Hilary Duff : Labor Day Weekend Madness!

Hilary Duff and pro-hockey-player boyfriend Mike Comrie party at a pal’s house in Malibu, California on Saturday.

Pink was also at the same par-tay celebrating Labor Day Weekend.

The 20-year-old Stay Cool actress toted around the Valentino “Maison Studded” Bag in purple suede. The soft amethyst (purple) leather version has been worn by socialite/desginer Nicky Hilton and on Gossip Girl’s Jenny Humphrey (Taylor Momsen).

On Thursday, Hil’s dad was to spend 10 days in jail for violating an injunction against selling assets without court approval.

Kate Moss Sexiest Lingerie Model Ever

The British beauty topped the poll by a luxury underwear brand that listed the top 10 most attractive women who have modelled for them.

Explaining why Kate Moss, 34, had topped the list, the survey said: "In the four films starring Kate, we are given dream sequences that invite us to imagine how we might fulfill her desires.

"The dreams are beautifully crafted fantasies, each with an eerie atmosphere that brings us into a serene la-la land where we feel free to imagine pleasing Kate."

Singer Kylie Minogue, 40, took second place in the poll, while burlesque dancer Dita von Teese, 35, bagged third spot.

Kylie was praised for a promotional piece she shot which sees her riding an electric horse.

The survey noted: "The camera closes in on her bulging behind as it rides up and down and shakes from side to side."

Dita won the third spot thanks to her ability to "tease out men's deepest fantasies through the power of suggestion".

The Top 10 lingerie models are:
1. Kate Moss,
2. Kylie Minogue,
3. Dita von Teese,
4. Alice Dellal,
5. Lily Cole,
6. Catherine Bailey,
7. Daisy Lowe,
8. Maggie Gyllenhaal,
9. Tiah Eckhardt,
10. Vahina Giocante.

Winning this survey is another big compliment for her, after Marc Quinn described Moss as "the ideal beauty of the moment".

The Artist made a £2.8m solid gold sculpture of Kate Moss as part of a British Museum exhibition. Entitled Siren, the 50kg statue is said to be the largest gold statue to be created since the era of Ancient Egypt.

-- athletes in compromising positions

Ha! Check out these pix of athletes in compromising positions, from Sornie.

-- new goal in life: get paid to lounge

I can't believe this. I just found out that NASA is running a study on how bedrest affects the human body and is paying people $17,000 to lay in bed for 90 days. My perfect job!!

• See article in Wired mag


• The Pillow Astronaut's blog

-- YES! I am #774,099!!

Intrigued by Hautepocket's Technorati post, I popped over to see what the buzz was about, learning that my blog is ranked at #774,099. YES! Way to go, self! Nothing like having 774,098 people in front of you with way cooler and more interesting blogs. Maybe I need some porn.

-- another Garfield cartoon

-- it's called "hunger"

Me, every day:
Speaking of Garfield, have you seen the parody of strips without Garfield, which make Jon look like an absolute nut?

"Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb."

Jennifer Aniston Gets Revenge

Revenge is sweet and Jennifer Aniston just may be plotting hers!

According to OK! magazine’s latest cover, Jen is said to done with John Mayer and finally over her obsession with Brad Pitt.

Will tabloids finally side with Jen? Are the “Poor Jen” stories coming to an end?? Just maybe???

The 39-year-old actress arriving at West Hollywood’s Madeo restaurant on Tuesday for dinner. Aniston reportedly dined with director Woody Allen.

OK!’s cover image is from this set of photos, with Jen wearing the boyfriend jeans.

Kerry Katona to Get Her Boob Job Filmed

Pop singer Kerry Katona will get her boob job filmed for a reality show.

The 27-year-old singer's operation will be filmed for the MTV reality show Whole Again. Katona also said that she wouldn't be having any more plastic surgery, just the boob reduction.

"They have just got a bit out of control. I want to go to a DD. I'll stop there," the Mirror quoted her as saying.

Meanwhile, the former Atomic Kitten' group member claims that she's not bankrupt, even though she was declared so by London's High Court last week. She insists that the order is set to be annulled this week as the money is available, but just hadn't cleared in time for the deadline set by the authorities.

