Category Archive

So did you miss me huh yeah huh? I missed being here. Yes I found some fun visiting family. Too bad mom didn’t make lasagna. If I don’t make it home for the holidays that will be sorely missed again.

The best part of the vacation was when all the kids got together, seven or so, I say or so because sometimes I throw in my two teenage brothers with my kids and all the nieces and nephews…not every girl can say her mom was pregnant at her wedding, my wedding I mean, come on people, pay attention.

SO anyway, when all these relations under the age of tween play together, they really play together. They are like magnets. I had freedom, well not too much freedom because I’m sure if I left the house someone would have noticed and dragged me back in least I forget my three contributions to the pack.

Now I play the waiting game before school and preschool starts. There is orientation, band camp and the thought of my daughter writing her back to school essay on what she did this summer… I always wonder what teachers think when she tells what I’m sure sound like tall tales of her summers in rural upstate-NY skateboarding or bike riding with her uncle. I know he is only 16 but could she share that with her readers… my gosh, I need therapy. It is always a great laugh and I wonder when they will take my kids away for all the things I’m sure they are thinking.

Any bizarre tales of your family that you just wish your children would keep to themselves in case it might be misconstrued… like the thought that my brother is my contemporary, a 30 something skate boarder… hey wait, I think I saw one of them at the X-Games. Okay, a little young to be my contemporary, I’m the oldest, I mean I’m older than the rest of them…I think it is time for me to end this post.

I just love the tea. So I thought I’d revisit Calm-a-Sutra and share another cute little video from YouTube. Really it is sweet. Not ROFL but if you’re a tea drinker it just may be your thing. Really, don’t take that personally, I have three cats, I can imagine coffee drinkers would be more associated with cat owners. On the edge…I wonder how my vacation is going?

Here is Simply Tea-rrific, a commercial used for the 2008 TeaUsa.org Calm-A-Sutra national scholarship competition.

Beijing 2008 Olympics - Carnival China at BigShoes. Go to our opening post on China’s lucky 08/08/08 on the Beijing Summer Olympics. We’ll be running Carnival China throughout the Olympics to keep you up-to-date at your convenience so check back at BigShoes often and visit Today.com for the many other bloggers who are keeping us up-to-date on the Olympics and news out of Beijing. Happy Summer Olympics!

Okay, earlier this week when I showed you the two street tea pourers I thought maybe that was some fringe city street thing. But no, straight from the Lao She Teahouse in Beijing, here are two professional acrobatic tea-pourers. At least they are a safe distance from the crowd. No hacks here.

I recommend going to Lao She Teahouse in Beijing. I can see from YouTube that this looks like the place to be.

Enjoy!

Beijing 2008 Olympics - Carnival China at BigShoes. Go to our opening post on China’s lucky 08/08/08 on the Beijing Summer Olympics. We’ll be running Carnival China throughout the Olympics to keep you up-to-date at your convenience so check back at BigShoes often and visit Today.com for the many other bloggers who are keeping us up-to-date on the Olympics and news out of Beijing. Happy Summer Olympics!

Okay the wonder bra wasn’t funny ha ha yesterday but this is funny. Here is a Chinese Food Prank Call from PranksterX at YouTube. I was never one to try a prank call. The closest I got was messing with my husband one April Fool’s day when I had someone call and tell him our new car was being recalled.

This isn’t your run of the mill prank phone call; this is original, very cool. Enjoy!

Beijing 2008 Olympics - Carnival China at BigShoes. Go to our opening post on China’s lucky 08/08/08 on the Beijing Summer Olympics. We’ll be running Carnival China throughout the Olympics to keep you up-to-date at your convenience so check back at BigShoes often and visit Today.com for the many other bloggers who are keeping us up-to-date on the Olympics and news out of Beijing. Happy Summer Olympics!

Not to be confused with street musicians. What??? The person at YouTube called this tea-kongfu. They were doing this in the middle of the street…hey don’t you need a permit for this. And there were little children walking around too. Hey watch out, you might poke somebody’s eye out with that thing.

Tea anyone?

Beijing 2008 Olympics - Carnival China at BigShoes. Go to our opening post on China’s lucky 08/08/08 on the Beijing Summer Olympics. We’ll be running Carnival China throughout the Olympics to keep you up-to-date at your convenience so check back at BigShoes often and visit Today.com for the many other bloggers who are keeping us up-to-date on the Olympics and news out of Beijing. Happy Summer Olympics!

I’m sorry I couldn’t resist. Someone please tell me Monty Python is universally accepted. I think this bit cuts out the parts about the nuclear bomb at the beginning, so a bit of the Monty Python satire is missing in the setup I think, but the guy that did this is definitely a Monty Python fan. You’ll see what I mean.

Beijing 2008 Olympics - Carnival China at BigShoes. Go to our opening post on China’s lucky 08/08/08 on the Beijing Summer Olympics. We’ll be running Carnival China throughout the Olympics to keep you up-to-date at your convenience so check back at BigShoes often and visit Today.com for the many other bloggers who are keeping us up-to-date on the Olympics and news out of Beijing. Happy Summer Olympics!

