Talk of the town this week has been the boycott on Monday and illegal immigration. Since I am a chicken when it comes to "discussing" view and opinions, I will let you know what my actions tomorrow will be. Then you can figure out my views from them....

1. I will be doing our grocery shopping tomorrow at Wal-Mart. Maybe it won't be a mad house and I can help the economy.

2. I hope my favorite restaurants are open so that I can continue doing business with them in the future.

Just in case the two items above didn't help point out my views: I am a fan of Chris Muir and his comic from April 28th.

Sometimes I struggle with this issue because of the human side of it. I must be a bad person to want illegal immigration stopped because people will suffer because of it. But then I think about if we get to choose which laws are OK to break, then what good are laws?

Vince Young, the quarterback who won us the National Championship last year, is now a member of the Tennesse Titans. He was drafted 3rd on Saturday.

You know how people speculate and make their guess on who will win the Oscars? They do the same thing for the draft. A little more technical stuff goes into it since teams get to pick and can trade picks.

I don't really care where Vince plays since I am mostly a Vince fan. I want him to do well at any team he is at.

I am not sure how it is with other schools, but now that Vince is on the Titans, they are buying Titan gear left and right. Vince Young's jersey is the number one seller right now. According to my husband the Titan hats were the first to sell out at the draft. So not only does Tennessee get a great player, but they get to sell a lot of merchandise and instant fans.

And best of all? I get to cheer with Michael during football season.

Due to the boycott traffic was lighter. My favorite Mexican restaurant by my work closed and I was very dissapointed in that. There were a few others closed, but I can live without those places. And I will live without my favorite.

I went to Wal-Mart to get my groceries and it was not crowded at all. It was like it usually is on a very early Sunday morning. I only had to wait for the family in front of me to check out instead of 5 families.

Do I think the boycott was a success? I am sure it had an economic impact, but for the support of Americans? They lost it. People I expected to support the boycott were against it and it made them mad.

From my Mom's side of the family, I have grey hair. And so I color my hair. When I first started messing with my hair color, I went the highlight route and paid to have them done. I liked that, but it was expensive. Just coloring was cheaper, so I tried that. Once. I wanted a little darker than my natural and trusted my stylist to give me good color. I ended up with purple hair. Not birght purple, but in the right light. OK, any light, I have purpish highlights. GAH!!!!!! Lesson learned and I began my journey of self coloring....

That was about 10 years ago. Since then, I have colored my hair with store bought hair color. Since then, I have only made one "mistake" but it was fixable. I tried one of those highlight kits that gives you a cap with holes in it. You pull strands of hair through it and bleach the color out of it for highlights. I did this alone and pulled out way to much. I ended up coloring all my hair very blonde and was a blonde for about a year. It was hard to deal with the roots since my natural hair color is brown and I ended up coloring it more that I wanted. At that time I spent $45. I can mess up my own hair for $7 and still be ahead.

One mistake in ten years is a good record. Sometimes I have not been crazy about the colors I pick, but I never look bad. With experimentation, I know what colors to pick and the general results. Here are my thoughts and tips:

I stay away from highlighting kits that bleach or remove your color. This causes your hair to be very dry and brittle. You can get blonde results with hair color that just coats your hair. Much easier on it. You will never get the white blonde with hair color, but who really wants that anyway?

Your hair color will not be exactly like what the chick on the box has. It will be a combo of your current (not natural) hair color and the color. Some boxes have a sample of what it will look like.

I don't like messing with just coloring the roots. To much trouble. So I just color all my hair each time.

I don't keep track of the colors that I use. Again to much trouble. I like changing my hair and color is a good way. This also means that if I like a color, I may never be able to obtain it again, since it is a combo of the current and new. So if I use the color again, it still looks a little different.

I like to use dark blondes in the summer and light browns in the winter. And throw a little auburn brown every once in awhile.

Sometimes I choose colors by what is on sale.

