Hooray! / Nay

Hooray! for Ugly Betty (I heart America Ferrara, based on her roles in Real Women Have Curves and, of course, The Sisterhood of the Treveling Pants), even though you smack of The Devil Wears Prada.

Nay to the movie Stick It, which I wanted very much to like, and which I almost asked friends to sit through on Friday night, although, fortunately, the five of us instead said...

Hooray! to Dateline NBC's To Catch a Predator, and also to a bunch of friends who are equally happy with wine and Rice Krispies Treats as they'd be with champagne and caviar, because it's the company that counts.

Nay to having a great group of friends visit sans the Smelmooo. I really enjoyed the evening, but it's much easier and more fun to have a partner for cooking and socializing and cleaning.

Hooray! for crossing stuff off my list, which I supposedly will have completed 16 months from now. I think that I can now cross off #33, if five people total counts as a "dinner party" (I say it does) and #80, because I think I can now count A&J (or, as Seth calls them, "Dr. and Ms.") as friends. How do you formally cross that bridge from acquaintances to friends? I decided we'd made it to Friend status when they didn't feel they needed to see the package proving that I was serving arugala, not spinach, in the salad. If you trust me with your health, I think we're friends.

Nay to stupid Mario Lopez on Dancing with the Stars, the Melissa Gilbert storyline on Nip/Tuck, and Lane's pregnancy on Gilmore Girls.

Hooray! to my friends and co-workers who are walking in the Breast Cancer 3-Day this weekend in Philly.

Nay to giving Tucker a bath without assistance from the Smelmooo.

Hooray! for lots of upcoming weddings and babies for my friends. It was shocking to me to realize yesterday, when a friend asked for bridal salon suggestions, that it was more than three years ago that I got my bridal gown, and two years ago next week that the Smelmooo and I got married. Time really does fly.

Nay to all of the excuses. I can't imagine how awful it'd be to endure any sort of abuse during childhood, but at some point, doesn't there need to be some level of personal responsibility for one's actions? Does it really count as "breaking news" that a congressman who sent inappropriate emails to young boys was himself molested as a child? Is that revelation meant to excuse or rationalize bad behavior? Same with the crazy shooter in the Amish school. We all have issues, and I certainly don't mean to suggest that child abuse doesn't leave deep, dreadful scars that last a lifetime. But it's still no excuse.

Hooray! for bumper bowling. I'm actually not a bad bowler, but the bumpers are particularly useful when bowling with an overly competitive nine-year-old, and there's something awfully appealing about the impossibility of throwing a gutter ball. Still, though...

Nay to the fact that auto-scoring and bumpers mean that my nephew has no idea how the scoring works, or how to capitalize on a spare or a strike, or how to throw the ball straight down the center of the lane, rather than banking it off the bumpers. Sad, how bowling has been sullied.

Hooray! for being home with my hubby this weekend, which can't get here quickly enough.