Katona had managed to reduce her 417,000 pounds tax bill to 82,000 pounds, but HM Revenue and Customs pressed ahead with the bankruptcy petition, which was first issued in January.

"Obviously I'm upset about it but it shouldn't have happened. I've been promised that it will be sorted out this week," she told Star magazine.

Katona also dismissed claims that her taxi driver husband Mark Croft was simply with her to sponge off her wealth.

"What's wrong with a woman being the main breadwinner? It's sexism. People have got it in their heads that he's bleeding me dry and just after my money," she said.

-- nothing exciting. Haircut, and Pinky the cat.

Getting ready to cut Dan's hair. He wouldn't let me take a picture of it half-done. (I wanted to create an imaginary line down his face with one half nice and trim and the other overgrown but imagine that, he declined to model for y'all!) So here he is with kitty instead, just before she turned into Pinky:Pinky the cat.

-- facebeg!

If you're on Facebook, you'll love this.

-- hypothetically speaking, that is

I'm standing here in the bedroom trying on hand-me-downs from my sis when Dan yells up the stairs.

him: "Hey! What would happen if I gave the dog a bath?"

me: "You mean right now?"

him: "Yeah."

me: "um, it would mean he would be clean?"

I know what Dan's getting at though. Bathing our 65lb spaz (and I mean that in the most affectionate way possible) is an enormous undertaking normally suitable for two+ persons, especially as the bathroom requires a complete 1-hour scrubdown afterwards. His "what do you think would happen" question was code for "if I bathe him, will you clean up?"

This is what sharing domestic chores does; you learn to read between the lines....

-- FREE camera lens giveaway (Nikon 85mm f 1.8 )

Kyle Cassidy is giving away a camera lens to the right person. Pop by and see about "applying" for it. Spread the word, yo. Starving art students everywhere should all be informed.

-- carrot cake recipe

From isweatbutter. You have to see how he decorated it!

How awesome would it be to have someone make a cake just because they feel like it. Homemade cakes are usually sacred, withheld from sampling until some event torturously long in the future. I think I'm going to have to try his recipe.

-- I am the queen of suck

I suck at being a guest at a surprise party. I don't mean to, it's just that I always seem to be arriving just as the patron of honor is pulling up.

Yesterday I drove to NJ for a bridal shower and was running late. It's nearly impossible for me to properly gauge traffic delays on 95. It normally takes four hours but snarls of congestion (and associated bad traffic manners) crop up and threaten to activate my road rage gene; for some reason the traffic was more insane than usual. Maybe it was summer vacationers or maybe Neptune was in my 7th house of chaos but whatever it was, it screwed me. Even though I left at 8:30am and didn't leave the car once, I was still a half hour late when I got to town.

I didn't think much of it until I was almost there. Suddenly it dawned on me that there may have been a start time for a reason.

I called my dad (since the party was for his sis). "Is this supposed to be a surprise party?"

Yes, actually, it was. And my aunt was due to arrive any minute.

Enter plan B. Since I couldn't drive up to the house, how about I park at the elementary school behind their yard and sneak in through the back? That way I wouldn't ruin the party by waltzing in with a gift just as she was arriving. Brilliant!Woodmere School, Eatontown, NJ: where I went 3-6th grade.

The only thing was, I'd only been here once before and I forgot what the house looked like from behind. I found myself standing in the woods squinting at three similar houses. Was it the one with the woodpile? Or the deck? I squinted and strained for several minutes before suddenly realizing I'd captured the attention of each household.

Silhouettes formed in the windows of each of the three houses to stare uncomfortably at me, the agitated female (obviously not a schoolgirl) with wild wind-blown hair and a heavy bag pacing about in the woods, gesticulating wildly on a cell phone.

Ravaged by swarms of mosquitoes and dripping with sweat, I suddenly saw the scene unfold in my mind: cops would arrive and arrest my ass.

Yes, what a perfect way to make that discrete entry.

I didn't think the Target gift card would be acceptable as bail so I hightailed it back to the car and sat, annoyed, starving, itchy, and urgent for the next 45 minutes, waiting to hear if the coast was clear.