What can all the tea in China do for you? A lot. I’ve researched and read of numerous benefits of tea, all kinds of tea, black, oolong, green, white and everything in between. I found this commercial at YouTube from Calm-a-Sutra. There are plenty more where this came from. All fun and light, just like a refreshing cup of tea.

Here is Tea is Good from Calm-a-Sutra at YouTube:

Beijing 2008 Olympics - Carnival China at BigShoes. Go to our opening post on China’s lucky 08/08/08 on the Beijing Summer Olympics. We’ll be running Carnival China throughout the Olympics to keep you up-to-date at your convenience so check back at BigShoes often and visit Today.com for the many other bloggers who are keeping us up-to-date on the Olympics and news out of Beijing. Happy Summer Olympics!

Carol Brunett, the funny lady of TV. Who’d believe I’d find a Carol Brunett skit to play along with my Olympic theme? She’s done it all. So here is a funny bit with her and Vicki Lawrence, two friends having lunch, I mean drinks, and reading their fortunes. Ever have one of those days?

Beijing 2008 Olympics - Carnival China at BigShoes. Go to our opening post on China’s lucky 08/08/08 on the Beijing Summer Olympics. We’ll be running Carnival China throughout the Olympics to keep you up-to-date at your convenience so check back at BigShoes often and visit Today.com for the many other bloggers who are keeping us up-to-date on the Olympics and news out of Beijing. Happy Summer Olympics!

It’s here, well it’s in China! The Beijing 2008 Olympics are underway. Welcome to Today.com’s Olympic Carnival China 2008. I want to thank all of the talented Today.com writers who have contributed. You’ll be impressed at the variety of topics the writers have come up with to include in Carnival China.Let’s start things off right with Olympic Fever. Olympic Fever got an early start in June and allows us to hit the ground running. After getting caught up you better run over to What’s Hot on TV so Laura can give us the latest news on Olympic coverage. Ceremonies are Friday with opening game coverage beginning Saturday. 30 Something and Searching will cover the opening ceremonies as well.

Have you asked yourself the question “Where does one watch the Beijing Olympics Online?” Me too. Well ChicGadget has the answer.

Fashiona will tackle woman’s issues and fashion this week, covering both the athletes and the Chinese people at Fashiona, A Stylish Girl. She’ll give us the scoop on the Ralph Lauren “official” uniforms.

Not interested in fashion. One of our non-fiction book bloggers shares a review of China Ghosts. Visit Havs at Nonfiction Lover to get her opinion of Jeff Gammage’s autobiography.

Want a point of view to make you think? I have to send you over to Opinionated News because I’m on vacation. Currently she is hosting two stories and I’m sure she’ll have more. Check out:

Remind Me Why the Olympics are Being Held in Beijing, China!
Beijing is on its Mark for the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games

Philly Today will share which states are well represented in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games and Polianiac has an update on the US flag bearer. Politics 2000 is as excited to let the games begin, but takes us back into the history of foreign politics and the Olympics.

And if we are so lucky to have some sports covered, we hope to call our San Diego Back Roads blogger to cover a bit of tennis, which will be well received. Hopefully for the US Team they can work those Ralph Lauren uniforms.

And last but not least, the great divide between what we think is Chinese compared to what it is. Here’s a little incite from BigShoes when BigShoes covered Jennifer 8. Lee’s The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. Well really I covered her Stephen Colbert interview. She’s a commodity today with eight being so lucky for China. Hey look it is the first day of the Olympics and it starts on 08/08/08 at 8:08:08 p.m.

There will be many other Today.com bloggers who share the news so keep checking out Today.com for the latest.

We hope to do this again soon, so stay in touch. Happy Summer Olympics!

I’ll be leaving BigShoes for vacation sometime tomorrow and hopefully I will have some entertainment in place here and there. In particular we are celebrating the Olympics and BigShoes is hosting a carnival for a number of Today.com blogging sites who want to share news, knowledge and opinions of the 2008 Beijing Summer Games. I hope you can stop by each and every site. You won’t be disappointed since we have a lot of gold medal bloggers here.

Meanwhile I’ll be taking a break, yes a vacation, of sorts. If you have family out of town, you know the kind of vacation I’m talking about. We go back home to visit family…they size up how much our kids have grown. We’ve grown enough that we all hardly fit under the same roof as my mom, dad and two brothers. I have two sisters with families of their own, who I’ve had enough sense not to fill their house with enough kids of late so that the adults are not outnumbered. So it is squished at my mom’s in what used to be my small bedroom…now a sewing room…thanks for the love mom, for me and my husband.

If I’m lucky I will have contact with the outside world via the internet, but chances are sometime slim to none and I’m lucky if our cell phones work in some valley or briefly while our car travels some hill. So if you leave comments and they don’t appear for a week, you know why.

What are you doing this summer?

