O is for Ode To TV Shows Gone By

I love TV way too much, but this is nothing new.  My parents never limited my sister and my TV viewing so we watched and watched and watched.  So here I am today still watching.  A number of shows which I loved have been gone forever but I still think of them with great fondness.

Here Comes The Bride -  It ran from 1968-1970 about mail order brides embarking on Seattle in the 1860's.  Playing brothers looking for a wife's were David Soul who later went on the Starsky and Hutch, Peter Brown who I have never seen again in anything and a big heartthrob of the time singer Bobby Sherman.  In my memory this was a great show but recently they played it on TV Land and boy was it cheesy.

Here Come The Brides

Battle of the Network Stars  In my book this was one of my all time favorites.  It was a competitions between stars form ABC, CBS, and NBC and aired on and off from 1976 to 1988. In 2003 they tried to bring it back but no one except maybe me, was interested in watching.  Some of the greats that appeared on it were Penny Marshall (Laverne and Shirley) Gabe Kaplan (Welcome Back Kotter) Cheryl Ladd (Charlie's Angels) Valerie Bertinelli (One Day At A Time) and many, many more.

Battle of the Network Stars

The Mole  This reality based show aired for five seasons between 2001 to 2008. The first two seasons it was hosted by Anderson Cooper, The third season he was replaced by Ahmad Rashad.  The forth and  fifth seasons were a celebrity Mole format.  The premise was extremely complex but in a nutshell contestants work as a group to add money to a pot that only one of them will eventually win.  Among the contestants is one person who has been designated "The Mole" by the producers and is tasked with sabotaging the group's money making efforts. At the end of each episode, the contestants take a quiz and the one who knows the least about the mole gets eliminated.  Everyone knows that there is a mole but they do not know who the mole is.  The US was not the only country to air The Mole.  The format was licensed to run in over 40 different counties.  Sounds kind of boring but boy did I love this one.

One of these ordinary people was The Mole

Celebrity Mole

Well I could go on and on about my favorite TV shows and who knows maybe I will, we have 11 more letters to go.

Mary Ann

N is for A Little Something About Nothing

Before I started this challenge I made a list of A through Z making notes beside each letter outlining the topic that I would write about.  Well for N I had nothing, zero. zilch.   I have been racking my brain for days and still nothing.  So I decided to write about the N words that I thought of, but didn't write about.

Negligee -  So I thought it may be cute to write about women and buying negligee's but because I am more of a flannel, Playtex Cross Your Heart kind of girl I was just not inspired.

Nigel Lythgoe - He produces American Idol and a judge of So You Think You Can Dance but honestly who really cares about him.

Nutmeg - Spice that I am sure many of the food blogs will be about today but I have never used it, not once.

Nashville - Its a city, a movie and a TV show but I have never been there nor have I ever watched the movie or the TV show.

Negative Nelly - What my daughter called me when I complained about not having an N word.

So, as you can see, this is really about nothing and hopefully tomorrow I will have something.

Mary Ann

M is for Mothers Day Bling

Doing the A to Z Blogger Challenge has been kicking my butt.  click here to see what its all about  The suggestion of the A to Z group before I started was to get the blogs done early.  Well I really tried but it just did not happen for me.  So I have been scrambling.  Which means I am leaving my other things by the wayside like designing and crafting.  Well since it was a day off from the challenge yesterday I decided to work on some ideas that I had rolling around it my head and thought it was a great opportunity to combine my A to Z Challenge  M word with my Mothers Day creations.

Since Mothers Day is right around the corner I wanted to do some things that would appeal to people who were looking for something specific for Mom's.  I really make lots of different things combining heavy card stock paper with all kinds of materials.  I stumbled upon some acrylic shapes in Michael's a few months back, buying them on a whim, not really knowing how I would use them.  Many of my ideas hit me in the middle of the night. (see my earlier post about my husband being and insomniac) I am up anyway so I think of things to write about or design.  During one of these nights I remembered the acrylic shapes and a design started to formulate, so yesterday I set some time aside to put my plan into action.

These are the Mom pendants, I have made so far.  The backing of all three is heavy card stock that I layered  and then applied a protective coating which makes them very strong.  I glued an acrylic shape to each, first lining them with a coordinating card stock. I added Mom and embellished them with some Swarovski crystal bling, finishing them with silver bails and chains.

Mary Ann

L is for Look Alike's, Quest For Spotting The Rich And Famous

So my husband is one of those people who always thinks someone looks like someone else.  He will be watching a commercial and from two rooms away will call me. "Mary Ann is this Julia Roberts?" I glance at the TV and see a woman who looks nothing like Julia Roberts and why would he think that she would be in a commercial calming that she is less embarrassed about being incontinent since using Depends.

He could be watching a ballgame and the camera will pan the bleachers. "Mary Ann quick come here. look who's at the game isn't that Nelson Mandela?"  Well since he was in a hospital about million miles away yesterday I am thinking that he would not be at a Met game in Queens NY.

 We will be in a store and he will say, I just saw a guy who looks like Stephan King.  He will drag me up and down the aisle stalking the poor guy so I can see if in fact by some crazy chance it is Stephan King.  When we finally find him, to me, he looked more like Larry King and nothing like Stephan.