No one called. Through some kind of dark "Can you hear me now?" cell phone comedy, my dad couldn't reach me. Eventually, my bladder talked me into risking ruining the party and I headed over to the house, unsure and irritated at myself.Turns out my aunt was already there. So I didn't ruin the party. But it was another near miss for my scoresheet.

At least I arrived in time to see the "panty pantry" where gifts of new and exotic undies were passed around for all to see.

Comments were funny:

"Which way does this go?"

"This looks like a curtain tie-back!"

A note about the chocolate pasties. I don't think you need to make your "girls" any more enticing by adding chocolate (especially as most guys I know aren't chocoholics). They probably do alright by themselves!

-- summary of week

Tuesday night I only got 3 hours of sleep. Wednesday I was coming home late when Dan called me from the side of the road, desperately trying to save a possum that someone else hit, so we were up late with that too. Have been exhausted; that's why I've been offline.

Poor possum. Dan wrote more about it here.

-- I am despondent

I am feeling moody. I'll be ok. But until then, these comfort me:

“Until this moment, I never understood how hard it was to lose something you never had.” ~unknown

“Sorrow happens, hardship happens, the hell with it, who never knew the price of happiness, will not be happy” ~Yevgeny Yevtushenko

“Sorrows cannot all be explained away in a life truly lived, grief and loss accumulate like possessions.” ~Stefan Kanfer

"Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it." ~Talmud

Traveling to NJ this weekend to visit family. I'm not looking forward to getting up so early to hit the road but will be nice to see everyone. I'll keep you posted.

-- foodshopping, cleaning frenzy, and Kyle & Trillian

Kyle & Trillian stopped by tonight on their way to DC for an interview tomorrow with National Geographic Explorer about Kyle's bookArmed America.

I ran out to buy food since I realized I need to have more than a 17-month old box of raisins on hand. (Kimmers, I need your cupcakes right about now!)

I wish I'd taken a before picture of the spare room to document its transformation from the junk room to guest facility. The room's about as big as the bed (which is a pullout trundle morphed here into a king) -- no room on either side but maybe a foot at the end of the bed. If you sleep over, this is where you'll stay. But I promise, the sheets are soft, clean and comfie!Update: It's now 2:22am and Kyle, Trillian and Dan are shooting photos for one of Kyle's current projects. Way cool. When he mentions it on his blog, I'll link to it.

Miley Cyrus Visits The DIsney Office

Miley Cyrus flashes her ever-present peace sign as she visits the Disney offices to talk business in Los Angeles on Monday.

The DVD release of Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert: The 3-D Movie drops on Tuesday and the 15-year-old entertainer was most likely discussing promotions for the release.

Miley has been taking some downtime with her family after a few weeks of hard work. She was left seen on Sunday riding a bike with her family!

-- People with that brain-eating virus should really just take a sick day (from the Onion)

I am laughing so hard I am crying:

"And those annoying exploding pustules that shoot green mucus across the room-yuck! Jerry was in the kitchen with me when those sores decided to go off, and one landed right in my salad! I had to throw it out! I'm still a little peeved at him, even after he drowned himself in a mop bucket to stop the pain."

People With That Brain-Eating Virus Should Really Just Take A Sick Day (from The Onion)

-- living up to your potential is BS (by Penelope Trunk)

I love Penelope Trunk -- her advice is so straightforward and honest. Her latest column, "Living up to your potential is BS" was great, had to share.

-- the bed of pain is gone!

So, if you've been following along (or happen to sit next to me at work), you've heard me b*$tching about the downstairs remodeling work going on now for over a year. It started with the kitchen and morphed into a "as long as we're doing that, why don't we just rip the house down and start over?" kind of project.

Then, in a sadistic move to further dismantle the last known places of comfort and order in the house, I sold my cheap, ugly desk and our bed of pain before their replacements were here. I paid bills on the floor for 4 months. Today I finally assembled a replacement cabinet and tomorrow the new mattress arrives.
Dan hauling the mattress of pain downstairs in a final act of labor. The new bed does not have to be flipped, rotated, skewed or plumped like those in mattress past.

Sita helps me assemble the new (cheap and ugly, but smaller and more space efficient) cabinet.