I have to yell it from the rooftops…check out my new blog WritelyApplied at Today.com, especially if you want to explore your creativity. We are in the early stages of setting up creative workspaces for us to post stories and poems to, brainstorm and support each other.

Writely Applied is a vision inspired by the incredible journalist, Nellie Bly who said “Energy rightly applied and directed will accomplish anything.”

The vision is about writing…any writing, all writing and no writing in particular. It is a vision of writer’s resources. Not just for journalists, bloggers, novelists or poets. It is a library, a stationary shop, a café with WiFi. It is wherever you are when you are writing, thinking about writing or reading about writing. It is you if you want to be a writer.

So what are you waiting for? Join us at WritelyApplied today!

Well BigShoes has received an award from Gay Lifestyle. BigShoes is recognized as “a blog that covers just about anything you would not see anywhere else. She has some interesting reads.” Nobody told her I forget to write about shoes often but I guess she is letting that slide. Thanks for the Arte y Pico award Blondiewrites and kudos for your work at Gay Lifestyle.

This is so exciting and I received this award at the same time I launched WritelyApplied at Today.com. So this is a BigShoes week.

I’m given the Arte y Pico award with the distinct honor of passing the same award on to five other bloggers. Ooh…share the BigShoes I always say.

So here are five that I think are noteworthy (although there are oh so many to choose from).

For a Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic – Ummm, that’s Fapipo to you. Fapipo is stories and pictures from a slightly skewed point of view. Keep her away from your food and pet ants.

The Latest – Yes, BigShoes avoids most fashion talk, but if I can give an award out, I’m giving it out to The Latest. This is the place you want to window shop.

Philly Today – You don’t have to live in Philly to love Philly. Visit Philly Today for observational humor, east coast news and more.

Waxing Poetically – News and Lifestyle with a Twist of Poetry from Mikeywriteswell…it is a twist of social genius that is becoming a rare commodity, and yes, Mikey does write well.

The Fab 40s – Last but not least…you’ll be shocked to know that I am giving out this award before this site has even launched. I can do that because I wear the BigShoes. The writer of this blog is the conservative voice of Conservative Politics. Girlfriend can blog, so I don’t have any reservations saying go over to The Fab 40s and sign up for her newsletter…unless of course you’re not 40. However I’m sure if you’re 50-ish and want to be 40 you’ll be welcome…and if you’re 30-ish and want to be 40 you’ll just have to wait your turn.

Now it is your turn to award someone. Here are the rules for this award:

1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award-winning, has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4) Award-winning and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y Pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5) To show these rules.

Let’s talk shoes! Hey, it’s for a great cause. I just read about Dashiel Alsup and he gets recognition from BigShoes for his charity walk to raise awareness in the Soles4Souls international shoe charity.

Soles4Souls provides free footwear for the needy worldwide. To support their efforts, 19 year-old Dashiel Alsup, called Dash, from Canon City Colorado, decided to start a trek in Ocean Shores WA barefoot.

To read about Dash’s trek, read his travelling journal A Single Pebble, Walking Barefoot Across America. He adds to it as the opportunity arises.

Soles4Souls can also be contacted at 866-521-SHOE or www.giveshoes.org (www.soles4souls.org) to learn more about their program.

I’ll keep you up-to-date on the next National Barefoot Week coming in June 2009.

Remember the tricycle scene from The Shining? Oh yeah. I loved that movie too. I remember reading the book as a teenager when it came out and scaring the crap out of myself late at night. Nicholson was the best. I can’t believe SciFi remade that movie with what’s his name and what’s her name. I’m not looking it up.

So, if you’re a Shining fan here is something you have to check out. Like someone said at YouTube it would be so great to do this with the whole movie. I’d love to do it with a lot of movies really…I wonder if they could do this with Jaws…you knew I was wondering that didn’t you?

BigShoes was tagged by Chronic Pain Today, so I’m putting on my sprinting shoes and going to spread the fun. Usually I’m not into chain letters, but this is blogging, I’ll certainly get over it…I hope however that I haven’t cursed you all with the chains I’ve broken of envelopes seeking recipes, tea towels and money…no wait that one was a pyramid scheme.

Here are the rules:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

Here are my six quirks.

1. I’m LOUD at home…remember that Saturday Night Live skit? Or maybe I’m deaf, I can’t hear a word my husband says…
2. I hyper focus on my projects, much to the dismay of my family
3. I rearrange items in the fridge…I have a small fridge from the 70’s, I’m overcompensating for its flaws
4. Only I can load the dishwasher properly, REALLY
5. I will watch favorite movies over and over again…JAWS comes to mind
6. I like to warm my coffee or tea mug before it is filled…it is only proper

And you got tagged if you are listed below…hopefully you will receive my comment saying as much, if not then I didn’t say it LOUD enough across the internet.

Waxing Poetically
A Poets Word
Creative Writing
Mental Health Humor
Conservative Politics
The Daily Dish Recipes

I thought for Sunday…into Monday of course, I’d share some poetry with you all. I’d write you a poem but I don’t have it in me today. The last poem I started about a week ago had to do with one of my favorite shows, Psych, in honor of its season premiere. I’ll have to finish it and post it some day.

