Mishmash Musings

Last week the Indian navy claimed to have sunk a pirate ship in the Gulf of Aden last week. This was met with general praise, as pirate activity in the region has escalated to an all-time high. But this morning, an AP story reports that the boat targeted by the Indian navy wasn’t a pirate ship at all. It was a Thai fishing trawler.

Now, both Indian and Thai officials are scrambling for an explanation of what really happened and how such a mistake could have been made.

The article I read contained no reaction from the officials, other than someone in the Indian navy saying that they’re deeply saddened over the accident.

I’ll bet that if the U.S. navy had been responsible for something like this, other nations would have raised holy hell about it by now. Give me a break… obviously the U.S. isn’t the only country that makes major mistakes like this.

One of my dreams has always been to have a library in my home where I could sit in front of a cozy fireplace on a huge leather armchair and read to my heart’s content. It wouldn’t have to be a huge room with built-in floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, but it would definitely have to have nothing but books in there. No television, no computer… just my own little reading retreat.

Our current home is much too small for me to claim one of the rooms as a library, so I’m going to have to wait on this dream until we move into a bigger place. We’re aiming to do so in the next five years (provided this economy gets out of the doldrums soon), and you better believe the first order of business for me will be setting up my library!

I’m a fan of the TV show 24, so I was pretty bummed last season when the writers’ strike helped put all of Season 7 on the shelf. There were other problems with production as well, including the fact that star Kiefer Sutherland had to serve some time in jail for a drunk driving conviction.

Anyway, Season 7 isn’t slated to start until January, but tonight they’re airing a so-called “prequel” that I guess is supposed to cover the intervening time between Season 6 and Season 7. I’m TiVo-ing “Redemption” as I type and plan on watching it tomorrow.

I hope it’s a good one! I haven’t really been satisfied with this series in the past couple of seasons, so I’m looking forward to some big changes and a better storyline. We’ll see!

It seems that all anyone talked about today was the Twilight film, which is based on the Stephanie Meyer book series of the same name. I’ve heard lots of great things about the books, but honestly, the story of vampire teens in love just doesn’t seem like my cup of tea, so I’ve stayed far away.

At any rate, I’m surprised at how broad the appeal of these books — and this movie — seems to be. A lot of my friends waited in line for the midnight showing. We’re talking about women in their mid-30′s here! I figured the high school/college crowd would be into this type of story, but not older women like this. Hmmm, maybe I should give these stories a try after all !

I’ve been thinking about getting a bicycle to use for quick trips near the house so I don’t always have to take the car, so I was checking some out today. I saw that Trek makes a chainless bicycle now, which I guess is kind of a big deal since I’ve found news stories about it. It’s apparently the first mass-produced chainless bike, and the company believes it will be a big hit.

The Trek chainless bicycle is called the District, and while it looks pretty ugly to me, I do like the chainless aspect. Instead of a standard bicycle chain — which, incidentally, consists of some 3,000 parts according to the article I read — the Trek District uses a belt drive to connect the pedaling mechanism to the rear tire.

Since this chainless bike retails for about $930, I think it’s safe to say that there’s no way in hell I’ll ever end up owning it, but hopefully other companies will start producing cheaper chainless bicycles in the near future. I’d definitely check out a cheaper one!

Thanksgiving is coming up in just over a week, which means that the holiday eating season will begin in earnest very soon. To be honest, I’m a bit worried about overdoing it and packing on a few pounds. I have so little self-control around my favorite holiday foods that I can easily see myself going back for second helpings of everything from mashed potatoes with gravy to pumpkin pie with whipped cream. That will be devastating to my waistline, and would be emotionally deflating after I’ve worked so hard all year to drop these 10 pounds.

Short of taking Leptorexin or some other supplement, I’m not sure what else I can do. I obviously won’t be able to avoid putting myself in these situations, but at the same time, I can’t count on willpower to get me through. Bummer!

BTW, I just want to make clear that I’m 5’4″ and 115 pounds (after beginning the year at 125) — a good weight for my size and frame. So don’t ASSume that I’m a “fat slob” simply because I say I have no self-control at the dinner table….

I am absolutely addicted to baked potatoes, and have to have them with butter and sour cream. But I know those two toppings aren’t good for the waistline, so I’ve recently been substituting the usual sour cream with plain yogurt.

I’d heard about this yogurt trick for years, but honestly, it sounded so disgusting that I could never bring myself to try it. I finally bit the bullet a couple weeks ago, and am surprised by the results! The yogurt + potato combo isn’t so bad after all! Sure, it’s not exactly the same as sour cream, but there’s simply no comparison for the amount of fat and calories saved by using yogurt.

I’ll still have my sour cream topping every once in a while, but I think I’ll be substituting with plain yogurt for the most part!

When we bought our LCD flat-panel TV a couple years ago, we never bothered to get a proper stand to go with it. Instead, we just put the new TV on the stand that our old CRT model was on, even though it doesn’t fit. Needless to say, this current setup is very unstable, and it wouldn’t take much of a bump to knock the whole thing down.

So now that we’ve saved up enough money to rectify the situation, we’re wondering which would be better for the room, a stand or a lift. If we go with a stand, we’d just have to buy something a little bigger to accommodate the dimensions of the new TV. I’d prefer one of those super-cool automatic tv lifts, which would hide the TV away and protect it when it’s not in use.

Yes, the lift is a bit more expensive, but I think it would be a smarter purchase in the long run. After all, with a growing boy and two dogs in the house, you never know what kind of accidents might befall your television set!