The final product! I realize this is not quite magazine material but somehow it feels like an accomplishment anyway.

-- long day

Just got back from a whirlwind 7 hour roundtrip visit to PA & NJ to see Dan's family. Awesome awesome day, and now I am going to go collapse.

Geri Halliwell Strips for Bikini Shoot

Spice Girls star Geri Halliwell has bared her stunning body for a sexy photo shoot in seven years, insisting that she’s finally comfortable with her body.

Throughout her career, the 36-year-old has battled eating disorders, but is adamant that she is now fit and well after giving birth to her daughter Bluebell in 2006. In a new spread for British magazine Hello! the star is seen proudly showing off her curves in a tiny white swimming costume.

"People think I'm really confident but I do get self-conscious like many women about stripping off in public,” Contactmusic quoted her, as saying.

"I haven't been willingly photographed in a bikini for seven years - and I don't think I'll do it again. “At the moment I'm a bit curvier having done the tour so it was a big step forward for me to show my natural self rather than my worked-out honed self,” she added.

The singer admits that living with her demons is a constant battle but insists she is now happy with her healthy eating regime.

She added, "I did strive to have my most perfect body and in moments when I lack confidence that voice is always there waiting to tell me 'You are not good enough do better' but I'm more conscious of it.”

-- coworker celebrates last day

I know this is a boring title, but I'm trying to preserve anonymity for my buddies. Here we are, celebrating his last day. All y'all that vote for me getting a new camera, say aye. These crappy cell camera pix just do not work!
This was in the women's bathroom of the bar we were in. It reads: "At least he stopped talking to you" and shows a guy face down in the john throwing up. ha! I mean, not that I wish that on anyone, and I have no idea what they were advertising but they get points for art location: inner stall door.

-- (cartoon) Don't fall asleep at work!

Cracked me up:
"How long was I asleep?"
"Long enough for your nosehairs to become celebrities on YouTube."
!

Lisa Marie Presley's twin claim

Lisa Marie Presley is having a twin son and daughter, it has been claimed.

The singer - who revealed earlier this month she is expecting twins with musician husband Michael Lockwood - will reportedly welcome a boy and girl into the world later this year, according to the New York Daily News newspaper.

Lisa Marie, the daughter of world famous singer Elvis Presley, is intending to pay tribute to her late father by naming her new son Jesse - after Elvis' identical twin who was stillborn.

A source close to the star also revealed she will name her daughter Gladys Love after Elvis' mother.

Lisa Marie already has two children - daughter Riley, 19, and son Benjamin, 15 - from her previous marriage to musician Danny Keough.

The 40-year-old singer was previously married to singer Michael Jackson and actor Nicholas Cage.

-- um, I think they meant "pump"

-- I am mortified.

So I work with a guy who's name I just can't remember. Despite being introduced to him several times by other people and running into him in the hall, I somehow associate him with the name "Mark" because he reminds me of an old coworker I really liked a while back.

Anyway one day I see him in the hall and I sing out, "Hi Mark!" and he says, "I don't know why you're always calling me Mark." I apologized profusely, saying that he reminded me of someone else. He told me his name then, but I was so horrified by always forgetting it that I somehow didn't hear him.

The next time I ran into him, I was with someone else who talked to him for a bit. I kept trying to look at his badge but it was at an odd angle I couldn't catch without being really obvious. Afterwards I asked someone else for his name but for some reason still couldn't remember it.

So this morning I ran into him and greeted him with a good morning. He pointed at me, smiled and playfully asked, "so what's my name?" and I said, "uh.... Ian?" (I do not know WHY I thought it was Ian. All I knew was that it *wasn't* Mark. Where "Ian" came from I do not know!)

He looked crestfallen, like maybe I would finally have gotten it right. "no," he said disapointedly, "it's Steve*."

I wanted to slit my throat.

Then I ran into someone else and told them about this whole embarrassing experience. She said, "I keep thinking his name is Robert! I even typed it in on something and he said, "Why do you keep calling me Robert?"

The poor guy! No one can remember his name. We are so sugared out at work from the constant barrage of sweets that we've turned into a group of lobotomized automatons incapable of remembering anything but calorie count.