My favorite is Nice-N-Easy. It does a good job for a good price. I tried Revlon Hight Dimension when it was on sale and was amazed that it only took 10 minutes. It is about $4 more than Nice-N-Easy (or whatever else is on sale) so the next time it is on sale, I am stocking up. B

I live on the edge and do not do the recommended stand/allergy test 48 hours before I color. Bah! What a pain! I have not done it in 10 years and I won't be starting now....

Most women are scared to color their own hair. But it is very easy. They make it as simple as possible. Put on gloves, open, pour, mix, put in your hair, wait, lather and rinse really good. The condition for 2 minutes. Good time to shave your legs! The instructions even have pictures!!!

I don't rinse my hair over the sink. I just take a shower. It does not hurt your back, you don't splash water all over the kitchen and you get more of the color out. Have you ever tried rinsing your own hair over the sink. Again, I say bah!!! Plus the shower feels so good....

Most men will not notice your hair color change unless it is very dramatic. I stopped asking my husband years ago if he could tell I colored my hair.

I have a hair color buddy at work. She always notices when I color my hair and visa versa. Other than that, no one usually says anything.

I talked my Mom into coloring her own hair. When she uses brown, she shares the hair bottle with my Dad. They both have short hair. How cute is that?

This post took me about 35 minutes to write. My timer beeped, so I am off to shower and rinse...

Sarah of trying to grok has returned to the States after being in Germany. She is very excited since.....

Her post reminded me of something I had read in the past about the End of the Cold War. I did not find where I orginally read this, but I did find it here.

It really hacked off a few people that Wal-Mart was a symbol of anything good, but that is a whole other conversation.

When we came back from Germany the last time, I was ready for a Big Red! I had not had one in 3 years and I think I forgot what it tasted like. When we arrived in Virgina we looked for one but realized it was a Southern drink. I had to wait until we drove to Arkansas to visit my Grandparents. I can remember the excitement of finding it in a store. It came out of one of those old time coke machines, it was in a bottle, and it was goood!!!

There is a game out there that I am now addicted to. Cute Overload linked to it last month. GAH! At first I could not figure it out, but realized that you have to get rid of the blue squares by matching at least three farm animals in it. When you try it, if you dare, notice how the squares change to white after to make a match? Also you can use the bombs to get rid of some. Let me know if you get past level 7 since I just can't make it!!!!

Now presenting the addicting game, FARM HUSTLE!!!

When I first started watching American Idol I could not find anyone else who was watching it. But this week I found some kindred spirits. I started a new project at work and during lunch the team members discovered we all watched it. So we talked about who we thought would get kicked off this week.

The next day we were meeting and there was a pause in discussion and side conversations started. So I asked one of them "Did you see who got kicked off?"

Instantly everyone joined in and said "YES!" Not only was their reaction funny, but I didn't even have to say what show!

I thought that Chris should have won and was upset for awhile, but realized he is probably better off. American Idol would have worked against him and his style. Now he will be able to do what he wants sooner. I will be looking for his albums. He was one of the few that I could imagine listening to on the radio. I don't understand the voters and why they think that the rest were better.

Lori has been my source for American Idol talk and I am so glad she was around since the beginning. Sometimes you just HAVE to talk about it.... or should I say blog...

Here are her links (which have more links) Lori on the results and a cross post at PoliPundit with a link to Power Line.

And one more here.

This list was originally posted on my Mom's blog and is very appropriate for Mother's Day. I love you, Mom!

..... I like Top Ten Lists, so here are the Top Ten Things I like about my Mom. (Note to Mom: Top Ten means there are more than just ten things!!!)

Number 10: She works hard at all that she does and like doing a good job. I did not realize this until we started sharing work stories and problems. I am not sure how she passed that hard working attitude on to my brother and me, but I need to figure it out so I can teach my daughters.

Number 9: She is also very attentive to the little things. She knows I love iced tea and splenda. She always has that on hand when we visit. She knows the girls like girly-things, so she buys them inexpensive girly gifts that go a long way to making them happy.

