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Jun
This week’s TOT topic is my favorite things to do during “me” time…hmm…
1. Just HAVE some me time – I have been slammed at work lately (two grant proposals in the last 5 weeks, plus end-of-semester and a conference trip), and now advising incoming students about fall registration … SO I have almost forgotten what “me time” feels like!
2. Sleeping – see above
3. Listening to music – and, if no one is home, singing along! %-)
4. Reading a good book
5. Scrapbooking
6. Take a hot, HOT bath
7. Just sit and enjoy the silence
8. Okay, I can’t think of anything else. Maybe if I HAD more me time…sigh…
Jun
Had a HUGE grant proposal due this week, so I am late getting this up…so, this week’s topic is 10 Great Songs from last year. I was tempted to just pick 10 songs off the AT&T Team USA soundtrack they had available during the summer Olympics in Beijing – what great songs! Very uplifting and inspiring, I listened to them over and over. But, for this list, I managed to restrain myself and look at the whole year. There were actually a number of songs from 2008 that still make my current personal “hot 100″ list (in random order):
—Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It (Darius Rucker) – how awesome to see him back!!! I still miss Hootie, but he makes a surprisingly good country singer…
—Love is Free (Sheryl Crow) – fun song AND great concert
—We Run (Sugarland) – ’cause doing what you shouldn’t's half the fun…
—Incomplete (Alanis Morissette) – so good to hear her back, too
—Single Ladies (Beyonce) – I know, I know, but it’s insanely compelling
—Real (Goo Goo Dolls) – just awesome
—In Color (Jamey Johnson)
—I Was Here (Lady Antebellum) – great new group, despite the dumb name; this song was the highlight of the Olympics album
—What If It All Goes Right (Melissa Lawson)
—Crazy Ever After (The Rescues)
—Bad Girl (Danity Kane) – yeah…
—I Don’t Care (Fallout Boy) – the album has the same name as my fav California winery … yay!
—Come on Get Higher (Matt Nathanson) – I know, technically the album came out in 2007, but it was actually the Sugarland cover in 2008 that made me aware of the original … GREAT song
—It’s a New Day (will.i.am) – yes we can!
—What About Now (Daughtry) – I’m a sucker for “seize the day” music…
—Untouched (The Veronicas) – love this group, don’t know why they haven’t been more popular
—note: at the time, I loved Dreamer (Chris Brown), another highlight off the AT&T Olympics soundtrack … but, the whole beating-the-crap-out-of-Rihanna thing now colors this to such an extent I can’t listen to it anymore
I know that was more than 10, couldn’t restrain myself… 
May
This week’s TOT topic made me laugh…my list is short and sweet: ALL of them!!!
I’m not much of a “celebrity” aficionado. I just don’t get why people are so obsessed with meeting “celebrities” (it’s not like you’re going to become their new BFF), trying to be like them (for most of them, it’s not like they’re good role models!), talking about them, reading about them, stalking them, etc. Just not very star struck, I guess.
And of course don’t even get me started on the truly disturbing lengths some people will go to to BE famous…
Mar
This week’s topic is favorite things to do on vacation. We have a vacation (to Singapore! ) coming up soon, so the timing is good for me!
1. Umm … ask Craig about this one! 
2. Explore a new place – Craig & I both love to travel, and although we have some favorite places, we really like visiting places we’ve never been before. Like Singapore!
3. Absolutely nothing – we take two kinds of vacations: adventure trips (see #2 above) and relaxation trips; the crazier our life gets, the more I appreciate taking time to just chill and do nothing. I prefer a non-crowded beach or an isolated mountain cabin for this type of trip.
4. Try new foods – wherever we are, and why-ever we’re there, we love to sample good local cuisine. No chains allowed!
5. Help my kids learn about other cultures – now that they’re old enough to remember and understand travel, we take the kids with us whenever we can. We both really want them to grow up with high levels of openness and curiosity about and appreciation of other people and places.
6. Walk – Nashville isn’t a walking city, especially the ‘burbs where we are. Nothing gives you a better feel for a place than walking around and exploring on foot. I walk everywhere I can when we’re on vacation.
7. Take a break from work – spend as little time as possible on the computer!
8. Meet new people – humans are social animals, and for me places aren’t places without the people who live there. When I travel, I don’t like to just observe the sights, I like to interact with “real live locals”.
9. Get high – wherever we visit, I like to find the highest spot we can access, whether it’s an observation booth at the top og a very tall building or the view off a mountaintop, and get a bird’s eye view, helps keep perspective. Hah, that’s not what you thought I was going to say on this one, is it! 
