Mishmash Musings

I don’t watch very many awards shows, but I almost always tune into the Emmys. I enjoy this broadcast much more than the Oscars because the show isn’t interrupted by dumb skits and interminable song/dance numbers.

I’ll definitely be tuning in for the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards this year, as many of my favorite actors and shows have been nominated. I would love to see Neil Patrick Harris, Alec Baldwin, and Hugh Laurie win, and would be excited if House finally got some recognition as Best Drama.

At this point, I’m not planning to go all out and invite my friends over for a party, so there won’t be any need for champagne, hors d’oeuvres, or home theater lighting. That could change, though, depending on how many of my television-loving pals want to get together for the night.

Jason Taylor, who made a name for himself off the football field as a Dancing With the Stars contestant, has been traded from the Miami Dolphins to the Washington Redskins for a second-round draft pick in 2009 and a sixth-round pick in 2010.

Taylor, who was a six-time Pro Bowler for the Dolphins and the 2006 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, started to wear out his welcome with Miami management after deciding to film Dancing With the Stars instead of participating in offseason workouts. As a result, the team didn’t even do anything to publicize Taylor’s appearance on the show, despite the fact that he was clearly a favorite with audiences.

Taylor has said in the past that he wants to play only one more year in the NFL before setting his sights on Hollywood. He has already spent 11 years in pro football, and at age 33, retirement wouldn’t be completely unheard of.

I think this is a good move for both sides. Whatever the issues, it clearly wasn’t going to work for Taylor and the Dolphins, so it’s better to move the guy now before training camp really gets underway in earnest.

I know this isn’t exactly original, but “Is Google broken?” has become one of my favorite phrases to use when people ask me for information that they could easily find online by themselves. Maybe I’m just irritable because I’ve been working at my outside job far more than anticipated this past month or maybe just being in an office environment again has made me snarkier than usual. But whatever it is, I can’t stand it when people are too lazy to find stuff out on their own.

For example, in the past few days, I’ve been asked about things as diverse as investment options for retirement, the latest diet fads, and even the best reno hotels. I don’t have the slightest clue about any of things, nor did I ever give the asker occasion to believe that I did. Google is always my first stop when I need info…. I guess I just figured it was the same for everyone else!

So a couple readers who have been following my orthodontist saga for the past year and a half asked me to describe the braces removal process. Even though I had braces as a teen, I didn’t remember anything about how the braces came off, so prior to my appointment, I just read a few other stories online. It seemed that most other people thought the ordeal was uncomfortable and time-consuming, so I mentally prepared myself for a couple hours in the chair.

But it didn’t turn out that way at all. My orthodontist worked very quickly and efficiently, cutting wires and removing brackets at lightening speed. It only took about 10 minutes to get all that stuff off.

The next step — that of removing my molar bands — was a bit more uncomfortable, however. They had been on for a year and a half, and were actually pretty tight. So not only did the ortho really have to wrench on the bands to get them to come off, but they also made this horrid cracking sound in the process. I seriously thought my teeth were breaking!!

Once that was over, the ortho switched over to some air tools (like a grinder, vacuum, and polisher) to remove the remnants of the bonding agent and to polish things up. Aside from a god-awful smell of burning enamel and a bit of pain caused by cold water hitting my sensitive teeth, this part wasn’t all that bad either.

On the whole, I was in the chair for about 45 minutes and experienced only a little bit of discomfort and pain along the way. The results were worth it, though, as I couldn’t wait to get out of those braces!!

Remember the Laci Peterson case? She was the young, pregnant woman who was murdered in late December of 2002. Her husband Scott Peterson was subsequently arrested, tried, and found guilty of the crime. He is now on Death Row in San Quentin while his lawyers make the usual appeals.

Anyway, Peterson was in the news today because he apparently has a blog. Yes, you read that correctly. Scott Peterson’s blog is actually maintained by a Canadian anti-death penalty group, since Peterson is not allowed to have direct Internet access. But the page contains messages from Peterson, links to external sites that support his claims of innocence, and even photos of him and Laci together.

These Scott and Laci Peterson photos are the most sickening to me because I just don’t think he has any right to display them. I believe that he’s guilty (his actions after the crime — dyeing his hair and beard, heading for Mexico with cash, etc — aren’t those of an innocent man) and that he’s an all-around scumbag, and hate to see him defiling Laci’s memory like this.

I won’t post the Scott Peterson blog link here because I don’t want to drive more traffic to the site, but if you really want to see it, it’s not hard to find.

The American League won last night’s MLB All-Star game in the bottom of the 15th inning after Michael Young hit a sacrifice fly to score Justin Morneau just ahead of the tag. Clocking in at 4 hours and 50 minutes, this was the longest All-Star game in history, and by the time it ended, more than half of the fans had already left. I sure hope those who stayed either lived close by or got some good hotel deals for their All-Star experience. I’d hate to drop a couple hundred bucks on a hotel room and then end up spending all of 5 hours in it!

Anyway, this latest win by the American League ensures that they will have home field advantage during the World Series, something they’ve enjoyed every year since that rule went into effect.

I watched some of the later innings last night and thought the game was pretty boring. As always with an extra-inning game, the true stars were already on the bench and couldn’t go back in. So that’s why someone like Dan Uggla was playing second base and making three errors on the night or why neither team had any pitchers left if the game had to go on. Again — boring! I’d rather see Jeter, Varitek, Pujols, and Chipper Jones playing than the second-stringers.

Oh, well, I guess that just means the Cubs will have to open on the road when they make it to the World Series. Hopefully it’ll be right across town at the Cell!

(AP Photo/Ed Betz)

I can’t believe it, but my braces have finally come off! It’s such a relief not to have all those appliances, wires, and rubber bands crowding my mouth anymore. I swear, sometimes the archwires were so thick that it felt like my orthodontist was using HDMI cables or something to get my teeth into position!

While my teeth look a LOT better than they did before, the results aren’t 100 percent perfect — which is actually what I was hoping for. But my ortho explained that it would be impossible to achieve that kind of perfection since there’s so much room in my mouth from previous tooth extractions, etc. This was rather disappointing to hear after spending thousands of dollars on these orthodontic treatments, but there’s nothing I can do at this point.

Like I said, my teeth do look a heck of a lot better than before, so I’m glad that I went ahead with braces in the first place. And of course, I’m simply ecstatic that the process is over!!!

My braces are coming off in 24 hours!! I have an appointment for tomorrow morning at 10:30am to remove the brackets and take impressions for my retainers. I then have to cough up $525 for the retainers and come back the very next day in order to try them on.

I can’t believe this saga is FINALLY coming to an end! I have to admit that for the past week, I’ve been very anxious about getting my braces off. They never bothered me much during the time that I had them on, but this last week, with the end so near, I was going crazy!

Ok, I can do this… 24 hours…!