JR Martinez is a shining star!

I was going to write along with Write on Edge today (after you've said hello here, head over there to read wonderful one hundred word conjured memories), but a little something else captured my heart this morning.

While warming up with a cuppa java, I caught last night's Dancing with the Stars and JR Martinez definitely stole the show!

Martinez embodies an absolutely wonderful kind of positive thinking.  And in the interview before performing, he talks about his time in the hospital after being injured when his Humvee hit a land mine in Iraq. 

He shares where his mind travelled until arriving at a point where he could chose to fight and live positively.  He shared that, while tears rolled down my cheeks and I imagine many others who watched.

If you haven't seen it yet, I encourage you to take a few minutes and at least watch his clip above.  And if you have a few more minutes, head on over to abc's Dancing with the Stars, to watch the whole episode. 

See Carson Kressley rock a fun red carpet tango, Rob Kardashian did a sweet send up to his late father, Kristin Cavallari...I'm honestly not sure who she is outside of the show (am I getting old?!), but I love watching her partner, Mark Ballas...rocked Beyonce, and Ricki Lake & David Arquette are just so sweet & fun to watch!

I see the sun trying so hard to peek out from behind the dark clouds, so I'm off to take advantage of the lull & get some long pants for my kidlets now that the weather has turned, before tackling the paperwork I've been avoiding!  Hope you are having a fantastic day! :>

Action!

Ask someone today whether they watch TV or not and there are a zillion qualifications.

Do they watch traditional television programming, on an actual television?  Do they watch it in real time or DVR it?  Do they watch TV shows on Hulu or Netflix?  Do they watch webisodes on a favorite website?  Do they watch interviews, demos, music videos, documentaries, and/or one of the million other offerings on YouTube?

And where do they watch it?  Do they stream ‘TV’ to their computers, iPods, cell phones, or to their televisions via Xbox or Wii gaming systems?

Today, watching ‘TV’ has a multitude of different meanings.  But, when I was a kidlet, it meant watching television programming, on an actual television.

I’ve heard that Sesame Street and The Electric Company were my thing when I was little.  And I remember watching the Smurfs with my brother, Three’s Company with my mother, and a whole host of shows with my brother and Dad that gave me a taste for what is typically considered guys’ kind of entertainment.

No, not that kind of male entertainment!  You know, fast cars, jets, helicopters, chase scenes, thrillers, action and adventure!  There was Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, Airwolf, MacGyver, and TheA-Team and I loved them all.

I loved the Dukes’ chase scenes and the hilarious characters. (And being that I was young and unaware of all its political incorrectness, it still holds a fond place in my heart.)

Thought K.I.T.T., the talking car was so cool and then, for a time, when my Mom drove a car that talked to us, I thought we were pretty cool too.

Airwolf?  Come on, a badass helicopter that ascends from the inside of a mountain and flies off into action…what’s not to love?!

MacGyver.  He fixes things.  He blows things up.  He creates tools to escape certain impending doom, just in the nick of time.  He creates all that awesomeness out of nothing more than the lint in his pocket and a stray hair.  Yup, MacGyver rocks.

And then there’s the A-Team.  It’s impossible to not smile at big tough B.A. Baracus who needs a sedative to fly…a strong one.  There was Face, who thought he was all that and then some.  Hannibal who pulled everything together.  And with whackadoodle Murdock, the team was complete for whatever mission needed to be pulled off.

Yes, there’s a huge amount of cheese factor in these shows from the ‘80s.  But, as a kid, they were fast moving, kept me entertained and essentially rocked.  They gave me a love for a kind of entertainment that I may have not liked otherwise.

Those shows carried over to movies and I remember watching Bond, James Bond, with Dad too.  And now I love “television” shows like 24, though I streamed the whole series from Netflix on my laptop.  And Hubs and I never have to compromise when it comes to movies because while I do love a good chick flick, Action Adventure and Thrillers (and science fiction, but that’s a whole other post!) are not genres I shy away from.