10. Shop – what’s a great trip without souvenirs?!!
Mar
Okay, I know I am late, but once I got around to it, this week’s topic took me all of about 30 seconds! I tend to like all sorts of music, BUT, there are some songs that I just absolutely can’t stand. Please note, this is NOT, from my perspective, a list of the WORST songs ever. I don’t think these songs are inherently bad, of poor quality (in most cases) or anything like that … I just hate them. Even more oddly, in several cases I love other songs by the same artist/band. I have no justification, somehow they just rub me the wrong way, I guess. Anywhoo … here’s my list of 10 songs I hate (actually, I couldn’t stop at 10):
1. Hotel California (Eagles)
2. At This Moment (Billy Vera & The Beaters)
3. I Shot the Sheriff (Eric Clapton)
4. Indian Outlaw (Tim McGraw)
5. Heart Light (Neil Diamond)
6. Rico Suave (Gerardo)
7. Truly Madly Deeply (Savage Garden)
8. Satisfaction & Oops, I Did It Again (Britney Spears)
9. Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue (Toby Keith) – along with any other small-minded, deliberately misleading song that equates being a good American with being a Republican
10. She Bangs (Ricky Martin … and William Hung)
11. Invisible (Clay Aiken)
12. Macarena (Los Del Rio)
13. She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy (Kenny Chesney)
14. All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You (Heart)
15. Dogs (Pink Floyd) – and this one is hard because Craig LOVES this song!!!
Also, while I’m on the topic, I hate any and all song’s with a person’s name in the title … I know, very odd, but somehow I just can’t relate to them.
I also hate songs about cowboys.
And, like a lot of people I guess, I hate everything ever recorded by: Taylor Hicks, Cher, New Kids on the Block, Jessica Simpson, Kevin Federline, as well as misogynistic rap and virtually anything that has ever been part of a Disney movie.
Oh, and last thing – another oddity – I love to go and hear live music, but I CAN’T STAND to listen to recordings of live music!
I should stop now, all of this is probably just adding to Craig’s secret stash of ammunition in case he ever needs to have me declared legally insane!
Mar
Seeing how it is going up to almost 80 degrees here today, this week’s topic is a fun one for me! Yes, I know we will have at least one more cold snap, maybe even a hard freeze, but still, the end is near, for this year anyway. Here are my top 10 things I will NOT miss about winter:
1. Not being able to wear flip-flops
2. Thick (ugly) socks with heavy (ugly) shoes
3. Never-ending gray skies
4. School getting cancelled just because it MIGHT snow (it rarely does here)
5. Promises of snow that never come
6. It being 34ยบ and raining … pretty much constantly
7. A cold car on cold mornings, especially when the kids are shivering in the back (I know, I could start it early, but most mornings it’s all way can do to get out the door on time and I always intend to start the car early, but rarely manage to do it)
8. Coming home at 4:30 and having it be dark already
9. Waking up when it’s still dark
10. Bare-limbed trees
Feb
Watching (or at least listening to) kids’ movies is something I do WAY too much, thanks to having two little ones about, so this week’s topic is a very salient one for me. Some of the kids movies are much less painful to watch 20,000 times than others! Here are my favorites:
1. The Lion King – possibly the best last scene in a movie ever (well, at least a kids’ movie), and just great throughout; the combination of story and music works well here in a way it doesn’t always.
2. Mary Poppins – I had never actually seen this until I had kids, now I LOVE it! What great parenting messages, and the interplay of color with the black & white is fascinating at multiple levels. Plus Dick Van Dyke steals the show as Bert.
3. The Incredibles – STRONG female characters, enough said; my kids and I have been waiting impatiently for a sequel on this one!
4. E.T. – my kids actually don’t like this one as much as some of the others, but it made a HUGE impact on me as a child, so gotta have it on the list.
5. Mulan – again, strong female characters, rare in a Disney film! Very engaging story, too, for both girls and boys.
6. Finding Nemo – phenomenal characters, and more good parenting messages
7. The Wizard of Oz – love this one as both a psychologist and a mom!
8. Transformers – okay, I know, this one is inexplicable, I just love this movie somehow…
9. Harry Potter – I know, they’re really books, and the books are MUCH, ***MUCH*** better than the movies. But, still, the movies don’t do a bad job of capturing the magical world – some of the visuals are stunning, and key plot elements are there. My kids still aren’t quite old enough to read the books, so the movies are a good stand-in until then. Order of these movies in terms of favorites so far – 1, 3, 4, 2, 5.
10. Shrek – great messages about inclusiveness and being true to yourself, and at least puts an interesting spin on the whole “rescue the princess” shtick.
Please note, even though I did love them as a child (and continue to as an adult), I don’t consider the Star Wars movies to be children’s movies (in the sense that I don’t think they were made FOR children). If they were children’s movies, they would definitely be at the very top of this list (in the order 5, 4, 6, 3, 1, 2). Other favs that almost made this list – Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Monsters Inc.
