Nice weather....who needs it?

Afterall, there's actually some good tv on this summer!

Trying to get back in the swing of things with a T.V. post.

Thanks to TheBestInventionEver (known to some as TIVO) - I've caught up on some good summer tv this year. I'm still shocked that yes, there is good tv on this time of year. Not surprised to see that the best are all on cable channels. TV God forbid,

First up....

BURN NOTICE

Michael Westen, played the surprisingly charming Jeffrey Donovan, is a covert op spy guy who has been "burned" (hence the spiffy title) and basically cut off. The running theme of the season is spent figuring out who burned Michael and why they're setting him up, not to mention trying to get have him killed from time to time, while Mike spends his days as a do-gooder, using is spy guru techniques to help good people out of bad situations.

Overall, it's fun. It's not edge of your seat Jason Bourne action here, but it's a nice summer escape for an hour. Sassy humor dots the muted action scenes, but it's definitely worth taking a look at. I could do with the actress that plays Fiona, Michaels ex(?)girlfriend and fellow spy. But Sharon Gless plays his mom, and who doesn't miss a little Cagney and Lacey?!?

Thursday nights at 10 est, on USA, it'll be back September 13 after some little tennis competition is over.

MY BOYS

Anyone else a little in love with this show? Sure the sports metephors are WAY over done in each episode, but it's a funny show, so it's forgiven. I think the show gives a better look at real friendship than most of the shows that claim to do so - there's not all the huggy 'i'll always be here for you' moments...and frankly, for me, that's closer to real life. My friends and I are more likely to end a conversation with "Suck it up and stop being a douchebag" than anything else. Being true friends means you don't have to say it that often, ya just know. You call each other childish names and make fun of the mistakes we all make.... just like PJ and the boys.

Mondays at 10 on TBS

RESCUE ME

Ok, Denis Leary is freaking awesome, and if you didn't know that before Rescue Me, you should know it by now. It's in it's fourth season, crazier and better than ever. The drama, the smart assiness (yes, it's a word! to me!). The cast is doing more of their own stunts this year, and in last week's episode there was a single shot of a good five minute scene with tons of dialogue between Lou and Tommy, and I didn't realize it till after the fact that there were no cuts or edits for the entire segment. Not too many actors could pull that off, and not too many shows would dare to try it.

Wednesdays at 10 on FX. Denis Leary is oddly attractive to me, for some reason. Must be the biting cynicism.

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Not summer tv but THE OFFICE IS BACK IN LESS THAN A MONTH!!!!

Check out Give Me My Remote for fun office tidbits, including a wrap up of Season Three and a fabulous spoiler video released by NBC, summing up our favorite characters' summers.

K-9 Team

So I finally bit the bullet (like it was so tough!) and became an offical K-9 Team Angel today. The wonderful Ms. Kassie sent the name of my official team - handler and mwd, Ethan and Kitti.

!!!!!!

I'm just a wee bit excited. I haven't had a dog of my own in quite some time and now I get to spoil an MWD! And Ethan, can't forget about the two-legged part of the team.

If anyone's adopted a K9 team and has any care package ideas, I'm open to suggestions.

Postcard Books

One of the fun things we do with Soldiers' Angels is Postcard Books. The goal is collect at least one postcard from each of the states, usually with a message of support/thanks to send to our adoptees.

We're always looking for new ways to compile our cards and sharing ideas. Here is a little collective of different ideas from Angels on what they did to put together these awesome gifts for our Heroes. This will be updated when I get new ones to share:

Click on the thumbnails for the full version

Jane (billpayor1):



Marie (lilmuckieees_mum):

That was a bit of a hiatus

It's only been.... oh, eight months. Oops!


The new job has kept me busy and I've been a busy Angel in the past few months thanks to the help of several churches in the area that have been doing donation drives for care packages.

We're gearing up for a big Christmas Donation drive, to fill stockings and care packages for our troops. Any local angels (southeast Michigan) that would like to help out, let me know and we'll get together to talk about it. We're planning a packing party with one of the Church groups toward the end of October. I have to order my SA hoody in the meantime! I'm calling it my uniform.

I promise I'll update on a more regular basis now. I swear!

2007

2007 is already looking up!

