Mishmash Musings

If you’re a Miami Heat fan, this past season was a tough one to watch, as the team struggled throughout the year and ended up with a league-worst record of 15-67. Of course, it didn’t help that superstar Dwayne Wade was sidelined for more than 30 games with knee and shoulder problems or that Alonzo Mourning played in just 25 contests before requiring season-ending surgery. Toss in the Shaquille O’Neal trade, and it’s not surprising that the Heat had a bad year.

However, there’s always a bright side in sports, and things are no different with the Heat. They’re sure to get a high draft pick, which means they’re going to add significant talent to the roster. Then, once their regular stars are healthy, they’ll be back on track and hopefully regain that championship form that they had in 2006.

So there’s no reason to jump off the bandwagon just yet. In fact, if I were you, I’d go out and buy Miami Heat tickets right now to get the best seats in the house for the ’08-’09 campaign. PremiumSeatsUSA.com has excellent options and pricing, so check that site out today and make sure you get in on all that great NBA action next season!

I just read an article that claims the color of your car says a lot about your personality. I don’t necessarily think that this stuff is all that accurate, but it’s interesting to check out the conclusions anyway.

According to the article, those who drive emerald green cars have confidence that is 5.5% above average, while those who drive black cars have confidence that is a whopping 14.6% below average. Owners of white cars have average confidence.

In addition, those who own black, silver, or dark blue cars experience consistent moods, while those who own yellow, orange, red, or emerald green cars experience wild mood swings.

Hmm…. I have a black car (is my confidence really below average???) while my husband’s car is silver (1.2% above average confidence). The funny thing is, I chose the colors for both cars! Oh, well. This obviously isn’t an exact science.

With my braces set to come off in the next month or two, I’ve been thinking about an appropriate way to celebrate. Of course on the very first day, I’m going to buy a huge bag of Doritos and just go crazy, and I have a package of Crest Whitestrips waiting in the wings as well.

After those two things, I’ve decided that what I’d really like to do is have a formal family portrait done. We’ve never had one, but this would be the perfect time for it. I want us all to dress up in nice clothes, go to a professional photographer, and have some quality photos taken. Depending how they turn out, I might even take the finished product to one of those places that transfer photos to canvas.

Before that happens, I know we’ll all have to go shopping for some decent clothes. The nicest outfits I have now are business suits that wouldn’t look right in a family portrait, and my husband only has t-shirts in his closet, so we’ve got to find something for him to wear too.

Now I’m even more anxious to get my braces off!

I hate insects, bugs, and creepy crawlies of all kinds, so I’m glad I don’t live in Texas! Right now, people near Houston are apparently battling an invasion of a newly recognized ant species informally known as “crazy raspberry ants” (cool name, huh?). According to the article I read, raspberry ants were first identified here in 2002 and are thought to have arrived in Texas via cargo ship.

Raspberry ants are actually rather destructive little critters, as they’re attracted to electrical equipment, which they somehow manage to foul up. Computers, sewage pumps, gas meters… once these raspberry ants get inside the unit, it’s done for.

Plus, they bite humans….

I would probably go nuts if I had to try to deal with raspberry ants. So again, I’m just glad I don’t live in Texas right now!

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done a “Five Things” entry, so I figured today would be a good time to break one out. For this post, I’m going to list five frivolous items I want to buy sometime in the near future when I have a bit of extra money.

1. A cell phone with a full QWERTY keyboard. I’m categorizing this as a frivolous purchase because I don’t absolutely need one of these for business or anything important. I just want one because I’ve been doing a lot more web browsing on my phone and it sucks having to type everything in on a number pad!

2. An iPod Touch. Yes, I just got an 8GB iPod Nano for FREE after redeeming rewards points from my credit card company, but what I really wanted was the Touch. Unfortunately, I couldn’t justify paying so much money for just 8GB of storage, so I went with the Nano. I still dream of a Touch, though!

3. A Rolex watch. I know I’ll never have enough extra money to buy something like this, but I’ve always wanted to own one.

4. A Montblanc Meisterstuck Rollerball pen. I actually used to have one, but I don’t know what happened to it. I either lost it, broke it, or gave it away to someone… I honestly can’t remember. What I do remember is how smoothly the pen wrote and how great it felt in my hands.

5. An Amazon Kindle. I love ebooks and would kill for a good ebook reader. But at $399, the Kindle is a bit too expensive for my blood. Hopefully the price on that will come down in a year or so.

I occasionally get small flareups of eczema on my knees and elbows, so I have to see the dermatologist every few months in order to renew my prescription for a topical lotion. I can feel might right elbow getting a bit rough and itchy now, which means a new flareup isn’t too far away. Glad it’s time to go in again anyway!

While I’m there, I’m going to ask my doctor about my face and what she thinks the best acne treatment for me would be. I’ve asked for ‘scripts for strong acne medication before, but she always refused because she didn’t think my case was severe enough. I’m going to ask one more time though, because my face is pretty bad right now. Even if I don’t get a prescription, maybe my doc can give her professional opinion on a couple of over-the-counter products. That would be helpful too.

Hey, I’m going to end up paying $90 for this visit, so I might as well get the most out of it!

I just read that a massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit central China earlier today, killing as many as 5,000 people and injuring twice that. Accurate death and injury tolls are not yet available because rescue workers are still busy trying to dig people out of the rubble.

The most troubling aspect of the quake thus far is the news that a middle school collapsed, essentially burying approximately 900 students. Wow, I hope those kids somehow manage to survive.

I’m not too clear on Chinese geography, but I guess the quake struck about 60 miles northwest of Chengdu and hundreds of miles away from Beijing, site of the upcoming Summer Olympics.

The cyclone in Myanmar, tornadoes here in the Midwest, and now this massive earthquake in China. So many natural disasters hitting the world now….

(Photo from Xinhua News Agency)

Although I try to post here regularly, I’m always left with a bunch of tidbits and nuggets that aren’t enough to build a single entry on, but that I’d still like to share with you anyway. So I thought it might be a good idea to do a “Random roundup” to get these things out in the open. Here goes:

– I had a very nice Mother’s Day with my family today. I got gift cards and flowers, plus we went out to lunch at my favorite restaurant. And I didn’t have to do any housework, of course!

– I don’t get why so many people in Myanmar had to die. What is going on over there? It’s terrible!

– I purchased a package of Crest Whitestrips and have them on hand for when I get my braces off in three weeks.

– A friend invited me over to watch No Country for Old Men on DVD with her. Um, no thanks. A colon cleanse would be more exciting than sitting through that dreck again.

– Baseball player Melvin Mora is the father of quintuplets.

– I had to put aside the David McCullough biography of John Adams because it is so boring. I wonder where all the five-star reviews came from?

– Hillary Clinton needs to wise up and just drop out of the race already. It’s over.