I went to visit Mags and she has a poem called The Woman in Me posted at the Magnolia Diaries. Tell her hello!

The second is a new blogger at Today. Ariana over at A Poet’s Word is refreshing. Her site reminds me of carefree books of poetry, journals used to write for no one in particular, but everyone we meet. I still write poetry when I have time. Ariana makes me want to write it more.

You’ll really love her site and you can participate in creating a poem with other readers on her Create a Poem page.

And as icing on the cake how about a poem with some music…here is Masiela Lusha’s Call Us Women with Romance in D flat.

This past Tuesday was my husband and mine’s 19th wedding anniversary. We weren’t going to do anything fancy, nothing too special between shuttling our oldest to play rehearsal and watching the little sisters.

While running errands my husband had the good fortune of coming across what I can only explain as one of the most decadent creations on the face of the earth. Aside from my love of chocolate, I love citrus and in particular I love Key Lime Pie…and don’t you know he came home with Key Lime Pie Fudge from Gertrude Hawk Chocolates?

Who ever heard of such a thing, certainly not me? Oh pity me! This stuff was a perfect cross between Key Lime Pie and Key Lime Pie Cheesecake. I mean, I thought the See’s Truffles were great but Key Lime Pie Fudge and a glass of ice tea?

Chocolate or Citrus, what’s your poison?

Here’s a band I found on YouTube called Good Shoes. I’m not playing them because they are called Good Shoes, okay yes I am. This song is called We Are Not The Same. I like it, the song and the video. The video is incredible and I hope you enjoy it. And you’ve never heard me push shoes at BigShoes, but if you were to go out and buy shoes, you better make them Good Shoes…and tell them Violette sent you.

Men at Work signs are sexist. At least that is what the city of Atlanta was told and bowed down to. It seems the editor of a women’s magazine called PINK (where are the legal teams for Victoria’s Secret and Juicy Couture when you need them) has declared them sexist and they shall be removed. She even made the Today show.

This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of. If this is the best cause a woman can come up with then one certainly needs to consider one’s sanity. In therapy they call this the case of the “shoulds.”

Just consider for one second if everybody who thinks something “SHOULD” be a certain way got their way, right or wrong. If we all had a sense of entitlement on how things “SHOULD” be.

Can Mrs. Good (yes I said Mrs., that is if she is using her husband’s name), can she find something better to do with her time like assist less fortunate women in getting better education and jobs in the inner cities? Maybe she does, I don’t know that she doesn’t, but it certainly didn’t make the national news.

I think Cynthia Good should foot the bill for replacement signs so the money doesn’t come from something more important that the city needs, like a lawyer.

Since PINK is a magazine published in Atlanta Georgia (with a female mayor), I imagine she has a little more pull and probably her influence will remain local. One would hope. Mary Lynn at Marylynnformation is a PINK Magazine subscriber, a smart one at that. She brings up some very good points about why PINK Magazine editor Cynthia Good should tread lightly.

Let’s list some Good causes to consider. What would be your most important cause for women?

My inspiration for Sunday is a bit long but well worth it. How about a little motivation for the week? Set aside last week’s bad baggage (I didn’t complain about it all yesterday, but we can leave it at the door…how about that pesky neighbor’s door…just kidding). Clear the mind, clean the soul, find something positive to think and do.

Hey, this is not a movie, put the popcorn away. Hush, close your eyes, never mind there are subtitles, keep your eyes open…I’ll just shut up now. Here are the words of inspirational, motivational speaker, Jim Rohn with Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own…yes that is U2 music, what did you expect? Enjoy…

Is this unbelievable or what? A 60-year-old man lied this week about seeing two sharks near the shoot sight of the movie Jaws…I didn’t pay him, honest. A few beaches were closed a day here and there.

How timely, I really had nothing to do with it. He must be the number one Jaws fan. Hey, he’s going to jail, that will make me number one legally since he can’t hold any offices in jail. The news reported that they didn’t know if he had a lawyer. Here’s a clue, the man needs a doctor not a lawyer.

Hey look, it’s July…it’s the weekend…going to the beach anyone?

Da dant…da dant…da da da daaaah dant…. The Jaws theme in my head…hey my daughter plays this for me on her marching band baritone!

I missed Jaws!!!! I cannot believe I missed it. I must have let my daughters watch something because I remember it was raining…hmmm, Harry Potter, maybe that was it. We did catch Jaws 2. Roy Scheider was still in that one and the woman who played his wife, Lorraine Gary…and the Mayor and some of those annoying towns’ people. Richard Dreyfuss couldn’t make it of course, and hopefully you remember what happened to Quint in the first movie.

I was too tired for Jaws 3, I mean Jaws 3D which was the one where we gave Lorraine Gary as Ellen Brody a vacation…but she now has a cute all grown up son, Randy Quaid. I didn’t even know that movie was 3D. I still haven’t checked it out with 3D glasses.