Last week, I was offered that position with a new city that I've been salivating over for two months now. This is me - freaking ecstatic! I start January 3rd and am still a little amazed that I beat out 184 people for the job. Me! Unreal....I'm still walking on clouds over this. I'll have a job that I can actually enjoy going to and know that I'm not going to be shit on each and every day. I'll be compensated for my work like everyone else is, unlike where I'm currently at. I'll have HEALTH INSURANCE!

Mangement at my current place never quite understood the concept that it wasn't about the workload (I more than handled that), or the money (although I wasn't getting what I was supposed to, it's still decent money), or the people (I've learned that you can ignore anyone if you try hard enough). It all came down to the insurance. If I was to get sick and, God forbid, end up in the hospital without insurance I'd be in debt for the next 5 years.

I don't think I can begin to explain the amount of weight this has taken off my shoulders. Very few people know the impact this will have on not only my career, but my life overall.



HAPPY DANCE!

In Their Own Words

This is part of an email I received from a soldier I had sent a letter to last week, and is the only way I can explain when people ask why I do it what I do for our soldiers:

I RECIEVED A LETTER FROM U IN THE MAIL, AND I WANTED TO WRITE U BACK AND EXPRESS MY APPRECIATION.. ITS VERY HUMBLING KNOWING THAT SOMEONE I HAVE NEVER MET, ALTHOUGH THRU 6 SIX DEGREES OF SEPERATION PROBABLY COULD, WOULD TAKE TIME OUT OF THIS FAST PACED WORLD WE LIVE IN TO WRITE ME A LETTER... I WANT TO THANK U, AND IM SURE BY NOW YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THESE SEEMINGLY LITTLE GESTURES MEAN TO SOLDIERS DOING WHAT WE HAVE TO.

I've saved every piece of correspondence I've ever received from any of my soldiers, and will start posting snippets of them here, to show those that maybe haven't taken the step to write and/or adopt a soldier why it is so worthwhile to do so.

So expect more in the near future.


A couple more while I'm here:

Well let me start out by saying thank you for being involved in the "Soldiers Angel's". You are doing more for our troops than you could ever imagine. You lend a friendly ear where there sometimes isn't. I commend you for what you are involved in.........Thank you all again from the bottom of my heart and God Bless each and everyone of you. Please keep up to great work.

------------------

Well, I enjoy helping out here buy you and my fellow supportive Americans are my main reason for being here. I will make a large frame with your card and the dozen or so others and I will hold on to it until I have a family so they can see it when they ask about Iraq and the U.S.

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I must start off by saying thank you. I thank you for the taking the time out of your busy schedule to correspond with a stranger thousands of miles away from home. Receiving mail while out here is kind of like getting a hug from your secret crush. As every day goes by you find yourself waiting and anticipating these moments. I don’t get much mail. My family loves me but they don’t exactly know how to show it, I guess. At mail call, I usually don’t stick around to see other people’s faces light up as their names are called but today I was the one issuing out the mail. There was a box and a letter. The box belong to someone else but the letter was mine, all mine; from you.


That, y'all, is why I do it.

Bread and Tennessee!

I've been a blogger lately. With the holiday and some changes made at work, I've been busy and frankly, a little lazy with this place. I finally got some pictures back from the Tennessee/Wedding trip at the end of October, I'll throw some of those up here later today.

My charger for my laptop decided to just quit working and I had to spend 45 days on the phone with HP to get a new one. Or maybe it just seemed that long.

I recently became a mentor for Soldiers Angels and I'm super excited about that. I get to welcome lots of new angels to the (most addicting) program and help guide them along their way until they get settled in. I love sharing in that new angel joy and excitement, and it helps keep me motiviated to keep writing and sending and to stay all jazzed up about it. Sometimes we hit dry spells where we may not hear back from our official soldiers or anyone else for that matter, and the motivation to do it all starts to slip away. Then you get that one note or letter or email, or hear of another angel getting one and you get all geeked about it again.

My no-knead bread is ready to come out of the oven! Best bread ever!

UPDATE: This no-knead bread recipe (courtesy of Lotsofco) that has been sweeping the internet (the one that originated in the NYTimes is fan-freaking-tastic. So easy and the bread is AWESOME! The link is to his adapted version of it, and I'm in love with this bread. I've baked three loafs in four days and have another one rising as we speak. Addicted? Maybe just a little. Check it out:






And a few pictures from Tennessee: