On the Canal: Lazy Sunday

It's a beautiful Easter Sunday

These little flowers started blooming today


These little fish got lucky, they are too small for bait


The brisket is in the smoker


and The Boyz think it smells pretty good


This is Mike, he lives next door and thinks the brisket smells good too


Our neighbors are out and about


And so are the birds


Is that a Cheeto in his hand?


Yes it is...


Happy Easter Everyone!

Happy Birthday Brad

NBC: Product Placement

The contestant on Deal or No Deal last night proposed on stage to his fiance.
I couldn't help but notice as soon as he brought out the ring the camera focused on the Kay Jewelers logo on the box.

Now they are pushing this Celebrity Cooking Showdown, lots of opportunity there for product placements.
Country Crock anyone?

Happy Easter

The Boyz and I hope the Easter Bunny is kind to all of our readers and if you have kiddos in your family you may want to let them hop by our very silly Easter Page

See all the blogging pets at The Friday Ark
and
don't miss Sunday's Carnival of Cats this week at Begin Each Day.

Wordless Wednesday

Don't you hate it when.....

You are having a bad day and you call your significant other to get some sympathy only to have them tell you how much worse HIS day is going??

Celebrity Baby Watch

It seems you can't turn on the TV or pick up a magazine without hearing about celebrity babies.

Britney is in the news again after the nanny dropped her baby on his head.
They took the little guy to the emergency room......6 days later.

Gwenyth Paltrow's new son, named Moses, is welcomed home this week by little sister Apple.

Tom and Katie's baby is due any day now and Angelina is reported to be preparing for birth in Africa.

Brooke Shields at age 40 is having a girl next month and No Doubt's Gwen Stefani is due in June.

Now, if you want to name YOUR baby after a celebrity.....look HERE.
OR if you want to dress your baby like a celebrity....go HERE.

And if you don't care, don't pick up People Magazine for a couple of months.

Shopping: Lee and Lenny Shirts

I just saw these in a post at The Orthodox Apprentice.
Aren't they great?

The Apprentice: The Pricing Game

Hour two of The Apprentice finds our hopefuls selling some really strange looking sandwiches for the 7-11 corporation.

Leslie is anxious for her turn at PM for Gold Rush and Andrea goes for a second run for Synergy.

Both teams get right to work with marketing strategies.
Michael was happy to move over to Gold Rush and hoped to help them to a win.

Leslie and Lee quickly come to loggerheads over the pricing of the "P'EatZZa" when he feels she has lead the team down the wrong path with pricing the sandwich too high. They do agree that mini-coolers will make a great item to feature with the sandwich and Lee is off to check out the location.

Andrea chooses ball caps as the giveaway on her own.....No discussion.
The team goes with a $4.00 price point, half of what Gold Rush is asking.

Both teams seemed to be enjoying themselves the day of the task.
Lee had a big idea of selling a thousand Pizza Sandwiches to one company, but the deal fell through when price became an issue.

In the boardroom everyone is surprised to hear that even though Synergy had the lower price point, they were the winners.

While Synergy enjoys a reward of a day in Washington DC, Gold Rush finds themselves once again in the boardroom.

Leslie, though not a bad project manager is fired if for no other reason than choosing a bad price point. Oh, and for not being able to out yell Lee in the boardroom. What a way to spend your birthday.

BTW: Does anyone else think it's weird that we haven't heard Tammy speak for a couple of weeks now?

The Apprentice: Extreme Room Make-Over

This week our candidates are partnered with Ace Hardware to renovate a recreational room for Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

Lenny and Michael stepped up as PM's for their respective teams and no boardroom was more uncomfortable to watch than was the meetings they each led with the Ace Hardware and Boys and Girls club executives.

Both sides must struggle to get the task completed on time and blame this on the lack of leadership of the project managers.

Amazingly the rooms do come together and the execs bring some kids in from Boys and Girls club to check out the new rooms.

Synergy's "lounge" theme (which I personally thought sounded kind of sleazy) was the clear winner with many interactive opportunities for the kids to enjoy.
Gold Rush went with a music theme and while the kids seemed to enjoy playing on the instruments, the executives felt the mark was missed.

The winners are sent to Toys r Us to assist a little girl on a shopping spree courtesy of the Make a Wish Foundation.

The losers are of course sent to the boardroom.
Lenny tried to blame Charmaine for his loss and while he hoped Lee could help him in the boardroom, Trump saw no reason to delay the inevitable and said

"Lenny, you're fired"

The Apprentice

I'm taping the show so I can watch the new "Ten Commandments" (which by the way is not as good as I had hoped) and I popped in the other room to make sure it was taping OK and saw who got fired.
Arg!