I felt so bad thinking about how horribly I botched his name that I came back to my desk and jotted down on a piece of paper a note to remind myself to ask him to lunch one day to get to know him. Then I left to meet my lunch date.

When I got back I looked at my note, and it said "Mark, lunch?"

I am STILL doing it!!

ARGH!

For you, dear readers... my brain (click to enlarge):

___________________________
*altered name for anonymity

-- another wardrobe malfunction

Thanks, everyone, for pointing out that I wore my shirt inside-out today....

-- city taxes at work (finally!)

I've lived in this house for 7 years and at least twice a day I've scraped my car over the nasty driveway hump. That's about 2,631 scrapes! It's enough to make me lose my mind. Well last week we got a note from the city saying they would voluntarily repair everyone's driveway curb, and not only did they do it but they did it quickly, for FREE. Awesome. Came home today to drying cement.

-- best bike shop in College Park

I bought a bike recently from the best bike shop in town: Proteus Bicycles, in College Park (Maryland). Here is the owner, Jill, perfecting my bike's fit. So much of bike comfort is mechanics: how the handlebars are tilted, seat height and length, pedal position, etc.

This bike store has a cult following, people flock here from miles away. They only carry top-quality bikes and their staff are extremely knowledgeable and warm and friendly. How often do you see that nowadays? I highly recommend this place.

-- First you'll tremble, then you'll shake.

Um, isn't that what happens just before you have a heart attack?? This is a good thing how?

-- talking yourself out of fear? Ain't happening.

So I had this conversation with a friend tonight about fear. How when you're really scared, you can't just talk yourself out of it. She (my friend) had an errand to run which required her to navigate skunk-ridden territory late at night and she was (understandably) a bit uncomfortable. She shared that with someone else who said, "oh there's nothing to be afraid of!"

Most people act like it's easy to just tell the brain not to fear.

As if it freaking listens.

Biologically, everything we know about the brain is that it is made to keep us alive and when it senses a threat, the "thinking" part actually shuts down. I am not making this up. So telling yourself not to be afraid is not an option. It doesn't work. If it did, no one would ever be scared. Therapists would go out of business. First sessions would be like this:

me: I'm terrified of spiders.

shrink: well then. What can spiders do to you?

me: They can bite! And run fast. And be really creepy! They excel at being creepy.

shrink: yes, you are right. But can they kill you?

me: some can.

shrink: what are the odds?

me: fine. The odds are not high. But I still don't like it.

shrink: good. You realize they most likely will not kill you. Now you have nothing to fear.

me: well then! I can see so clearly now. My fear has dissolved. Good day! [writes check]

The only real thing that conquers fear is experience.

We become more comfortable with the unknown when we do it repeatedly in a safe and controlled way and can learn to trust ourselves and understand what to expect. That's how to conquer fear.

Not that I am rushing out to repeatedly expose myself to spiders, but I'm just sayin'. And skunks are nothing to sneeze at!

-- towing FAIL

Cracked me up when I saw this -- a tow truck pulling a broken truck that advertised towing on the Beltway near DC. I was driving when I took this with my crappy cell camera so the angle isn't that great but I still had to share!

-- worst picture of the "other" woman

On Dan's blog, his post made me laugh...

-- article: House Deemed Unfit for Dog

Dan had an old coworker who came to work one day disgusted and angry at some visiting in-laws. They basically moved in, took up residence on the couch (where they lay day and night in dirty boxers, he said) and proceeded to eat everything edible in the house, even the dog food. (And I am not kidding... although in their defense, it *was* chopmeat, though raw, low-grade and expired.)

So today I came across this (sent by a friend). We imagined those in-laws lived like this... a place so disgusting it was declared unfit for a dog:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/justice/article1513027.ece

-- fattening up at work.

You'd never know I do NOT work at a bakery or candy store.

My days are spent in a boring office building with ugly high-traffic carpeting woven into rows of identical cubicles where everything is colored the same shade of burgundy, sameness allowing us to efficiently march towards the 5:00pm daily finish line distracted by little else.

And yet! Individuality cannot be stifled. And how do these 9-5ers express themselves (at least on my floor)?

With food.

