How about those Mountaineers?!? Who would have thunk that little ol' Appalachian State would beat Michigan? Yes, App won the Division I-AA title the last two years so we know they're good, but MICHIGAN??? Whoo-eee! My husband - Big Ten fan that he is - sulked all day long. (In fact, I think he's still sulking just a little bit.) He thought my boundless joy at the upset stemmed from the Big Ten loss but frankly, I don't care enough about the Big Ten to root against them. No offense to my friends in Wisconsin, but that's just the way it is. I'm sure you feel the same way about the ACC so it's all good. Anyway, I generally pull for all North Carolina teams as long as they're not playing Carolina (who, incidently, thumped James Madison yesterday). Okay, I don't pull for Duke but they're not really a NC team since 85% of their student population is from out-of-state. Plus, they suck.

The squirrels that overrun my bird feeders have been few and far between the last two days. See, for months the stupid squirrels have been helping themselves to a birdseed buffet despite a squirrel baffle, two dogs and an air rifle. Mind you, the dogs haven't been much of a threat because the puppy doesn't seem to understand that she's supposed to chase obnoxious little rodents and the older one, well, she's just too old and lazy to really put much effort into it. Or so I thought... Most of the time, Wondermutt just sort of lopes after them watching them scurry up a tree in amusement (that's if she decides to even go after them). Friday, however, she must have been feeling particularly spry because she actually chased the squirrel onto the deck where she cornered it and when it made a flying leap over her to get to the yard, Wondermutt actually caught the little monster. It was entertaining to watch until the critter appeared to bite Wondermutt on the nose to get away. Great, now my dog probably has rabies. I called Wondermutt in to inspect her and upon finding no blood or other evidence of squirrel attack, promptly gave her a treat for finally catching one of the evil beasts. Yeah, there's been no living with her since.

I forgot to mention with the Hannah Montana reference that we are planning to take Grover and Ollie to see Hannah Montana in concert. We are even batting around the idea of joining her fan club so we can get tickets before they go on sale to the general public. I personally feel it's not worth going to a concert if you can't sit up close, teeny-boppers or not. Am I insane or what?

Might one find it odd that I listen to Grover's Hannah Montana CD when she's not around and my current literary selection is the Harry Potter series? Actually, I would have started reading HP earlier except that I read very fast and I don't have the patience to wait for the books as they are written & published. Since the last book was just released, I felt it safe to start reading (although I admit that as soon as I picked up book 7 in the store, I read the last few chapters to see whether it was Harry or Lord Voldemort that died - don't worry, no spoilers here). I did the same with the Lord of the Rings movies - I waited until Return of the King was out on pay-per-view to rent the first two DVDs and watched all three in one weekend. I know, I'm a loser... and worse, I don't even pretend to be cooler online (is this the funniest song or what?). Hey, but speaking of Harry Potter, how hilarious is this?

Well, today is my birthday. Another year, another 10 pounds. Instead of New Year's resolutions, I like to make birthday resolutions. Yeah, I don't really keep them either. However, I am seriously setting a goal to get in shape before I'm 40 (although I still maintain that "round" IS a shape). And in celebration of my birthday, what did I do? Went out for lunch with the parental units. I met them at Panera Bread, which if you've ever been there, you doubtless know that they cleverly disguise their food as healthy and good-for-you with tricky words like "organic", "whole grain" and "vegetarian". Now, I learned the fallacy of that last one upon making the acquaintance of The Fishmonger many moons ago (two words - deep fried cheese curds) so I knew not to fall for that one. However, I thought a sandwich made with "fat-free" turkey and "organic" spinach pesto served on "whole-grain" bread might be safe. Yeah, not really. It would be different if it weren't smothered in cheese and some sort of glorious mayonnaisey sauce and oh yeah - the bread slices weren't as big as your head! Oh, and if I didn't order a large Chai Tea Latte to go with it. Oh well, it tasted damn good and it's my birthday, so BFD! Besides, I'm SURE I'll be treated to cake and ice cream when my husband gets home (hint, hint)! I'll start my health kick tomorrow.

Thus concludes my 37th trip around the sun.