Take me out to the Brad Ball Game

(Click for full size Brad)

We saw the Astro's play today at Minute Maid.
The roof was open and it was nice to be outside.




This one is my new desktop background





The "other" Brad

Budda's Birthday Around the WWW

Budda (560 BCE)

Tea and Flowers

The Oldest Temple

and
a B-mas tree?

School Lunches

So...Lawmakers are trying to
get the junk food out of schools.

When I was a kid, we didn't get junk food at school, we just got junk.
Like that "jello surprise" they slopped on the tray every Friday that consisted of green or red jello filled with every leftover thing we had been served during the week.
OR
The "Chicken Tetrazini" that was so odd looking, we had to look back at the menu to see what we were supposed to be enjoying that particular day.
Now THAT'S a school lunch!

Friday Cat Blogging

I had some time between appointments yesterday and did a little Spring shopping.
Of course Rhett could not wait for me to empty the bags so he can inspect my purchases and play in the empty sack.




Rhett says: Mine!

See all the helpful pets at The Friday Ark,
and don't miss Sunday's Carnival of Cats this week at
The Scratching Post.

Name that Hurricane

Five names will be retired from the rotating Hurricane List of names, the most ever retired in a single year.

2006 promises to be, well...... bad.





Hurricane Rita

The Apprentice: Week 6

This week our players wrote a jingle for Arby's.

Bryce appoints himself PM for Gold Rush.
Charmaine stupidly makes an appointment with the Arby executives, only allowing 15 minutes to navigate NYC.
I'm sure we have seen that before.

It's Sean's turn to lead synergy and the team gets right to work.
They are getting along too well, and I predict Trump with scramble the teams soon.

Both teams present their work in front of a live audience and Synergy is the clear winner with Gold Rush missing the mark on the message Arby's hoped to convey.

As a reward, Team Synergy are treated to an expensive meal of truffles.....yuck.

Bryce, against Trump's advice brings Lee (missed the task for the holiday) and Lenny (admitted he could not contribute much) into the boardroom.
Our usually calm and serene Bryce starts yelling some garbage about his values, and pretty much begs Trump to fire him.
He did.


BTW: I hated that The Apprentice was on so late last night just so NBC could milk the newfound popularity of Deal or No Deal and I hope that is not it's regular time slot.
Thank goodness baseball is back.


The Apprentice at Yahoo

On The Boardwalk: Polynesian Weekend

There is always something fun to do in Kemah.

Last weekend was "Polynesian Weekend" at the boardwalk and we had a great time watching the dancers and enjoying the spring weather.

There are more pics HERE.

Opening Day!

Rafe says: YES!

Happy Birthday Doug

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Spring Flowers

I don't know what kind of flower this is, but it bloomed this morning and it's kind of pretty.

Spring Forward

Don't forget that at 2am tommorrow morning it will magically become 3am.


Rhett says: But...I need my beauty sleep!


See Rhett and all the other sleepy kitties at Sunday's Carnival of Cats hosted this week at Pets Garden's Blog.

Shopping: Belly Rings

I saw these at a kiosk at the mall.
I got the blue-eyed one for Chandra (Rafe is her cat) and the orange one for myself.
Aren't the purrrrty!

Watch out for April Fools

and the regular kind too!

Shopping: Ugly Jeans

Need some new jeans?
This is what is out for spring.

The Gap is featuring distressed denim.
Express is charging a fortune for what they call Blasted Wash.
Ambercrombie (pictured) calls them low rise/destroyed.
and
There is a huge selection of ugly jeans at Old Navy.

They can call them what ever they want.
I'm not buying ugly jeans.
Nope!

National Doctor Day

Today is National Doctor Day, a day to show appreciation to your doctor.

I personally do not have a doctor, as being self employed, I can not afford insurance.
But.... Next time I am sick and desperate enough to go to the urgent care clinic I will be sure to say...Thanks!

Wasn't There a Movie Like This?

I seem to remember a movie where a pregnant girl literally moves into a Walmart store.
This guy did the same thing, but only for a couple of days.
Now, I am trying to think of that movie.

Shopping: Hurricane Katrina Stuff

Hurricane Katrina Stuff in showing up For Sale on Ebay.

I wonder how much I can get for a dead hibiscus uprooted by Hurricane Rita?

The Astros: Who's on First?

Well, it's not Jeff Bagwell who will be starting the season and most likely ending it on the disabled list.
And
I just read over at TBIFOC that the insurance is not paying off eithor.

