Mishmash Musings

I read yesterday that First Daughter Jenna Bush is now officially engaged to longtime boyfriend Henry Hager of Virginia. The two have reportedly been dating since 2004, so the news of an impending wedding isn’t really a surprise to anyone. Hager is 29 and is currently working towards an MBA from the University of Virginia, while Bush is 25 and is currently working on a children’s book. She also has taught at several different schools since graduating from the University of Texas in 2004. No date has been announced for the wedding.

I don’t really pay attention to the personal stuff written about politicians or their families, so this is the first I’ve ever heard of Henry Hager as Jenna Bush’s boyfriend. At any rate, I hope they have their wedding in the White House; that place could use a good, non-political distraction these days!

As I was getting breakfast ready this morning, I yanked one of the cabinet doors too hard and it actually came right off its hinges! Granted, it was loose to begin with, but I didn’t think it would really come off like that.

At any rate, now there’s a wide open space where the door used to be and it bothers me to no end! I have to call my husband at work and ask him where I can buy cabinet hardware from. Should I just take my chances at the regular hardware store? Do I have to go to a specialty store? Who knows. I bet my husband will tell me to let him do it anyway. He doesn’t trust me when it comes to tools and hardware!

Have you heard about the British woman who is trying to row her way across the Pacific Ocean — by herself? Her name is Roz Savage, and she pushed off from San Francisco on August 12. Her voyage will take her first to Hawaii, then to Tuvalu, and finally to Australia, a distance of 7,268 statute miles. I didn’t catch an exact estimate of how long this journey is to take, but I know she’s not due to arrive in Australia until 2009. 2009!!! Wow!!

Anyway, I think this is a pretty fascinating story and hope that Roz makes it safely. You can follow her progress on her official blog at RozSavage.com.

My aunt, uncle, and cousins went on a family vacation to Orlando two weeks ago. I actually had a hand in planning the trip because I had given my cousins passes to Disney World as their graduation present and because I’ve been to Florida so many times on for my own vacations that it just seemed natural that I should help out.

One of the things I was able to do for my aunt and uncle was help them find discount lodging at the best hotel orlando has to offer. Well, okay, maybe it wasn’t the absolute best, but it was definitely up there in terms of quality and location! Anyway, all I had to do was go to Orlando.com, fill out a few search parameters, and then sort through the results until I found the best offer. It was easy and saved my aunt and uncle a bunch of money!

I’m happy to report that everyone had a fantastic time on the trip. I’ve seen pictures and am pretty jealous that they got to go to Disney World while I was stuck at home. Maybe it’s time for me to try to talk my husband into another trip to the Sunshine State!

I play golf a little bit, but usually don’t like watching the sport on TV. Unless, of course, it’s the final round of a major championship and Tiger Woods is in the hunt for the win. That was the scenario today for the PGA Championship from Tulsa, OK, where Woods shot a 1-under 69 to finish the tournament at 8-under. This was good enough to beat fellow American Woody Austin by two strokes, and South African Ernie Els by three strokes.

With the win, Tiger has now captured at least one major championship in each of the last three years. Moreover, he now has 13 major wins in his career at the age of 31, which is well ahead of the pace Jack Nicklaus was on when he set the all-time record of 18 major wins. Nicklaus was 34 when he won his 13th. I don’t think there’s any doubt that Tiger will surpass that record before all is said and done. The only question mark is how many wins Tiger ends up with. I think 23-25 is not out of the question for the greatest golfer of all time!

It amazes me how airlines are still so strict about the use of electronic devices during takeoff and landing. I guess I can understand how a hundred people using cell phones at the same time could possibly generate enough electromagnetic or radio frequency interference to cause a disturbance in the plane’s instruments, but what about things like MP3 players, PDAs, and handheld gaming systems? Those shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Wrong. I was asked to shut off my PDA, on which I was simply reading an ebook, until we got the “all clear” signal from the captain. It was just 20 minutes and not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but still. You’d think that airplanes would feature the best in RFI Shielding technology these days so that passengers would be free to enjoy these gadgets at any time during the flight. I mean it’s a bit scary to think that a bunch of kids playing their DS Lites while the flight attendants aren’t looking could cause serious problems to the plane!

I told you a couple weeks ago that I wanted to take a literature course from MIT’s new OpenCourseWare initiative. I’m going to work my way through a Humanities class called Writing and Reading Short Stories, and I even bought the textbook that goes along with the course. The book is called The Art of the Short Story, and contains short works from 52 well known authors, as well as their perspectives on writing short fiction.

Now that I have the text, I’m going to start following the reading assignments (and maybe even the writing assignments) for the class. I’ll probably have time to get to it on Tuesday, and will commit to spending one hour per day, three days per week on the work. I’m really interested to see if I can get something out of this class through this self-study approach or if a teacher/facilitator makes all the difference in the world. If it’s the latter, then how much real value is it to the average person to have these MIT courses available for free? Sure, a genius like Will Hunting might benefit, but not the average person.

I guess I’ll find out soon enough!

Most of my friends are still single, so I often hear stories about life in the dating world. Let me tell you, I’m glad I’m no longer a part of that scene! I can clearly remember what it was like to go through bad date after bad date wondering if I’d ever be able to find the right person. It seemed impossible at times, and I couldn’t help but think that there must be an easier way to settle down and get married.

Well, now there is — at least for all the single guys out there! I’m talking about a dating website called LoversPlanet.com where men can go to meet Russian girls and beautiful brides online. These Russian and eastern European women are specifically looking for long-term relationships and even marriage with foreign men. They’ve got pictures and profiles right on the site, plus they tell you exactly what they expect from their men. With everyone’s expectations out in the open like that, I bet the dating process runs a lot smoother.

If you’re tired of women who play games and make you try to figure out what they want, then I’d suggest heading over to LoversPlanet.com today to find someone who’s actually interested in commitment and marriage!