I know I saw a lot of other things when I was a kid, but those shows are what stick out to me when I think of television during those years.  They are spokes on a wheel and I'm so thankful that I have such a variety of spokes to be entertained by, whether by 'TV', movie, book, music, or live show.

Mandy and Elena are guest hosting The Red Dress Club with this RemebeRED prompt:  TV is something that people either watch a lot of or have definite feelings about. This week, we want you to think about a tv show from your past.

600 words or less, I came in (after whittling it down quite a bit) at 577.

I ended up having so much fun running down memory lane writing this!  What's playing on your television memory lane?

Mama Kat's Prompted a Confession

Prompt: 10 reasons why you could not be a real housewife from any county.

Okay, I know this is sooo not my usual kind of post.  Yes, I like to write along with Mama Kat, but I wouldn't usually choose this kind of prompt.....but, I had to.  Will ya roll with me?  Hope so!

Confession:  Yes, I watch the Real Housewives of insert city/county name on Bravo.  Yes, I admit it.  I watch.  And yes, I enjoy it too.  It's a total guilty pleasure.  I laugh out loud.  I gasp so many times at shocking behavior that my husband often just goes to bed because he's sick of seeing if something is wrong with me.  New York was my favorite, but oh how I miss Bethenny...thank goodness she has her own show on Bravo now, Bethenny Ever After.  Yup, guilty pleasures.

And while I'm technically a housewife (can't stand that word...just not a label I use for myself), I oh so could not be a 'Real' housewife of New York, New Jersey, or Orange County.  (I haven't seen Beverly Hills, Atlanta, or Miami.)

1)  I have not had any plastic surgery in the augmentation category (I have had surgeries by plastic surgeons on my face after the accident, but that was sewing me back together again and later, removing large dense hunks of scar tissue so my face would move!).

2)  I've never had work done on my face and then claimed it was a result of the product I'm hawking. (See the italics in #1).

3)  I do not have three nannies.  I do not have two nannies.  I do not have one nanny.  And other than my Mom taking the kidlets a handful of times, I've never even had a babysitter.

4)  My clothing budget is far closer to the bill for their lunch and I've never been into name brands for anything other than quality or a particular design.  I don't like things because somebody told me I should like it. (I'm an Aquarius, we like to champion underdogs.)

5)  I don't have a housekeeper, though I'm on a global search for Mary Poppins to come sing a song and whisk everything away to where it belongs!  If you see her, please do send her this way.  I'm nice and willing to share.

6)  I think bling is the metal studs on my daughter's Hello Kitty t-shirt and gems on a fabulous papercraft.

7)  I don't need or get a new car every season.  I drive a nice, not inexpensive car, it's ten years old, and that's okay with me.  I like Lizzy!

8)  I don't have a dog.  I have a cat.  She's old.  Her name is Bonnie.

9)  I don't live in a major city where a Real Housewives show would be filmed.  I can go visit those places though.  And all of that is just fine with me!

10)  I don't trash my friends.  Period.

Do you watch Real Housewives?  Do you have a guilty pleasure?  Oh come on, share....I promise I won't say a word!

Thank You Temple Grandin & HBO

HBO's Temple Grandin movie won big at the 2010 Emmy's tonight and can I just say, I couldn't be happier. 

I'm not a movie reviewer or a celebrity blogger, so I won't attempt to do either.  But, may I just say, if you have not had the great fortune to see HBO's movie Temple Grandin, sharing some of the life of the autism advocate (living with autism) herself, please do. 

Don't wait.  It is worth the dollars to purchase or rent it (if money is tight, see it with a group of friends & split the cost).  It is worth the time as you will come away with a richer understanding of not only people with autism and their families, but of humanity as a whole.

As I have mentioned before, autism is part of our family, part of our daily lives.  And so, yes, this has personal meaning to me.  But, I do believe it is something everyone should see and I hope you do.  If you haven't already, please do meet a hero, Temple Grandin.