it is totally because of their strategy and personality...

Although, I've got some competition for Marcus. The token gay dude on the show has a major crush on him.

Desperate Housewives - Season Premiere

Spoiler alert!
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Ok. First, I just have to say, um WOW! A whole heck of a lot happened in this season premiere. For those of you who don't remember, at the end of the season finale last year, they jumped forward 5 years. We saw that a) Susan was no longer with Mike Delfino (boo!), b) Bree had some big career going, c) Gabbie had two daughters!! I really thought that was just a glimpse into the future to keep us all watching and wondering, but I honestly thought that we would have to wait 5 seasons to figure out how all those changes happened.

Turns out... We didn't!

This season started 5 years later. I've never seen a tv show jump 5 years like that! Lee thinks it is because all the actresses were looking too old for their parts. I don't really think they do... For whatever reason, it worked!

I spent most the show assuming that Mike was dead and mourning the death of one my fave characters. Turns out, he's alive! He & Susan are just divorced. Which, at least gives me hope that he'll still be on the show. Bree has a catering/cookbook company. Her daughter is married to a lawyer now and came back and took her son from her. Orson served time in jail. We don't know a whole lot about Lynnette except that her sons are now 16 and they are huge juvenile delinquents. Edie is back and she's married to a rage-a-holic (he's addicted to rage-ahol) and he seems to want to harm someone on Wisteria Lane. Gabbie has two daughters, one of which is an obese 4.5 year old.

All in all, I was pretty satisfied with the season premiere. It definitely caught me off guard! Hopefully it will be a good season!

Friday night at the Drive-in

Friday night Lee and I decided to go up to Valpo and go to the 49-er Drive-in Movie Theatre. They were showing a double feature of The House Bunny and Pineapple Express. I hadn't really wanted to see The House Bunny, but I had wanted to see Pineapple Express. The House Bunny actually did offer a few laughs. Pineapple Express was decent. The Drive-in theatre was awesome. They started out playing this song. At certain points in the song, everyone would honk their horns. It got faster & faster. Then, they made everyone stand for the National Anthem. Then they went through a whole history of drive-in theatres. Then, finally, the movies started. Lee and I also had burgers and cheese-fries for dinner. YUM! All in all, it was a fun Friday!!

Lauren's Country Song this Week

The song I love this week is "Sounds So Good" by Ashton Shepherd. The song is basically just talking about driving around in a pickup truck listening to country music with a cooler of beer in the back. Or maybe it's pop. But, I'm guessing it's beer.

'Cause there ain't nothin' like the sound
Of a cooler slushin' on the bed 'a yo' truck
And ain't nothin' like the sound of real country music
C'mon, turn it up

The end of an era...

Go to the site below to watch the RCA Dome in Indianapolis deflate. It's about as exciting as watching paint dry, but for some reason I'm still watching it. I remember attending many a High School Final Four basketball games at the Dome. Back before Indiana went to lame-o class basketball.

Watch the Dome deflate!

Fortunately, the Colts have a nice new stadium to play in now! (However it doesn't seem to be helping them play well...)

Mr. & Mrs. Phelan!!

Sean & Ali had a beautiful wedding in South Haven, MI this weekend. And of course, it was a fun crew to celebrate the occasion with! Here are some pics!

Ali, her dad & granddad walking down the aisle.

The newlyweds coming out of the church!

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Phelan!

I was nice and shared my date with Ploth. Our table nearly went up in flames when our number went up in flames! Before I even knew what was happening, Lee threw it on the ground and stomped it out (and managed to dodge catching my hair on fire). Here is a pic w/ the firestarter!

Cornhole in honor of the Neyer's who could not be at the wedding. Everytime someone made it, Ali & Sean would kiss. We had them making out there for awhile! We took some sunset pics.
Ploth eating the sun. They don't call him Jabba for nothing!
The Reuts!
The ladies!

Congratulations Sean & Ali! I wish you a lifetime of happiness!

HGTV in my bedroom!

So, I am totally obsessed with most shows on HGTV. I especially like the house flipping shows. It is amazing what they can do with some super ugly houses!