What is even more unbelievable is Jaws The Revenge (Jaws 4). Maybe they thought it would sell better if it wasn’t numbered. There we have the now crazy Ellen Brody with a love interest played by Michael Caine…they were making up for her not having an affair in Jaws (I hear that was in Peter Benchley’s novel, she slept with the Mayor or her boss…both gross).

What do I care, I own the DVD…what I really want to know is when Ellen Brody gets eaten by a shark.

So do you still watch movies that you’ve seen before, and even yet, actually own a copy of in your movie library?

What is 4th of July weekend without a viewing of Jaws? I know. It is already Sunday and you may have missed your opportunity. Don’t fret, I’ve got you covered. Here is Jaws in 60 seconds…okay a minute and a half but is it really any different then the amount of time they make you wait before a movie starts when you go to the theatre?

Well, let’s get this over so you can tell everybody at the water cooler that you of course caught Jaws this weekend.

Stuck indoors…I haven’t forgotten if it rains this weekend! Here’s our rainy day link love.

What’s Hot on TV…says it all, you can read up on what you will watch for the week.

Want to go to the movies? If you fancy a trip to the theatre or want to hole up for a bit until the sun comes back out Movie Reviews, Opinions and Theories is covering it all, new and old. You can also pop over to Movies36 for some great movie news and wonder reviews of My Mom’s New Boyfriend, Australia and Ghost Town. Makes me want to do a little rain dance so I can go to the movies…

Movies not your thing, then check out the book section of Today. Sometimes it is as fulfilling to read some book reviews when you don’t have time to read a whole book. It’s like window shopping ladies…well for some anyway.

I know I mentioned a few book sites the other day, but I’ve come across some more book bloggers who I enjoy as well. Reading is Sexy says it all. It has great in depth reviews. And while Literary News is on vacation we are privy to all the upcoming literary festivals and other news and stories from the literary world. It is certainly worth a peek.

Let’s not leave the gaming world wanting more. I have to live vicariously through my daughter’s gaming until I get a clue. She just downloaded some games on her new iPod and I’m amazed, videos, music, games…wow. I used to be so technically advanced.

Well, if you’re like me or otherwise experienced you can visit Female Gamer and Game Source to get the news and reviews on gaming.

I really hope it isn’t raining where you are but hope there has been a bit of something for everyone this week. Take your time recovering from the holiday and we will be chatting again soon.

Have a BigShoe weekend!

One of my favorite things about 4th of July is the movie Jaws. I love a lot of shark and sea monster movies actually, even the SciFi creations. I don’t know why, I don’t swim so I don’t know if it should scare me. I also love Peter Gabriel’s song I Go Swimming. Let’s marry the two…

Happy 4th of July!

Are you travelling tomorrow as soon as work ends? Maybe with the price of gas you want to stay close to home. Maybe if it rains you’ll visit us at Today and do some virtual travel.

Yes, I’m an armchair traveler. Freelance writing sometimes gives me the opportunities to visit wonderful places and meet a lot of great people. Yesterday online I met Grugger at his site Gruggersway - Retired and Restless, it is refreshing. He’s taken up RV’ing and it makes me dream of an empty nest day here and there where I can just hit the road and have some peace and quite. He has an important message regarding the next heat advisory currently running at Gruggersway.

Want some great views, check out Travel Daily. There is a seat saved for us by the beach in Tamarindo Costa Rica. But if you really want to travel or NOT, check out The Travel Chick. Here are the summer vacation ideas, from being a tourist at home to considering train travel; this is the spot to plan some summer get a ways!

You can go off the beaten path and check out some Swimminholes. That will be my daughter’s personal favorite as she knows of some cool ones in upstate-NY.

Speaking of which, if you are travelling with the kids, don’t forget to visit Have Kids Will Travel. If you’ve run out of game and book ideas, here you can find a few more.

Whatever your pleasure, visit us more at BigShoes for a daily dose of rant, or during a lazy day in summer when we visit with our Today friends.

Food glorious food, hot sausage and mustard…when you’re in the mood… remember that from Oliver, one of my favorite songs, and so apropos for the holiday. Food people, you’re going to need some food for Friday. It is almost here. If you forgot to invite some people get cracking. Going some place, you need to bring some food man!

This week is all about the best of Today. Well, I’m sure I don’t have enough space and time to tell you about all the great Today.com bloggers but with the 4th of July looming we have to take care of some things.

Food. Let’s start with the food. The Daily Dish has it going on. I need all those helpful hints and photos to boot. Although I’m certain my cooking photos are more exciting…nothing like a nice kitchen fire to light up things for Easter.

The Daily Dish has some perfect pool party foods for you and money saving tips for the Fourth. If you like salmon she has the perfect recipe this week for that as well.