From the moment I arrive to the short walk to my desk, I pass by at least 17 opportunities to binge. Every day is an exercise in extreme self-control. And I'm not always so strong.

Me last Friday:

I've scoured the internet for tips to avoid the candy jar and polled friends. One confided that her office began an accountability game where every snatched Hershey bar meant a donation to the political cause one opposed most.

Another brings in fruit, but that doesn't work for me. (How could I possibly choose a banana over a brownie?) The whole willpower idea of just turning off the switch doesn't work for me. Especially when I'm jonesing.

My problem starts when I WANT something sweet. If I could just be repulsed by it, I'd be ok. I'm very good about not eating candy I hate. Like I hate fudge, even homemade. (I know, I know, I'm weird). But come 3pm I get weak and I start scavenging.

Lately I've been bringing 20-calorie jello cups to work. Those are pretty satisfying but I'm still working on trying to get myself to hate chocolate. I'm not always so successful.

-- back from jury duty

Waited... and waited... and waited... for nothing. All four cases dissolved, melted into thin air, and 300+ jurors were dismissed after hours and hours of sitting in a stagnant room on lumpy couches full of stains that must only speak of days of bored cheetoh-eating coffee-drinking jurors wiping their hands on the fabric, and nights of court janitorial staff wildly pimping out the only comfortable spot in the building. I came home and wanted to take a shower I felt so dirty. I was mildly grateful that the stains were not wet (and thus fresh) so my clothes didn't (at least visibly) pick up any protein secretions.

I was touched though, in some weird, unexpected way, of being part of the justice process. I mean, at least the idea of it. The video they showed, "YOU THE JURY" worked; I felt honored to participate. I didn't expect that.

There was 1 civil case and 3 criminal cases. I wonder what they all were. And how can criminal cases just be dismissed? Odd.

The kitten got spayed today, I picked her up on the way home. They brought her out and said, "um, she's not that happy right now. "

I peered into the cage and cooed, "Sita!" and she answered, "PfffFFTTT!!!!" Poor thing. She sounds like me sometimes.

I drove home with the sounds of hell emanating from the back seat feeling alternately impressed by her new repertoire and protective yet helpless. She must really be miserable. Bullsht she's not in pain (like the vet said). The pain med injection might have helped but surgery is surgery.

-- jury duty tomorrow

I have jury duty tomorrow. I just called to see if I am actually needed -- sometimes the summons gets canceled.

I got all excited when I heard the voice recording:

Disembodied voice: "Group number ONE, please report at 7:30am...."

me (thinking): "YES! I'm group 300. Maybe I won't have to come until the afternoon! If at all! They'll surely have enough people between groups 1 and 300 to keep 'em busy for a while."

Disembodied voice: "NEXT group. Groups 300-375, please report at..."

me: "What happened to groups 2-199?? Oh frak. Well please say 12 noon, please say 12 noon..."

Disembodied voice (cheerfully): "7:30am!"

me: groan.

Disembodied voice: "There is a fridge and a microwave if you bring food."

me (thinking): "Great. That means there's no place to buy it."

Last time I bought lunch from a vending machine I became violently ill an hour later and will never again trust unattended ham.

Let's see if this is as interesting as Dan's latest jury service, where some guy ran from the cops to save his drug stash but not before losing a big bag of cash in a hot getaway pursuit. The cops had been searching the car and placed the bag on top of the vehicle when the guy suddenly burst away from them, hopped in and took off. The cash flew into the air, clouds of money swirling around as people wrecked their cars stopping to grab some.

When I heard this, my immediate thought was, why am I never on the road when bags of money fly into the air and disburse? What the hell is wrong with me? Must have bad wealth karma or something. ugh!

-- tagged! 7 (more) things about me

Hey! Kimmers tagged me today... my first tag!

Here are the rules:

• Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.


• Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.


• Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I'm trying to come up with things that aren't already on my 100 facts about me post:

1. I've moved a lot. I rock at packing and setting up shop, I can so throw open boxes and make the house cozy right away. Or pack like no one's business, I am so efficient. (It's my one true skill, lol.) My dad owned a moving company when I was growing up so I learned from the experts!

2. I've only pulled a few all-nighters in my life. Maybe 2? I cannot live without sleep. Both times I never made it past noon without falling into a coma. Both times were in college trying to finish assignments.

3. I was on a week-long voyage on a tall ship in high seas once that made almost everyone sick. There were only a handful of people who weren't throwing up (maybe 5?) and I was one of them. Go figure, since I have the world's most sensitive stomach. But I do not get seasick. I read on boats and in cars all the time with no trouble. I love boating.

4. I used to want to be a doctor. Long story (studied both premed and communications in college) but I still read everything I can get my hands on about health and medicine. I subscribe to the Cortlandt Forum and various high quality health newsletters and read the Merck Manual and PDR for fun. I love discussing people's health with them. It's amazing how much control we can have over our own well-being; info is a tool we can use to manage the quality of our lives.

I am also skeptical and am not into supplements and claims not well-supported by peer-reviewed research. (The beginning scientist in me was trained well.) I am, however, intrigued by the ideas of yoga and meditation for stress and certain types of pain management. I am not against alternative medicine as much as I just require good evidence. If studies show it works, I'll believe it. The philosophy here is not much different than what I would expect from a money manager. Prove it and I'll invest.

5. I find everything fascinating. Stained glass classes offered at night? Wow. So cool. I want to learn piano, make jewelry, carve wood, study language, write, draw, begin painting, practice dance, take up karate... so many possibilities.

Wait, I lied. Not everything is fascinating. Knitting seems boring. Sorry.

6. I have an annoying ability to see both sides and thus can often stand in the middle of a heated argument without staking fierce claims to either side, whether political or personal. This usually frustrates people who confide in me, as I'll often take their partner's side and portray it. "Maybe that's how they're feeling," I'll explain unhelpfully when all they wanted was validation.

7. I'm really good at keeping secrets. You won't have to tell me not to tell anyone else, I just won't. I won't say that I won't tell, I just won't. Actions speak louder than words.

One of the nicest compliments I ever got in high school was overhearing one of the popular girls say to a group of people that if she had to tell anyone in the class a secret, it would be me. Because she never heard me talk about anyone or gossip, that she just felt she could trust me.

I do, however, reveal secrets of my own maybe too quickly if I trust you (like the entire internet). Will never reveal yours but I will talk freely about myself!

Not only do I keep secrets but I don't judge. Human relationships are complex and I feel a sense of kinship at the hardships we face; we are falliable beings and deserve love and understanding as we navigate the gnarled path of life, learning our complicated lessons along the way.

Disqualifier: my secret-keeping abilities are roughly in line with those of a shrink: if you tell me anything that makes me think you might be in danger of harming yourself or anyone else, or doing anything unethical (like stealing), then I will circumstantially have to decide how to proceed.

Ok that's it! 7 things. I would love to hear your 7 -- if you blog about this, please let me know!

I'm also tagging:

Kyle Cassidy
Hennepin
Kellygo
Niffer all grown up
Sornie
i sweat butter
Linda

Jodie Marsh's Anderson breasts

Jodie Marsh's 32GG breasts are modelled on Pamela Anderson's chest.

The British glamour model - who recently underwent a £7,500 operation to increase her chest size because her boobs were sagging - admits she was desperate to have boobs like her 'Baywatch' idol.

Jodie said: "I never said I'd never get a boob job. I never said I didn't like fake boobs. In fact, I've always loved Pamela Anderson and her fake boobs. I told my surgeon I wanted Pamela's boobs."

Jodie's decision to go under the knife was considered controversial because of her public argument with fellow glamour model Jordan, who she criticised for having fake breasts.

The 29-year-old beauty even went as far as to write the word 'real' on her cleavage as she enjoyed a night out in 2003 - a clear dig at Jordan.

Jodie also explained it was her idea for Zoo magazine to pay for the operation.

She added to Britain's Heat magazine: "I thought, if I get huge new boobs, I might as well show them off. But I didn't want to do any old topless shoot, because that would be boring. So I thought, if I get a magazine to pay for them, then they can say they own them and they'll love that."

