Have You Heard??

They've officially replaced Detective Elliott Stabler on Law & Order: SVU.  It is indeed a sad day.  Although, not as sad as I thought it would be.  They've signed Danny Pino for the replacement.  And, they've hired Kelli Giddish as Detective Olivia Benson's semi-replacement. 

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I don't mind Danny Pino.  I don't really know Kelli Giddish.  She certainly can't be as bad as Jennifer Love Hewitt (she was the rumored replacement).  

However, I was hoping that another of the front runners would get the role: Michael Raymond-James.

I loved him on True Blood (season 1).  In fact, he's one of the only reasons I watched the show (that and Eric -- ha!).  He was fantastic!  The best actor and the most likeable character (SPOILER ALERT -- and that's saying something since he was the murderer!).  

Anywho... not a complete loss.  I just hope that Pino can fill Meloni's shoes.  I doubt it.  But, we shall see!

My new phone...

Friday, Philip picked up his new phone.  The phone that he had been waiting on forever was finally released.  It is the HTC EVO 3D.  It's enormous and does everything imaginable -- including taking 3D photos and video.  He's in love.

Well, while we were out, I decided to pick up a new phone for myself (I was eligible for an upgrade).  I was a little hesitant.  I'm not big on change (especially when it comes to phones).  I was really fond of my previous phone, the LG Rumor 2.  It was a slider and I knew I didn't want anything other than the slider.  Like ever.  I love it.  I do too much texting for me to not have a slide out keyboard.  It's just a pain otherwise.  

Anyway, I went with the HTC EVO Shift.  It is absolutely amazing.  It does things that I had no idea a phone could do.  Seriously.  My phone has every app I could ever imagine.  I can play games or listen to the radio or watch movies or find constellations and planets (my personal favorite!) or go shopping or blog or a million other things!

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Unfortunately, the only things I'm having difficulty with are the texting and calling people.  You know, those things that a phone is actually used for.  As I mentioned, I'm not a fan of change.  And, though this phone is a slider, it doesn't have the numbers as separate keys and all of my symbols and punctuation marks are in different places.  It messes with my head.  I text without really thinking from memory.  Then when I read what I wrote, it doesn't make sense because EVERYTHING IS IN THE WRONG PLACE!  Meh.  I'll get used to it, I suppose.

And, calling is just weird on a touch screen.  When someone calls me, I fumble for the green button to answer, BUT IT'S NOT THERE!  I have to push accept on the screen.  And, if I'm playing with my phone when someone calls, I end up hanging up on them because I'm already pushing on the screen when they call in and I end up pushing the ignore button by accident!  Grrr... oh, well.  I'm sure I'll get used to that, too.

However, getting this amazing phone does make me wonder... what is wrong with this world that my phone can do pretty much anything, but we still don't have a cure for cancer?  Seriously people.  Maybe our priorities are a little out of whack.  Now, I'm going to go play Brick Breaker on my phone.  Good night.  ;)

Jackass

I'm sure that most of you have already heard of the death of Ryan Dunn of Jackass fame.  He and a friend of his died in a fiery crash after driving drunk.  

Hours after, Roger Ebert tweeted "Friends don't let jackasses drink and drive."  It's caused a lot of backlash.  People are saying that the tweet was insensitive.  

Maybe the tweet was insensitive.  I mean, two people did die and it is really sad.  However, I find it hard to be too sad for them.  They were driving drunk.  You're just asking for trouble.  I mean, he was going 110 miles per hour when they crashed.  

Ebert is right.  Don't be a jackass.  Everyone knows the dangers of drunk driving.  Just don't do it!  It's that simple.  

I am just glad that they managed not to harm anyone else when they crashed.  Too often, it's innocent drivers who pay the price for drunk drivers' mistakes.  

Don't get me wrong.  I am sad that the price for their mistake was their lives.  And, I hope so much that they died instantly and did not have to endure the fiery aftermath of their crash.  

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I just hope that this very famous drunk driving accident will show people that there really are consequences for stupidly driving while intoxicated.  

New anti-drunk driving slogan: Don't be a jackass.  Insensitive?  Probably.  But which is worse: being insensitive or being stupid?  

Black Hawk Adventures

Saturday, Philip and I drove up to the casinos at Black Hawk.  This was mostly so Philip could have all-you-can-eat crab legs from one of the buffets.  He's quite a piglet.

Anyway, we decided that we could each spend $20 gambling before going up to the buffet.  We've been a few times before and we've lost every time.  I was expecting to lose again this time.  

I avoided the slots.  They are the devil and I always lose.  I went straight for video poker.  I won the first round!  Sweet!  I'd never been up before (winning), so I savored the moment thinking that it wouldn't last.  Then, I kept winning.  I got up to $68 before I started losing again.  I stopped when I reached $60.  That was good enough for me!  

Unfortunately, Philip was losing.  He stopped when he got down to $15.  As we were walking up to the buffet, Philip decided to put $10 on black on the roulette table.  He lost.  He gave me his last $5 to play because I was the "lucky" one that day.  I played roulette until he was up to $25.  Then, I stopped.  He was up and I was up.  And, we'd made enough money for our dinner to be paid for.  

So, we had a delicious, free dinner and a lovely day of gambling.  ;)  And, I'm almost certain that I saw a big horn sheep on the mountain while we were driving home.  The day was definitely a win.  :)

My Pasta Making Experience

I had a bridal shower on June 12th while I was in Indiana.  It was wonderful.  We had a great time and I loved it.  I was surprised that I got a ton of really awesome gifts.

Once such gift was the pasta maker that I've wanted for quite some time now (Thanks, Kim!).  I couldn't bring most of the gifts back with me on the plane, so my mom shipped them to me.  I received the pasta maker on Friday but I had other plans.  

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Sunday afternoon, I decided it was time.  I got everything ready and made the dough.  Then I searched for the instructions.  Turns out, there aren't any.  Well, truthfully, there was a page of a few pictures telling me the basics of using the machine.  However, there are several attachments that all work differently and a bunch of different settings for how thick to roll the dough, etc.  

I thought, how hard could it be?  And, I tried to wing it.  Almost 3 hours later, I finally had something resembling spaghetti.  By the end of it, I was ready to throw that pasta maker across the room.  

And, you know what?  The pasta was good.  Philip loved it.  I have to admit, it is better than box spaghetti from the store.  However, after all the hell I went through to get it to work, I wanted it to be even better.  It should have been orgasmic for all the stress I endured to make it!  

Fortunately, I now know how to make spaghetti.  So, next time, it should not be nearly as stressful or time-consuming.  Philip is excited to try out the ravioli attachment.  Me, on the other hand, not so much.  I can just imagine how difficult that one will be!  Oh, well.  I am sure I'll figure that out with time, too.  

I hate flying

And not for the obvious reason (my fear of falling/heights).  That doesn't really bother me.  I don't actually notice that I'm up in the air much (unless there is a lot of turbulence).  What really bothers me is that none of my flights ever go according to plan.

I flew to Indiana early on Friday morning.  My flight into Chicago was delayed for an hour and then my flight into Fort Wayne was delayed by over an hour.  It was irritating, but I still managed to only be about an hour late getting into Fort Wayne.  The person next to me was quiet and I mostly just read my book while I waited.

I flew back to Colorado last night.  The flight to Chicago actually did go as planned.  We left just a few minutes late and arrived roughly on time.  The flight into Denver was another story.  

We actually arrived above Denver really early.  The pilot told us that we would circle Denver for a few minutes while waiting for an updated landing time.  Woo hoo!  Early landing!  Not so much.  We circled and circled for over half an hour.  By that point, we were later than we were originally supposed to land.  Still no one says anything to us.  However, I know what the problem is: an incredible lightning storm.  

It was terrifying to be circling above the city while watching bolts of lightning strike every few seconds around us.  The pilot told us we couldn't land because of the weather.  Well, eventually, we had to fly to Colorado Springs airport to re-fuel.  We sat on the tarmac for about an hour.  They wouldn't let us off the plane.  And I was sitting next to someone with some mental handicaps.  She was incredibly loud and would not stop talking.  

It was late, I hadn't slept a whole lot, I'd been up since early that morning, and I was irritated by the situation.  I actually daydreamed about strangling the woman next to me.  She was that annoying.  And I am really tolerant of annoying people! 

We finally took off and still the woman wouldn't shut up.  I tried to pretend that I was asleep but she still insisted on trying to talk to me.  Ugh!!!!!  We landed in Denver about 30-40 minutes later (I still don't know why it took so long!  It's only an hour to hour and a half drive from the Springs to Denver!).  

Anyway, I was at the back of the plane, so it took another 15 minutes to get off of the plane once we finally landed.  And then I had to take the train to the main terminal.  There was only one train running, so I had to go from terminal A, to B, to C, and then back to B, back to A, and then on to the main terminal for ground transportation.  

Finally, I got to see Philip's smiling face.  :)  I was so relieved to just be back in Denver!  By the time we got home, it was after 1:30am.  I was exhausted but I couldn't sleep right away because of all of the irritation!  So, needless to say, I am tired today!  

I really hope that our flights in September for the wedding and honeymoon go much more smoothly!  At least I had an awesome time in Indiana for the weekend!  :)

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Last week, as I was driving into work, I heard some terrible news on the radio.  

Christopher Meloni is leaving Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.  

How can that be??  For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge fan of Law & Order: SVU.  It's one of the very few shows that I keep up with on a weekly basis (that and Bones).  And, I've seen all of the episodes at least a half dozen times a piece.  I watch them to fall asleep.  I love them.  

I was actually kind of disappointed in the season that just ended (it was a little weird), but I still love the show.  And, there's no way that the show will be the same without Detective Elliot Stabler.  He's been there since the beginning.  He and Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) make the show.  There's no one who could replace him.  

I'm just so disappointed.

And, on top of that, Mariska Hargitay has said that she is probably on her way out, too.  

Costar Mariska Hargitay had already put one foot out the door, announcing she wants to downsize her role this season by only appearing in the first 13 of the show's 22 episodes. Jennifer Love Hewitt apparently will replace Hargitay's Detective Olivia Benson.

That cannot be right!  Jennifer Love Hewitt???  Noooooooooo!  It's going to be absolutely dreadful.  I will, of course, need some time to mourn the loss of my favorite show.  Even if the show doesn't get cancelled after next year (which I foresee), it will never be the same show that I love so much.  Farewell, my wonderful television friend.  I will miss you.  At least we'll always have re-runs.  :(