Have vegetarian friends? I used to be one of those until my second pregnancy when I wanted to swallow a whole cow. I may return to those days and I have a husband who still enjoys it more than beef. If you have friends and family of this ilk (no that’s not a bad word) then check out Easy Vegetarian. I’m going to enjoy the Balsamic-Glazed Portobello Mushroom recipe she posted.

Don’t forget the beer! Hey, it’s the Fourth! Beer & Me has all the beer news…yes there is some news about beer.

Don’t forget the music! Did I say it was the 4th of July? Let’s get this party started! Classic Rock to cover everybody.

And don’t forget a good book when you are by the pool, you know the last one reviewed by Book Review Today! Wait here’s some non-fiction if you’re in the mood…Non-Fiction Lover works in a library, she’s got an in on what’s hot.

Tune in again to see what I’ve found for the Fourth of July at Today.

So what are you bringing to the party?

I’m still wearing my birthday shoes. Why not? The older you get the longer you should celebrate.

Yesterday it was U2…today Genesis and Alice in Wonderland. Again, why not? Trust me, I was alive when this Genesis song came out, but not quite aware of who Genesis and Peter Gabriel were. I thought this was really cool.

And Peter Gabriel…I saw this tour…MY FIRST CONCERT…you never forget your first. Oh man, I touched Peter Gabriel at SPAC in Saratoga Springs when he did the crowd surf (but a mere high-schooler was I, about sixteen). I saw one YouTube of the surf where he made it to about row two because nobody knew what to do with him. By the time he made it to SPAC he was travelling across the crowd. Here is a quote from a YouTube viewer on this: “I believe he was one of the first to do a crowd surf. My mom said it was great watching his body float around the arena.” Like I need to be reminded that Peter Gabriel is old and I’m old.

The crowd surf videos weren’t too impressive so here is a clip of Peter Gabriel on Italian TV doing the song Lay Your Hands on Me that made the crowd surf popular…oh, and he does Shock the Monkey too. Two for One!

What do I want for my birthday? Ummm wouldn’t it be cool if U2 had a new album and were expected to tour again…soon.

Oh, I might be able to have that? Cool. Never say never when it comes to U2 I always say.

It’s my birthday and I’m posting this beautiful happy birthday song that Bono and the Edge sang for Nelson Mandella at Friday’s Nelson Mandela at 90 concert in Hyde Park.

I was going to share All I Want Is You from U2’s Rattle and Hum with you but no YouTube does that recording justice so I found this cool music video made by partygirlvox of their Fast Cars from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb…Rock ON!

Today I went in search of funny shoes. Unfortunately what many perceive as funny look extremely painful to me…if used for a shoe anyway. Here is the link to the funny shoe photos, and here is my commentary…

I found a pair of boxing shoes, nice if you are a clown. Definitely looking funny and red, the red works. I’ll skip the painful shoes in the next photo with the nails and the next pair of funny shoes after that made of black squares isn’t funny, not funny ha ha anyway.

The next pair of long shoes, which double as a pair of pants laced all the way to the top, make me want to go pee. That is right, even though my feet are the prisoners in these shoes; I think that I can’t get out of those pants to pee.

The gold pair with no toes or support for the front bottom of my feet would make my arches hurt. Who buys these things? These ladies are definitely lounging around all day in their funny shoes.

Metal shoes, really, as open as they are they make me want to pee to, as if I’m a prisoner of some sort with no bathroom facilities. Do you ever notice how when you don’t have a place to go, you think you have to go? These shoes say this to me.

The funny shoe art work with the man heel is cool. I do think it says something about the artist, but what it says depends on if the artist is a man or a woman. Wouldn’t you like to know?

Shoes and socks all in one…I’m not going to say it but you know what I’m thinking.

Now the peacock funny shoes, that is working, very novel, fun, not too painful.

But then the soccer player shoes, is that glued to his foot? I’d be scrunching my feet all the time trying to keep those babies on. You know how you do when you walk in sand and your sandals want to slip off?

Square shoes? Really? They make me think of calla lilies and an Asian wedding for some reason.

And the weird boots, just too weird. They look like too much work though for the amount of weirdness you are hoping to attract. What happens if you attract the wrong weirdness?

Do you think how we perceive shoes would be important to our therapists?

Sunday Inspiration…okay, maybe I’ll let you enjoy it Monday too. Here’s a YouTube that was nominated as Most Creative Video in the 2007 YouTube Awards. It comes to us from Philip Scott Johnson and is called 500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art.

The music playing in the background is Bach’s Sarabande from Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 performed by Yo-Yo Ma.

A complete list of artists and paintings is posted at http://www.maysstuff.com/womenid.htm

Thank you for visiting BigShoes.

I was complaining about Good Morning America yesterday and how it is basically an oxymoron to get good news from GMA. I wondered if I was the only one with feelings like this and low and behold Warrior Girl who also writes at DomesticGlamor stopped by and after telling me her morning coffee is after organizing the kids, she said “[I] stay far away from the news.”

Do you start to think moms are the most uninformed people on the earth? Think about it, have you seen the content that passes for news these days?

Pretty much she is right to stay away from the news. News is pretty much inappropriate for children. If you need weather there is the weather channel, if you need traffic you can get that on most cable weather channels, what do you need the news for? Local news is good but there is more fluff than news. Any report of accidents or crime is more for shock value than to warn anybody.

I think real warnings should probably be reported on the weather channel as well. How about a crime map that tells me how many criminals there are in the different regions near my home and what the real percentages are of danger to me personally. I think we’d find that all these crime news stories are really less informative and less relative to us than the weather and pollen map. There is more of a chance that I’ll sneeze at a dandelion or perhaps need an umbrella than a chance that I should pack a gun and some mace in my purse.

I checked out Warrior Girl’s other site, Wonderlanding, her blog about finding joy in the adventure of everyday living. She calls that blogspot her “happy pages” and rightfully so. We all need happy pages…happy pages to write, to read and to share with each other. Weather should be shared…even traffic and pollen should be shared…but more importantly happiness should be shared.

All comments today should be happy thoughts.

You have to see this. I need to direct you to the Gazette.Net to refer to the article Lawmakers get out their dancing shoes. Under the photo to the left click the link to watch the video.

Are you done? My gosh I don’t know about the rest of you but how old are your elected officials? Were any of these people over 40?

I could only think that if we got all elected officials to do things like this to raise money…or just to have fun, that perhaps they would get along better to get things done. I hope they didn’t misappropriate funds to pay for a choreographer. Can I hear it for the House? The Senate? Anyone?

Your thoughts?

Well my Silly Sunday video I selected for Father’s Day. It is just commentary about what the day is all about. Let the kids pick out the tie; it doesn’t really matter if dad has a closet full of odd ties. He’ll wear them anyway, whether to work, church or any special occasion…like the next school event just to embarrass you. Remember kiddos, those ties are the gift that keeps on giving.

Time to fess up readers, what is the goofiest tie you ever bought someone? What is the goofiest tie you ever received? Did either ever come back to haunt you?

Some thunderstorms left me inactive last night when I usually post but I’m back! And today I want to talk about napping. No jokes, let’s talk about a serious issue. Sleep. Well, I don’t know how serious but I certainly have it rated near the top of my list for daily remedies for ensured wellness. That sounds good, how about we take note to sleep every day.

Okay, I’m a night owl, you can’t see my timestamp but since I was a teenager I’ve been hyper focusing in areas of creativity throughout all hours of the night. Now that I’m a mom it is really the only time I have some peace and quiet let alone when I feel most creative. While I keep saying I will get up early before the kids awake and get loads of things done, hah, I find that is when I like to sleep.

So what do I do to make up for any lack of sleep? I nap. N-A-P, nap! Well I try to anyway. I’ve heard naps are making a come back and actually naps are quite popular in a few countries. I really should leave the states for a more sleep friendly country.

Surprisingly enough many people study sleep and in particular, taking naps. Did you know that the results of a NASA study show 24-minute naps improve pilot alertness on trans-Atlantic flights? Here is a great article from Science Times, New Respect for the Nap, a Pause That Refreshes, by Jane E. Brody. You can learn all you can about why power napping is safer than microsleeps there.

If you are truly into all the updates in the field of sleep, try subscribing to NAPS, the free weekly update of New Abstracts and Papers in Sleep (NAPS). Just don’t tell anybody you did…

How’s your relationship with sleep? Do you need to cheat and take naps during the day?

I have to share with you the premiere issue of A Distinctive Style Magazine that debuted this June.

This interactive digital magazine is set to bring you wonderful content and advertisements. It features eco-friendly products, creative works of art, topics on beauty and fitness, summer recipes and more…all in one easy to read format. I wish all magazines came in this clutter free format. For fun it is interspersed with video and audio clips. How cool is that?

We have to thank the editors and creators of this well thought out piece and hope they are successful in the future to bring us more.

Please check back and tell me what you think. One of our WAHM members actually wrote three articles for this magazine.

Another laid back Sunday. Here is a kitten on a carpet playing with some shoes in front of a mirror. The light music in the background is “Scherzo” from “The Spirit Within” CD by Sue Carney.

So for all the cat and kitten fans out there, this one’s for you.

So for all the cat and kitten fans out there, this one’s for you. It’s Kitten Mirror and Shoes – Kopy Kitten found at YouTube.

What’s your favorite baby animal that you could just watch for hours? I loved my pet parrot conure when we brought it home as a baby with no feathers. He was in a fish tank and I had to feed him a homemade mixture of protein goop through a syringe.

Here is a slideshow of Alexei Butirisky paintings with the music, Night Calls by Joe Cocker. You’ll note the snowy nature of some of them, please know it is June now and we are starting to feel the heat… Have a great Sunday and rest of your week.

Well what is going on with some of my ladies tonight? Lets start at Vintage Thirty with Tootsie Speaks…show her we’re listening. Very funny piece gals, you’ll love the commentary.

Over at Nanny Goats in Panties…you just can’t say that enough… she wants to know what the coolest or most unusual thing we’ve seen at a wedding is…I’m still thinking, maybe you all can help her out.