Lee has started remodeling out master bathroom and I feel like there is a HGTV show going on in our bedroom. I am taking a lot of pictures along the way.

This first picture is with only the mirror removed. I actually took the mirror down a couple months ago... And I may have broken part of it. Whoops. I got a pretty severe lecture about it from Lee though. Notice the lovely yellow tile on the walls, the awesome 70's shell sink, and the nice new tile that the previous owners put in on the floor. The new tile is nice, but it doesn't match the bathroom at all. And it is obvious that they just had some leftover tile after doing our other two baths and threw it in there.

The next pictures is after the sink & vanity had been taken out. Lee couldn't get the water to turn off, so he had to make his own clamp-off. Look at that hideous flooring that used to be in the bathroom. Eek!

The 3rd picture is Lee starting to take the tile off of our walls. The bathroom has a tiny stall shower, and the part behind the shower is boxed in and tiled. We always wondered what was in that box. Was it pipes? Or wasted space? Or buried treasure?

Turns out it was wasted space... That is good news for us fitting in a bigger shower. But, seriously, what were they thinking? Why didn't they put in a closet or something there??

Anyway, I am very pumped to be making progress on the bathroom. Although it just looks like we're trashing it at this point. Oh, and an extra bonus, our trashman picked up all the junk we put out at the curb including our sink & vanity! Lee wants to leave him a 6-pack of beer next time as a thank-you!

For a second there...

I thought Clint had started doing the advertising for Grape Nuts. Their new slogan, "It is what it is," is one of Clint's favorite sayings.

But, then I saw this ad...
Definitely not the work of Clint!!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today is our 2 year anniversary. In some ways, it seems like it has been much longer. Probably because Lee & I have known each other for 13 years. At the same time, it seems like the 2 years has flown by. This could have something to do with the fact that we only got to spend 1/2 of the time together because of the Navy!

I look forward to many more anniversaries to come! (I told Lee that he has to at least live until we make it to our 50th anniversary!!)

Worst... Commute... Ever!

I thought that my day was going to be a good one when it started. When I got my Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich out of the freezer, it had an extra piece of sausage! That has to be a sign of a good day starting! But then... The commute started!

Apparently almost every road in NW Indiana is closed right now due to flooding. This includes 80/94 and I-65. I did see a lot of standing water during my drive and the rivers & streams are all almost touching the bottom of the bridges. It is pretty crazy!

Here is a rundown of my commute this morning:

5:45am - Leave my house. Head to I-65.
5:55am - Hmmm. The ramp to I-65 North is closed. WTF? I pull a U-turn and head back to 231 North.
6:10am - Get up to SR2. I hit a stop sign and every direction except for the one I came from is closed. Not good. I drive past one of the signs.
6:15am - There's a truck blocking the road. I guess they mean business. Otherwise I would totally be one of those people that tries to cross the high water and gets swept away in their car. I ask the dude standing there if there is anyway to get to Chicago. He tells me to take a detour over to 41 North.
6:30am - I decide to take 55 North to Crown Point.
6:50am - 55 is treating me well. I'll continue on until Merrillville.
7:05am - Get to Merrillville. Take 30 West. At this point, I am planning to take 30 over to 394 North.
7:10am - Radio says that people are getting directed onto 394 South. Ruh Roh.
7:15am - Decide to take 41 north.
7:16am - 8am - STANDSTILL TRAFFIC ON 41 NORTH. Apparently since all the roads in Indiana are closed, everyone has to take either 90 West or 41 North into the city. Not good.
8:03am - Get to the exit for 80/94 West. It appears to be open... I'm going for it!!
8:05am - WOW. There is no one on this road. It is kind of creepy. I'm flying! I see a sign that says 45 minutes to get to the Loop. Ugh!
8:20am - We hit the traffic from 90 West. Ouch.
8:45 - Finally, I get to the parking lot.
9am - I'm at my desk. And it only took me 3.25 hours to get here. OUCH!

I am praying that the trip home is not this bad!!!

Update: The ride home was WORSE. I left work at 5:15 and didn't get home until 8:45pm. Worst day ever! If the roads aren't open Thursday, there is no way I'm going in to the office.