Happy New Year

2005 is almost in the books.

This has been quite a year for me. Many changes, all of them wonderful in one way or the other.

Here is a quick recap of some of your highlights:

NEWLYWEDS
Phil and Renee Shafer
Michael and Carrie Trantas
Michael and Ramsey Thierbach
April and Jason Muth
Thad and Debra Davis
Jenn and Mike Kingen
Michelle and Walt Stretch
Rachel and Mark O'Keefe
Michael and Anastasia Bolognese
John and Kari Gonsalves
Craig and Megan Smith

ENGAGEMENTS
Aimee Wright and RJ Dempsey
Adam Karloff and Paula Cooper
Drew Moore and Maggie Kutzler

BABIES
Jackson Connor Leffew
Greg and Allison Rodgers had their 2nd little girl this year, but I can't find her info
Shayne Carfano

BABIES ON THE WAY
Miles Beaumont Hormell
Caroline Elizabeth Mason
Mollie Lynn Thierbach
Baby to be named later O'Keefe

ACCOLADES
Rebecca Gerber Judd, JD from Tulane Law School
Thad Davis, MBA from University of Chicago
Colleen Daly, Masters Special Education, University of Colorado

Congrats to all!!

I look forward to reporting on all of the highlights of 2006.

Stay tuned....

Miles Beaumont Hormell

Steve and Anne Hormell of the Conshy Crew, and the more exclusive but lesser known Table 8, are expecting in February. Here is a pic of the little guy.



In other baby news, Newlyweds Rachel (Rinninsland) and Mark O'Keefe, are expecting their first in July.

CONGRATS TO ALL!!!!

Our tree

As promised, here is a photo of our Christmas Tree - I love it :)



Merry Christmas

Nip/Tuck - The Carver Revealed

One of my favorite TV shows the past few years has been Nip/Tuck on FX. I am not sure why I like it, I watch most of the episode in fast forward on the TIVO to avoid seeing anything to creepy of graphic, but I like to follow the storylines and all the drama and see what these people will do next.

Tuesday night's season finale revealed The Carver's identity.

After more than a season of speculation, the two-hour third-season finale of FX's plastic-surgery melodrama "Nip/Tuck," which aired Tuesday, Dec. 20, finally revealed the identity of the masked assailant, rapist and killer known as the Carver, whose tag phrase was "Beauty is a curse on the world," and whose signature was carving "smiles" into his victims' cheeks.

The Las Vegas oddsmakers had it right ... almost. The Race & Sports book at Wynn Las Vegas placed the odds at 8 to 5 that the Carver was plastic surgeon Quentin Costa (Bruno Campos). Introduced last season, this year he joined the Miami, Fla., practice of Drs. Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Christian Troy (Julian McMahon). But the relationship was a rocky one that included revelations of Quentin's bisexuality and his apparent romance with McNamara's ex-wife, Julia (Joely Richardson).

Sean and Christian incurred the Carver's wrath by repairing the damage to his victims, causing him to attack each of them at different times. This appeared to cut no mustard this season with investigating police officer Kit McGraw (Rhona Mitra). She had Christian arrested, only to have him exonerated by a Carver attack while he was in custody. Kit then became a Carver "victim" herself.

A few episodes ago, the Carver snatched Christian's fiancee, porn mogul Kimber (Kelly Carlson), from the bridal room before her wedding. She returned, mutilated but alive, in the finale. But, after repairing the damage, Christian found she had been indoctrinated into the Carver's point of view and never wanted to see him again.
A montage about halfway through the episode showed all the faces of the major characters removing the white Carver mask one by one.

During the finale, Kit even came with a SWAT team to the surgeons' operating room and arrested their anesthesiologist, Liz Cruz (Roma Maffia), for the crimes. She protested innocence.

Her claims were vindicated when the Carver pulled off his mask to reveal that it was indeed Quentin. He had managed to get both surgeons strapped down and at his mercy when Kit showed up in the nick of time and shot him apparently dead.

But ... not so fast.

In one of the show's typically convoluted plots, Quentin was revealed to lack a complete set of male genitalia (he used a strap-on device for the rapes), a birth defect caused by being the product of incest. His sister had also suffered a facial deformity, and after the two left the Maine convent where they were raised, Quentin became a plastic surgeon to fix his sister's face.

As it turned out, the sister was none other than Kit. The Carver killings were the work of both of them, done to make a statement about the shallow pursuit of physical perfection.

So, in the end, Quentin was not really dead, and Kit rescued him from the morgue so that they could fly off to Malaga, Spain, and prey upon surgically enhanced European beauties.

Twisted ehh?

This recap does not even get into the storyline that has Dr. McNamara's teenage son Matt and a pre-op transexual, Cherry, that he beat the crap out of but is now friends with being tortured by the neo-nazi father of a girl Matt briefly dated....got that??

As with all FX shows I don't think Nip/Tuck will be back for at least a year. If you have not caught this show yet, I suggest renting the Season 1 DVD and getting started.

A Poem By Congressman John Dingell

'Twas a week before Christmas and all through the House,
no bills were passed 'bout which Fox News could grouse.
Tax cuts for the wealthy were passed with great cheer,
so vacations in St. Barts soon should be near.
Katrina kids were all nestled snug in motel beds,
while visions of school and home danced in their heads.
In Iraq, our soldiers need supplies and a plan,
and nuclear weapons are being built in Iran.
Gas prices shot up, consumer confidence fell.
Americans feared we were in a fast track to ... well.
Wait, we need a distraction, something divisive and wily,
a fabrication straight from the mouth of O'Reilly.
We will pretend Christmas is under attack,
hold a vote to save it, then pat ourselves on the back.
Silent Night, First Noel, Away in the Manger,
Wake up, Congress, they're in no danger.
This time of year, we see Christmas everywhere we go,
From churches to homes to schools and, yes, even Costco.
What we have is an attempt to divide and destroy
when this is the season to unite us with joy.
At Christmastime, we're taught to unite.
We don't need a make-up reason to fight.
So on O'Reilly, on Hannity, on Coulter and those right-wing blogs.
You should sit back and relax, have a few egg nogs.
'Tis the holiday season; enjoy it a pinch.
With all our real problems, do we really need another Grinch?
So to my friends and my colleagues, I say with delight,
a Merry Christmas to all, and to Bill O'Reilly, Happy Holidays.

Why online dating is BAD

Thanks to my soon to be brother-in-law once removed, RJ, for this disturbing story. I do love that this happened to a French dude. What a dope!!!.

MAN DATES GAL ON INTERNET FOR SIX MONTHS -- AND IT TURNS OUT SHE'S HIS MOTHER!
Friday December 9, 2005

By Grace Green

MARSEILLES, France -- Skirt-chasing playboy Daniel Anceneaux spent weeks talking with a sensual woman on the Internet before arranging a romantic rendezvous at a remote beach -- and discovering that his on-line sweetie of six months was his own mother!

"I walked out on that dark beach thinking I was going to hook up with the girl of my dreams," the rattled bachelor later admitted. "And there she was, wearing white shorts and a pink tank top, just like she'd said she would.

"But when I got close, she turned around -- and we both got the shock of our lives. I mean, I didn't know what to say. All I could think was, 'Oh my God! it's Mama!' "

But the worst was yet to come. Just as the mortified mother and son realized the error of their ways, a patrolman passed by and cited them for visiting a restricted beach after dark.

"Danny and I were so flustered, we blurted out the whole story to the cop," recalled matronly mom Nicole, 52. "The policeman wrote a report, a local TV station got hold of it -- and the next thing we knew, our picture and our story was all over the 6 o'clock news. "People started pointing and laughing at us on the street -- and they haven't stopped laughing since."

The girl-crazy X-ray technician said he began flirting with normally straitlaced Nicole -- who lives six miles away in a Marseilles suburb -- while scouring the Internet for young ladies to put a little pizzazz in his life.

"Mom called herself Sweet Juliette and I called myself The Prince of Pleasure, and unfortunately, neither one of us had any idea who the other was," said flabbergasted Daniel.

"The conversations even got a little racy a couple of times.

"But I really started to fall for her, because there seemed to be a sensitive side that you don't see in many girls.

"She sent me poems she had written and told me about her dreams and desires, and it was really very romantic.

"The truth is, I got to see a side of my mom I'd never seen before. I'm grateful for that."

When starry-eyed Daniel asked Sweet Juliette to send him a picture, Nicole e-mailed him a photo of a curvy, half-clad cutie she'd scanned from a men's magazine.