Meanwhile Magnolia’s talking about the real Rules of Engagement at The Magnolia Diaries in light of the Sarah and George split. Sarah who, George, I got it. Anybody noticed all the hotties are becoming available. And they only thought women were in sync.

Well, hope you don’t mind another day of link love…it has been a busy time as a temporary single mom of three (oh DH come home soon).

Tune in tomorrow for some inspiration.

For those that didn’t figure it out yet, I like the funny men. It is sad news that we lost one today. For all you Harvey Korman fans…especially the ones who remember how he couldn’t keep from laughing within two feet of Tim Conway, this one’s for you.

It is hard to pick my favorite Harvey Korman skit, or movie, but I enjoyed the Mama skits with Vicki Lawrence. And my all time favorite was the spoof on Gone With the Wind…Carol was a hoot in that too!

What was your favorite Harvey Korman skit? Or would you have way too hard a time choosing as well?

The three men in my life, my husband, Stephen Colbert and Dr. Oz. Could you imagine my surprise while working late the other night when I heard Stephen Colbert introduce Dr. Mehmet Oz? He’s my favorite doctor and I always wonder why he is the one on Discovery Health and Dr. Phil is the one on network television. I guess my tastes are just more refined…side note, that is not to say that Dr. Phil should be moved to Discovery Health…he should just be moved off television.

Well, he visited Stephen Colbert and my husband wondered why I ran from the computer to the couch for a six minute interview…quality not quantity I always say, and it is not often the view is doubly good on the Colbert Report.

Here’s the video to Dr. Oz on the Colbert Report talking about men’s health and sex, yes it was a good night, and his new book You: The Owner’s Manual, which I will be buying my husband for my birthday, I mean his birthday.

If you want to buy chocolate you’ve come to the right place. I had no idea I’d been talking about it so much but all things chocolate now grace the front of my blog. I had to check out those chocolate bras and shoes, yes chocolate shoes…in color only, not flavor. Chocolate for every walk of life too, cheap, expensive, seasonal; this will make things easier for my husband when he goes out of town again and leaves me with three kids…he’ll have to send me chocolate for his birthday and stock up on some for Father’s Day…especially since I didn’t win the See’s gift certificate giveaway at Vintage Thirty today. Funny, I wonder how that See’s ad got over there in my sidebar.

So, if you have a blog and you wonder where all of your chocolate ads went, they are over here at BigShoes…and I’m not crying about it.

Oh, it is a good day. I was visiting Nanny Goats in Panties yesterday… I know that’s hard to say out loud so I consider it a two for one that I can crack up twice in one day from reading one post. She was discussing her petrified mac n’ cheese, the result of inappropriate microwaving, which of course leads me to believe she is a packaged mac n’ cheese girl and maybe not the connoisseur of edible, two-, three- or four-cheese baked yummy goodness. As a native of chilly upstate-NY we’ve probably cornered the market on comfort food out east. Meanwhile she gives a shout out to her friend Tootsie Farklepants at Vintage Thirty…well any friend of Nanny Goat’s is a friend of mine.

So I go to visit Tootsie and she is giving away a gift certificate to See’s Candies…real See’s chocolate. Oh, remember how I wanted some for Mother’s Day…yes he shipped a box of See’s truffles to me and I am down to but a few small morsels. So I had to enter my name of course and am so crossing my fingers and toes…and eyes. I mean, come on, I must have the record for the most See’s Candies links in a post. Today.com must think I work for them or something…Not.

Don’t just visit Tootsie for the See’s Candies certificate contest…visit her for her wit, sarcasm and way with pet peeves.

Some funnies found around the net this evening for your enjoyment.

Check out Nanny Goats In Panties thoughts on irrelevant traffic. I’m sure she has the same problem as me and BigShoes. Don’t be in the middle of a slurp of coffee when you read a few of the searches that have driven people to her site.

Ewan Morrison wrote an interesting post about growing breasts and shrinking German men. Maybe Ewan was breastfed too long. Find the interesting article at the News Scotsman.

And while I haven’t investigated who invented the bra yet from our discussion the other day, I did come across some information on a chemist named Wallace Carothers who had much to do with our transition from silk to nylon stockings. Read Nylon revolutionizes women’s fashion.

Enjoy.

Want to take a bet on weight loss motivation? Me two, so I visited fatbet.net run by two guys who wagered to lose. Sound interesting? It sure is…a very interesting weight loss concept that I hope won’t be lost on the faint at heart. Lucky for us they decided to share their weight loss idea.

You can invite your friends in on a wager where you set your weight loss goals and any body who meets their goals wins and any body that doesn’t, well, they pay up. I am so game, I’m thinking about a little competition with some family. You know who you are…I have family that I can insult and they’ll still respect me in the morning.

The program charts your progress and there is a message board for you and your group to support each other. This is free, to use the online tool anyway, and it is totally free if you are on the winning side of your weight loss.