Mucho Dinero

The house I have been saving up for is finally on the market….but with the housing market in such a slump, I am not sure if I will put a bid on it. It’s 18,300-square-feet and priced at a measly $6.75 million. There are nine bedrooms and 10 full bathrooms, including a huge master suite with his/her bathrooms. There's also a 2,000-square-foot attached guest apartment, a boathouse with a full kitchen, 700 feet of frontage on the river and over six acres of land. And I don’t have to worry about having to buy a boat - the house comes with a pontoon boat for those leisurely summer cruises up and down the river. My estimated mortgage payments would be $35,673 per month…for 30 years. I wonder if that includes property taxes and homeowners insurance. The commission to the realtor who sells this place is probably enough to retire.











I watched as this house was being built some years ago (completed in 1994), as my family used to picnic at the park just down the road from it. It’s situated just off a winding two lane road designated as a “scenic road”. A right turn and over the one lane iron bridge and you’re face to face with it’s gated entrance. I always wondered who owned this house. Up the river live CEO’s, Senior VP’s, and the university president and many deans, so someone I probably see on TV or the news regularly. Maybe I will go ring the doorbell and find out. Recently I’ve been riding my bike past it, always stopping to admire the boat house. That is probably what sold me on the house. I mean come on who has a boat house on a river…maybe on a lake, but a weed infested river? Now that is mucho dinero!!!

Women in Film...

I love the music....but the collage is impressive:

Women in Film

@ 2:17 is my favoite actor!

Did you recognize any? And where's your favorite?

The biggest loser....

Chat snippet

We are playing a work version of the TV show Biggest Loser ( http://www.nbc.com/The_Biggest_Loser_5/ ). In which contestants compete against one another to see who can lose the most weight. In our contest, we have six people competing, whose weights range from 64Kg to 132Kg. They consist of NYC/Boston marathon runners, to avid outdoorsmen/mountain bikers, to a professional competitive eater, who has won the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest. The prize to the winner who after 8 weeks has lost the largest % of his/her body weight is $300. It was a $50 buy in for each contestant…..winner take all!!

For the weigh in last week everyone tried to bulk up eating burgers and fries for 1 week prior and then switched to drinking loads of water just before the official time to weigh in. The weigh-in was delayed, so the water intake back-fired on a few, because their inflated bladders couldn’t handle the pressure and were forced to make a pit stop before standing on the scale.

In the first week, everyone decreased their weight, the range was from .25 Kg to 2 Kg. The next week will be even more difficult and as shown by the chat log below, some contestants have literally taken things into their own hands and are doing anythign to win this contest.

Friend (F1) talking to Me about the laxatives they are taking to maximize their weight loss…..

.
.
.

F1 [2:21 PM]:
Great - am losing lots of weight - I will increase the dosage soon.
Me [2:21 PM]:
you;ll drop like 50 pounds!
Me [2:21 PM]:
LOL
Me [2:21 PM]:
really.
F1 [2:21 PM]:
Yup!
Me [2:22 PM]:
what kind do you get?
Me [2:22 PM]:
I need some of that.
F1 [2:22 PM]:
I use suppositories.
Me [2:22 PM]:
LOL!
Me [2:22 PM]:
deliciously s3xy!
F1 [2:22 PM]:
:-)
F1 [2:23 PM]:
LOLLL!!!
Me [2:23 PM]:
LOL!!


The person who monitors our chat sessions at work must be either laughing along or has just notified human resources to check on whether we have violated SOP 2861273 or any part the employee conduct handbook.

Dubai's Mile-Long Super Bridge Set for March Construction

I have yet to make a trip to Dubai...but it is one of the places I must visit before I die...which hopefully will be a many years from now. In concert with them having the biggest, tallest, coolest, you name it, Dubai will be constructing the world's largest arch bridge, with 2000 vehicles set to cross its 12 lanes—per hour, in each direction—when it's slated for completion in 2012. At 670 ft. tall, Dubai's next super structure will stand higher than the George Washington Bridge in NYC(604 ft.) but fall short of San Francisco's existing Golden Gate Bridge (746 ft.). What a beautiful structure. Enjoy the photos....

Freak Show?

Wow. These are some disturbing pictures. They are real and come from ABCNEWS.com. Poor people. I can't imagine ever living like this. Truth be told, I would rather be dead.

Mini muscleman Romeo Dev poses with his trainer Ranjeet Pal. Dev is regarded as the world's smallest bodybuilder.



At 19 years old, Dev is 33 inches tall and weighs only 9kg. 250 grams (20.4 pounds). He has trained as a body builder and has a chest measurement of 20 inches.



Romeo trains at the Leo Health Club in Phagwara, India and his trainer is the health club owner Ranjit Pal 'Mr. Punjab'.



Huang Chuncai rests before his second operation to remove his tumours, which currently weigh around 10kg (22lbs), at a hospital in Guangzhou, southern China's Guangdong province, January 5, 2008. Huang, a 32-year-old native from a remote village in China's southern province of Hunan, says he is relieved after a part of his facial tumours, which originally weighed about 23kg (50.7 lbs), was removed last year. His second operation will remove another part of the tumours, which weighs 4.5kg (9.9lbs). Huang suffers from Neurofibromatosis, which is a genetic disorder of the nervous system that primarily affects the development and growth of nerve tissues.



Huang Chuncai poses before his second operation to remove his tumours, which currently weigh around 10kg (22lbs), at a hospital in Guangzhou, southern China's Guangdong province, January 3, 2008. Huang, a 32-year-old native from a remote village in China's southern province of Hunan, says he is relieved after a part of his facial tumours, which originally weighed about 23kg (50.7 lbs), was removed last year. His second operation will remove another part of the tumours, which weighs 4.5kg (9.9lbs). Huang suffers from Neurofibromatosis, which is a genetic disorder of the nervous system that primarily affects the development and growth of nerve tissues. Picture taken January 3, 2008.
(Joe Tan/Reuters)



Lakshmi looks on at the Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore, India, on Nov. 5, 2007. Doctors began operating Nov. 6, 2007, on the 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs. The 24-hour operation, which was successful, left the girl with a normal anatomy.
(AP Photo)



The world's tallest man, Bao Xishun, who stands 7.9 feet, shakes hands with He Pingping, who only measures 2.4 feet, in Baotou, China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region July 13, 2007. Nineteen-year-old He is applying for the Guinness world record as the world's shortest man.
(AP Photo)


For nearly four decades, Sanju Bhagat carried the body of his own twin inside him. Doctors discovered Bhagat had one of the world's most bizarre medical conditions — fetus in fetu, an extremely rare abnormality that occurs when a fetus gets trapped inside its twin.
(ABC)

US Obesity Map

This is not shocking one bit.....

And Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
you may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise

Dheisha Refugee Camp, Bethlehem, 1949

Dheisha Refugee Camp, Bethlehem, 1949