Number 8: She takes care of her skin and has very soft hands.

Number 7: She does a family newsletter for both sides of her family to keep everyone in touch.

Number 6: She takes the time for others. She makes intricate gifts for her co-workers at Christmas. She has made me a t-shirt quilt and a scarf. She made the girls blankets. All these things take time and effort to make. And that is the only recent stuff I can think of.

Number 5: She treats me like an adult.

Number 4: She is honest in how she feels, but not opinionated or over bearing.

Number 3: She likes to hug.

Number 2: She knew when to be a parent and now knows she can be my friend. And is. One of my best.

And the Top Reason I like my Mom......

Number 1: She may not have supported my choices, but she has always supported me. She is my biggest fan!!!

One of the girl's favorite cartoons is The Emperor's New School. There is one character that is leaving my husband and I stumped. We can not figure out Kronk. He works with Yzma to get Kusco to fail school, but then at times it seems like he is helping Kusco. Is he evil? Is he a bad guy? Is he torn in his role of badness?

Take for example this episode: "When Kuzco and Kronk see Malina as a rebel, they know they want Malina back to the old Malina, so they steal Yzma's "girl" potion and transform themselves into girls, so they think they can solve the problem." Does that sound like Kronk is a bad guy? He is not helping Kusco, but he is still being a nice guy. Doesn't seem he is evil to me.

I did some research on the web and realized I may be at a disadvantage since I have not seen "The Emperor's New Groove", but the show summary states that his is on Yzma's side and she planted him in the school as a student to help her get Kusco to fail.

Any thoughts from others who watch the show? Am I crazy for wanted to know the dynamics of a cartoon?

My husband asked the girls about Kronk last night at dinner. We learned he is definately NOT a bad guy. He is Kusko's friend. He does what Yzma says since she will fire him if he doesn't.

Does that help? No!

Oldest is finishing up Kindergarten on Tuesday and has a ceremony on Monday.

Youngest will finish Pre-K and has a ceremony on Tuesday.

My parents are here to go to the ceremonies. My Dad is hobbling after knee surgery. That makes me the chauffer since he can't drive well and I know where we are going anyway.

Husband is fine.

I am glad my parents are visiting. They will be up again next weekend for Youngest's fifth birthday. Got to figure out how to make a purple princess cake. And make sure my house stays clean until they come back again. I have some things to post about, but we will be busy with ceremonies for a few days.

Oldest was putting newly received state quarters into her commemorative quarter display with Grandma. Grandma asked "What is the capital of Minnesota?"

Oldest replied "M".

Today Kyle told me about lala.com.

Full article here.

Here is what lala says about their company. I am not going to quote it here since the whole letter is worth reading. I like what he says, but wonder how long it will take for a lawsuit to be filed.

If the music industry would come down on their prices and get up to date with the how people are listening/getting/wanting music, they would not have to see companies like these as enemies.

"Pretend I am the teacher. Follow behind me."

pause

"Follow behind me!"

pause

"Pretend you always listen to me and so you follow behind me."

No, just very busy. The last few weeks have been very busy with school graduations, my parents visiting from out of town two weekends in a row, preparing for their visits and a birthday party. Please do not take this list as a complaint, I was very happy to have it all going on.

All of this, plus much more even before the last two weeks, lead to a shut down of my body. It made me stop. I came home yesterday about 11 am and slept until 5:30pm. Had some dinner, got the girls to bed, did a little work, and back to sleep at 8:30pm. Up at 4:00am to realize I needed more rest. Slept until 7am to call in sick, then back to sleep until 10:30am. Took it easy the rest of the day, but I am going back to bed now and it is 9:30pm. (Jeez what a rambling paragraph.) Summary, I slept a bunch. And even more strange? I have not been hungry the whole time. That means I REALLY feel bad!!!!

Sweet dreams, I am off the slumber land.....