"The girl in the picture was so beautiful, I begged Juliette to meet me on the beach -- and Mom said yes," he recalled. "Mom says she was falling for me, too, and she just wanted to meet me, even though she knew I'd be disappointed when I saw her.

"As for me, I figured I was going to find the girl of my dreams.

"I guess that's about as wrong as I've ever been."

Daniel admits he and his mother could do little but stammer and stutter around each other for days after their cyberspace exploits came to light. And his father Paul -- Nicole's husband of 27 years -- wasn't too happy when the story hit the news and his beer-drinking buddies made him the butt of their jokes.

"Dad was ticked for a while and he forbid Mom to talk to anybody on the Internet ever again," said embarrassed Daniel.

http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/news/wwn/20051209/113414040002p.html

Charles Todd Mullen

I wanted to clarify Chip's full name. We received numerous Christmas Cards this year addressed to Stephanie Larkin and Chip Mullster. The first few times it was funny, it still is actually, but there have been so many cards addressed that way that I think people think that really is his last name.

Funny - yes

Correct - no

What a Long Strange Trip it's Been....

Today was the last day of the so called terrestrial version of "The Howard Stern Show".


Anyone who knows me well, knows that I have been a Sternophile since the late 80's. In high school I would dart for the radio as my dad was coming up the stairs, telling me to "turn that crap off!!"

I attended the book signing in '93, went and saw Stuttering John's Band at St. Joe's and was even fortunate enough to meet John, Gary and Beetlejuice at Steven Singer jewelers in 2000. I was once at a baby shower in the mid-90's and Kenneth Keith Kalenbach showed up as he was dating one of the hosts of the shower, that was a highlight in my Stern memories.

I remember when I worked at College Directory Publishing and the show was on in stereo every day because everyone in the office would listen. It was great when something funny would happen and the whole office would start laughing. This was when I though the show was at its best. This was during OJ, once, Howard called the 800 number that was the OJ tip line that Simpson had set up. Howard called to let them know who did it, it was OJ.

As much as I never was a fan of some of the degrading ways that women have been treated on the show, I always knew that those girls willingly showed up at the studio and would do anything for their possible 15 seconds of fame. Often, I switched the dial when I did not like the material. If more people had done this maybe Howard would not have to take his show to a place where we have to pay for it.

I have always thought his social commentary and views on the world were so on point. This is something that I think was lost between the Lesbian Dating Game, Racist Jeopardy and Who wants to win a date with John the Stutterer.

My absolute favorite moment of all the years on the show was when they played another version of Jeopardy! The contestants were Beetlejuice, Hank the Angry Drunk Dwarf and Gary the Retard. The only question was spell RED. Each contestant was asked this question at least 5 times, each time the only one who got it right was Gary. I can barely type this right now because I am laughing so hard just remembering that bit.


Well, Howard, Robin, Fred, Gary, Artie, Jackie, John and the rest of the crew, I thank you for 17 years of laughs. I will miss you, but I have been a good girl this year and hopefully Santa will reward me with a brand new Sirius Satellite Radio so I don't have to miss a beat.

Why People Move to Florida

I know its been unusually cold in the northeast this winter...wait, its not even winter yet. My friend Heather Pace sent me these pics...enjoy. And remember, its going to 75 in the Floribben today :)

I'm back

Sorry there have been no updates for a while, but there is not much going on in the Floribbean these days.

Chip and I will be spending the holidays in Largo this year, and since we are not going home and don't really know anyone, it makes for a very unhectic holiday season.

The weather has continued to be absolutely beautiful down here and I really do enjoy being able to be outside at night and on the weekends.

We did go to the official Largo Christmas tree lighting on Dec. 2. It was the first time Chip or I had ever been to a Christmas event like that. The entire town park had hundreds of light displays to walk around and look at. It was fun to see everything and not freeze our butts off :)

We did get a Christmas tree. It's a live Charlie Brown tree. I absolutely love it. I will add pics soon.

Chip's Company's Holiday Party is tonight. It's being held at our favorite restaurant down here, The Island Way Grill, IWG is co-owned by Purdue Alum and Tampa Bay Buc, Mike Alstott, that is how we found it in the first place. This place is amazing. We were so excited when we found out the party would be there.

As you can see its been quite in the Floribbean the past few weeks. Things should ramp up again once the new year is here.

If you have anything going on with you please let me know so I can post it.