So I guess it will be Berkman at first?

Houston Astros

Meals on Wheels: Animeals

From: The Beaumont Enterprise

Nationwide Meals on Wheels programs are launching the Animeals program,
where pet food is delivered with the meals to help recipients defray pet food expenses while getting the nutrition they need.

What a great cause!

WALOP= We love our pets

The Apprentice: Week 5

This week our candidates made commercials for Norwegian Cruise lines.

Dan appointed himself PM and went to work at a manic pace alienating most of his team in the process. Everyone jumped on board with Lenny's idea for the spot, but were frustrated when Dan tried to do everything himself.

Roxanne stepped up for Synergy and even with Andrea's constant bitching, the team pulled off the win. The reward was a trip to a vault filled with diamonds and they even got to keep some.
Cool!

Trump seem especially harsh in the boardroom.
He wanted Lenny sitting before him, but Dan refused to bring him in.
He tore into Tarek, even saying "Maybe Mensa should change the test".
Lee almost talked too much, he is rather smug....this one.
However, Dan could not defend his lack of leadership and so
Dan, You're Fired

------
The Apprentice Views did some liveblogging
Mike Barer says Andrea is a Type A, if that stands for annoying I totally agree.
Ann Althouse found the show dull without Brent
and
I always enjoy reading the synopsis by JoeRealty and RealtyNews

Shopping: Roach Brooch

For a mere 80 bucks you can buy a jewel encrusted and
very much alive Roach Pin on tiny leash.

Looks like a fancy cat treat to me.

On the Canal: Sunny Sunday

After a chilly week it seems Spring is here and John says he needs to do some
"yard work"

Yeah

RIP: Buck Owens

Country music icon Buck Owens has passed away at the age of 76.
I remember him best from Hee Haw pictured here with Roy Clark.
Buck, you will be missed.
Sa-LUTE!
BuckOwens.com

International Waffle Day around the WWW

The Holiday

The Controversy

The Recipes

The Tools

and The Video

Shopping: Retro Twinkies

Hostess Twinkies did not always have a vanilla cream filling.

Soon (for a limited time only) you can get these tasty treats in the orginal bananna flavor.

Don't like to eat Twinkies?
Well then you could use them for some strange experiments.

Deal or No Deal

I love Howie Mandel and his new show is so much fun.
Tonight this guys turns down a 76k offer only to end up with 8 bucks at the end of the game.
Why??
Because his wife said so.
Then she tells him "that's OK honey"
like it's all his fault.....ha.

I'm So Blonde: (and I get lost easily)

I had to go to the north side of Houston to pick up a key.

My destination is on "the beltway" and if you have not been to Houston, that is a tollway.

Well, I had a pretty good idea where I was going but printed a Yahoo map, you know just in case.

Big Mistake!

I spent the whole morning circling up, down and all around the Hardy Tollroad and Beltway 8 Paying tolls umpteen times.

Now, I should have just gone straight up the Gulf freeway and on the Beltway Feeder a couple of miles....for free and would have if I hadn't printed that damn Yahoo map.

Friday Cat Blogging: Rhett's Hiding Place

Rhett says: how did you find me?

See Rhett and all the cute pets at The Friday Ark and don't miss Sunday's Carnival of Cats hosted this week at Scribblings.

The Apprentice: It's a Boy

The Donald and wife Melania welcome a baby boy,
Barron William.

Maybe the new Mom will post pictures on her official site.

Fabio...You're Fired

Fabio has been fired by the butter people.
You can vote for his replacement here or play a really stupid "Ask the hunks game" if you can't decide.
And no, it's not as freaky as watching him get hit in the face with a bird.

The Apprentice: Week 4

The task this week was fairly simple, make a bill board featuring the new Grape Nuts Cereal.



PM Tammy and Team Synergy came up with an ad that would make a great magazine page but was way too busy for a billboard.
Gold Rush led by Charmaine had a cleaner look, a clear win, and as a reward a chance to cook with Chef Jean-Georges.


The previews said Brent will go "way over the line" or something to that effect but really there was just a lot of shots of him sitting on the street trashing his team-mates. I am happy to see him go if for no other reason that now maybe the editors will concentrate on showing us less talk and more task.

NBC official site
The Apprentice at Yahoo
Pain of the Week Contest
Bill Rancic's Blog

It's a Boy

The Houston Zoo has new baby and will be announcing a naming contest soon. What a face!

Lake Millwood, AR

We made a quick trip out to Millwood State Park.



It was rainy and cold but it was fun to drive around.



Next time we are up that way
we would like to rent a cabin and do some fishing.