-- exiting mattress hell

I've taken the first step to exit mattress hell. It started with a recent conversation I had with a coworker:

him: I need a new bed.

me: yeah, me too.

him: But I haven't had time to deal with it.

me: yeah, same here. It sucks because every morning I wake up sore and beaten but don't ever feel that way when traveling so I know it's the bed.

him: What? You wake up sore? If that were happening to me, I'd have a new bed within a week.

me (thinking hmmm, why am I not doing anything about this?): [blinking]

So we took step number one and posted the old mattress for sale on Craigslist. Hmm, how to word it. "Bed of pain for sale. Might work great for you though, I dunno. Come see."

The language on Craigslist for conveying less than stellar quality is dollars. Price it cheap enough and someone will bite.

Within 5 minutes of my ad posting, someone emailed me. I got all excited until I realize it was a scam:

"i will love to make an instant purchase, pls withdraw the advert from Craigslist,i don't mind adding an extra $50 for you to take it down so that i can be rest assured that am in hand of the item. I will also like you to know that i will be paying via check,and it will be over night payment due to the distance .You don't need to bother your self with the shipment ,i will take care of that."

Craigslist warns about scammers. Why would someone buy a used mattress, sight unseen, and pay to have it shipped? I don't trust anyone. I wrote back, "sorry, I'm not shipping it. It's selling to the first person who can pick it up, cash only."

The first few years Dan and I got together, we lived in mattress hell, only much much worse than today. My sister had given us a lumpy and disheviled mattress made of air tubes, only one tube was missing. No problem -- I can improvise! I was so happy just to HAVE a bed. I stuffed the hollow space with towels and rags (go me!) and we slept like that on the floor of our tiny dark bedroom. The bed was so lumpy it always looked like bodies were laying in it and I had to "pat" it down with a baseball bat everytime I entered the apartment just to make sure it was safe.

When we moved out of state, my dad offered us his old bed. "It's been sitting in the warehouse for a while, but you can have it!" I jumped at the chance. I should have realized when the moving men carried it off the truck that a king-sized mattress should not have been folded in half (for years) and that this would not bode well for comfort.

My mom came to visit shortly after we moved in and I gave her our room. She fled the bed halfway through the night, back spasming, and slept on the couch with my stepdad who'd also thrown out his back. That should have been another warning sign.

Even then, I didn't realize how bad that bed was until we abandoned it unwillingly to sleep in the guest room. I had woken up one night to find Dan standing over me, a worried look on his face, trying to tell me something but unable to speak. I freaked out and lept up. "What's the matter?"

"Um, I didn't know how to tell you this but there was a roach on your pillow. It's gone now."

There was no way either one of us were going back to bed. That's the night we discovered the spare futon. We slept in the guest room, noting, "wow, this is SOOO much more comfortable!"

Sleeping on a futon for months has its downsides too. It was comfortable until our body weight packed down the cotton interior to a cigar-width's thickness and it began to slip between the slatted frame. Soon it too became unbearable and we began sleeping on air mattresses instead.

We'd gallantly played musical mattresses long enough. It was time to admit the experiment wasn't working and we needed to buy a new bed.

You can probably tell that this decision didn't come lightly. We visited 15 mattress stores and spent hours testing mattresses and researching coil count and wire gauge.

You know how mattress stores always have "NO ONE WILL BEAT OUR PRICE!!" claims? Well it's because NO ONE will have the "same" bed. The manufacturers spit out identical mattresses but slap on different labels before forwarding to stores. Thus, the Sealy PerfectSleeper 7510 might be identical to the Simmons BeautyRest 908, but you'll never know. Stores can have attractive specials like "If you find this mattress cheaper anywhere else, we will give it to you FREE!" because they know that's not going to happen. No one else will ever carry the same mattress.

After all that research and much gnashing of teeth, we bought the bed of pain we now have. To be fair, it IS 9 years old and served us well.

So tonight we scrapped the movie idea and went mattress shopping instead. The biggest surprise is that we found one. We, who normally agonize over every single purchase, researching every option for weeks or months (as long as it takes) found, chose, tested, and settled on a mattress! Bargained a bit and the deal was done. Our new bed comes in two weeks! I am ecstatic. The idea of waking up refreshed is extremely compelling. I'll keep you posted.