Mishmash Musings

I’ve never really celebrated New Year’s Eve out at a big party or anything. I think the most exciting one I had was when I was in Trafalgar Square (London) for NYE to ring in 1999. Even then, I don’t think we lasted until midnight because of jetlag.

At any rate, if you’re going out to celebrate tonight, please stay safe. Use cabs, public transportation, or a designated driver if you’re drinking; please don’t even think about getting behind the wheel of a car.

And here’s to a great 2007!

The big news today is that Saddam Hussein’s death penalty was carried out. I guess this actually happened late last night (going by U.S. time). And as you might expect in this Internet age, his final moments were digitally captured and beamed all over the world soon after the event took place.

I saw a short video of the hanging over on Google video, and thought it was brutal and disgusting. I wish I hadn’t let my curiosity get the best of me. Don’t get me wrong: I have no sympathy for someone like Hussein, who was responsible for the slaughter of tens of thousands of people in his lifetime. I guess I was just surprised at how… unceremonious everything was. They didn’t even put a hood on him. It was very quick, too.

I’m not going to link to any videos here. If you want to see it, I’m sure you can find it.

I’m still in the market for some good weight loss supplements to help me with my New Year’s resolution of losing 10 pounds by June. That’s just a little under a pound per month, which should be doable with the right combination of diet and exercise. But I want to have some supplements on hand in case I need a bit of a boost. I’ve heard that some people have had excellent results with Hoodia, so I want to check into that next. If you have any experience with it, please let me know. Did it work for you??

We’ve been giving a lot of thought as to where to take one of our family vacations this year. Originally, we were going to go to Orlando to visit Disney World and other theme parks, but since we’ve already gone there a couple times in the past few years, we changed our minds. Now we’re thinking about heading to Outer Banks North Carolina instead. This is not set in stone yet, but I’ve heard such good things about the place that I really want to go.

Our vacation will likely be in May or June, depending on my husband’s work schedule. I’ll post updates as I get more information.

I’m a Beatles fan and was surprised to learn that they’d never been featured on British postage stamps. Aren’t they like the most famous thing to ever emerge from the U.K.??? Ha ha, just kidding.

The stamp drought is about to change, though, because I just read that the Royal Mail will release a set of six stamps featuring album cover artwork from the Beatles. I think this is very cool and will contact a couple of London friends to see if they can get their hands on some of these stamps for me!

We’ve decided to paint our living room, dining room, and two of the bedrooms this winter. We really haven’t done much with the place since we moved in, so we still have white walls in nearly every room. Anyway, I was searching for house painting ideas today and came across a great site that has lots of unique suggestions as well as nice pictures that show exactly how the finished project will look. We actually might end up using some of these!!

I’ve felt generally sluggish and almost nauseous nearly every day for the past few weeks. At first, I thought it was computer-related since I sit in front of my monitor for at least 8 hours per day. I thought the main problem was eye-strain, which in turn led to the nauseousness. But even after cutting way back on my computer use, I didn’t feel any better.

Then I got the bright idea to eat lunch at McDonald’s today. I’ve been trying to avoid junk food lately because of holiday weight gain and general health, but today I went all out with a Quarter Pounder with cheese combo meal, fries, and a regular Coke (not diet). And you know what? I’ve felt fantastic all day!

Maybe I’m just the kind of person who needs junk food once in a while. I remember when I was pregnant I had terrible morning sickness for the first four months. In fact, the only things I could keep down were McDonald’s cheeseburgers! So I’m not kidding about the needing junk food angle. Strange, huh?

I just read that Gerald R. Ford, the 38th president of the United States, died today at the age of 93. Ford, of course, was the one who pardoned Richard Nixon, a move which sparked a lot of controversy back then. I was just a baby when Ford was in office during his 2-year tenure, so I don’t know much about what he accomplished.

Every major news website has nice, long biographies out, so here are a few different ones for you:

Yahoo/AP Story

CNN Story

Chicago Tribune Story