So in 2009 the movie Place Beyond The Pines was being filmed in upstate NY a few miles from where I live.
On the news every night they talked about star sighting.  So this particular day we had gone to an early appointment  and my husband wanted to get some breakfast at Denny's.  As we were being seated I saw a group of people to my left but paid little attention to who they were.  I sat in the booth with my back to them.  My husband sat facing the group.  Throughout the meal my husband kept glancing over at the group and saying  "one of those guys over there looks familiar", I paid no attention and told him to stop starring and thought OH NO HERE WE GO AGAIN..  I never even made and attempt to turn around.  After the large group left the waitress came over and asked if we got to see him?  Him, whose him???  Well Ray Liotta was sitting right over there she said.  So for once my husband did see the real deal but for whatever reason he could not place him.  OMG  Who would think that Ray Liotta would be eating breakfast at Denny's on a weekday.


So I guess from now on when my husband says he just saw Pamela Sue Anderson in aisle 6 at the grocery store it just might be her but then again, hmmmmm probably not.

Mary Ann

K is The Story Of Crazy Kitty

Crazy Kitty the cat came to us when she was 4 years old, she had been abandoned by her owner. She had never been sprayed and she had a horrible case of ear mites.  I had her fixed and got her healthy.  My intent was to find her a home since I already had two cats.  I was very lucky to find someone who was willing to take her and I breathed a sigh of relief as I drove away Kitty free that day.  It was short lived because 24 hours later they wanted her out of their house ASAP.  Apparently Kitty had bitten her new owners and would not come out from under the bed.  Poor Kitty was a bit of an odd ball and I was not sure if I would be able to find her another home, so I kept her.  YIKES, what was I thinking?

For the first 5 years with us, Crazy Kitty lived in a room.  No matter what I would do she would not leave that room.  A number of times I would carry her out to other places in the house and she would end up being so scared that she would throw up or pee on me. Not pretty!  She ate, slept, and pooped all in the same room.  She would come as far as the door and then would run back to the safety of her fleece bed.

Then one day out of the blue Crazy Kitty just came out of the room into the kitchen.  I was shocked and excited thinking she was finally coming around,  but no matter what I did she would only go as far as the kitchen.  So for another few years Kitty slept in a corner on a kitchen chair on her fleece bed until one day when I wanted to paint the kitchen,  I  moved her chair and bed into the living room.  She decided she liked the living room so she started sleeping on a chair in the living room on her fleece bed.

Crazy Kitty is now 13 and has lived with us for 9 years. Kitty's world had expanded over time and she was now going from living room to kitchen to her old room and back but she still would not venture beyond those few rooms.  Well 6 months ago I woke up in the middle of the night and found Kitty laying next to me sharing my pillow. Crazy Kitty had decided it was time to move from the living room to our upstairs bedroom and since it took her 9 years to get there she must have been exhausted and needed a little nap.  Kitty sleeps with me every night now thankfully not on my pillow but curled up next to me.

Poor Crazy Kitty's one ear is deformed from her untreated ear mites.

Life with Kitty has had its ups and down and at this point I am not sure who is crazier me or her.

Mary Ann

J is for Johnny The Anti-Santa

The Christmas my daughter was a year old, my brother-in-law Johnny decided he wanted to play Santa.  I was not that keen on the idea since I had taken my daughter to see Santa at the mall the week before and she would not go anywhere near him. She was petrified just at sight of him.  Johnny said he had already bought the Santa suit and really wanted to start a yearly tradition.  He got my mother on board and between the two of them they wore me down, so I reluctantly agreed.

Christmas morning, early, my daughter and I were sitting under the tree when we heard the first sounds of Santa.  It started with the jingling of bells, followed with lots of HO HO HO's and then an indescribable sound like glass cracking.  The glass cracking sound got louder as it got closer and the HO HO HO's and the bells seemed to fade into the background.  Johnny rounded the corner into the living room covered from head to toe wearing something that looked like a giant red garbage bag.  My daughter screamed in horror at the sight of this loud, plastic Santa, that had just invaded the room.  He sat down lowering her onto his lap. As her tiny body clashed with his plastic garbage bag body the glass breaking sound loudly erupted,  she screamed louder wanting no part of him.  Needless to say, the Christmas tradition of the Red Plastic Bag Santa ended that day.

                                      

I is for Married To An Insomniac

I am person who loves to sleep.  I was the odd child who would ask their parents if they could go to bed.  Weird!  So how lucky is it that a sleeper like myself would marry an insomniac?  Very unlucky I would say.  I first learned of Insomniac Ken on our honeymoon.  We were stuck in a small space and he would sit up and watch TV for hours in the middle of the night.  I was in first married, starry eyed love, so I was not bothered at all with his pacing and grumbling all night long.

With that said it makes sense that Insomniac Ken would father, Insomniac Son.   Insomniac Son would keep me up for hours each night for years.  Funny that Insomniac Ken found deep sleep during those years.  Never waking up while Insomniac Son had me walking the floor every night.  To make matters worse I am an early riser so when Insomniac Ken finally falls asleep at 3:00 AM he is not interested in getting started with his day until hours after I do.

Well years have passed and Insomniac Son has married and moved on to stay up all night in his own house.  I unfortunately am still stuck with Insomniac Ken who continues to walk the hallways nightly grumbling, humming, and turning on lights.  Most nights I can sleep through it but some nights his insomniac ramblings keep me up.  And so that's how life with an insomniac goes.

Old photo of Insomniac Ken and Insomniac Son getting a few Zzz's in, probably so they could stay up all night.

Mary Ann