Holy Bull Durham!

Baseball players wearing thongs? Talk about superstitions.

Jason Giambi , a first baseman for the NY Yankees (boo!) admitted last week that he sometimes wears a gold thong under his uniform to help him out of a batting slump.

The ever delicious Derek Jeter ("lazy" eye or not) also admitted to trying it. Man, I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the locker room for that one!

The whole thing reminds of that hysterical scene in Bull Durham when Crash (the Kevin Costner character) persuades Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) to wear a garter belt under his uniform to help his "concentrate" while he's pitching.

I've always loved baseball, but it's taken on a whole new meaning for me now:)

Happy Memorial Day

Mike Geraci and I finished re-doing the hall bathroom last night. Like really late last night:) At least my part is done. Today, he's going to finish off the job by putting a coat of clear varnish over the tiles. It was a big job, but the results are fantastic. Will have to post a pic when it's all done.

Will also have to get him to put out the flag today as a reminder to the kids that today is the day they need to be especially thankful for all the freedoms we enjoy as Americans.

Stephanie (oldest daughter) is taking my mother-in-law out to the Florida National Cemetery where my father-in-law is buried. A retired army colonel and veteran of both the Korean and Vietnam wars, John Geraci is only one of thousands of veterans buried there. It's extremely humbling to drive through the miles and miles and headstones.

On a lighter note, tonight's The Bachelorette, and of course, I have to work. But never fear, my trusty DVR will tape all. My rose game predictions for going home tonight:

Chris (nice guy but definitely a filler)

Eric (big nosed and all he and Deanna have in common is that they're Greek. Plus, he's creepy)

Ryan (self-proclaimed virgin)

I know Mel thought I was crazy for liking Sean, but other than the little mullet (which can easily be fixed with a pair of scissors) I really like him for DeAnna. He's cute (has beautiful eyes!), has a great personality (he and Jesse need to go on the road with their lemon act) and I love his Kentucky accent. I predict Sean will go far.

I'd also like to see Jeremy open his mouth. I'm sure he and Deanna had some one on one time during the cocktail party last week that they didn't let us see. Also looking forward to seeing more of Graham, Jason, Jesse and that yummy Brian!

There will be Blood all right

Mine. Because I almost tore my hair out watching this movie. In my quest to catch up on watching the "best" movies of last year, I ordered There Will Be Blood on pay-per-view yesterday. What a waste of $4.99.

I didn't get it. I mean, I got it. But really, 8 Academy Award nominations?? I don't have a problem with Daniel Day Lewis winning Best Actor. As far as I'm concerned Daniel Day Lewis could recite the yellow pages and it would be Oscar worthy. And he deserves it for this film, because his performance is the only good thing about it. But honestly, Best Picture of the Year?

I've never read the Upton Sinclair novel Oil! that the film is based on. Nor do I have any wish to after watching the screen version. It's not only depressing and overly long, but there's something about it that didn't gel for me. Part of it was the lack of dialogue in a lot of the film. And then there was the very distracting sound track. Mike Geraci commented that the music was weird, and I had to agree with him. To be fair, the cinematography was beautiful, but I have no desire to ever see another set of badly stained teeth or another head of greasy hair. Ever.

The best part of the flick, was that both Mike Geraci and I got to sit down for 2 and some hours (we're remodeling our hall bathroom), but then anything would have been a nice break after stripping wallpaper all morning. And... I have to say that after almost 23 years of marriage, it's nice to discover something new about your husband. I had absolutely NO idea that Mike Geraci knew so much about drilling oil. He had this very scientific explanation for everything that happened on screen. At first, I was suspicious, like ,"C'mon, you've seen this movie before!" and he was like, "No, I haven't. I would have killed myself if I'd seen this twice."

LOL. Who knew? My husband, the oil expert.

So far, I've seen Juno, Atonement, and now this crap. 2 more Academy Award flicks to go:)

Chat with Gena Showalter

New York Times Best Selling author (God, I just love writing that!) Gena Showalter is going to be chatting live at the TKA chatroom tomorrow night. Here's the link.

The first book in Gena's Lords of the Underworld series, THE DARKEST NIGHT is climbing its way up the charts. The book is absolutely FANTASTIC and not to be missed. Gena is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet and I'm absolutely thrilled for her.

Catching up

I just came back from a fantastic trip to Boston (first time there) where I attended my friend Marley Gibson's Launch party. You can read all about it here on the Title Wave blog. It got me thinking about my own launch party next year. I'm definitely going to plan some sort of Bunco theme ( of course ). I'm thinking frozen margarita machine, beer, and since it will probably be in early May, maybe some sort of Cinco-de-Mayo theme. Of course, I still have to finish the revisions on the book! I tried to get it in by May 1 but I've made so many changes to the second half of the book that it's taken me longer than I originally thought. My editor at Berkley has been very patient. I'm hoping that the full will be in her inbox by next Monday:)

And since all work and no play makes Maria a dull girl, I did surface from revision land to run out to play Bunco last night with my group, the Bunco Broads of Tallahassee. I won most games (I seem to be on some sort of lucky winning streak lately). Hopefully, that will continue...

Unfortunately for Jason Castro, his lucky streak came to an end last night on American Idol. I've loved Jason from the start, but even I was ready for him to go. The past few weeks he's steadily gone downhill. Not sure what Jason's problem is (well, maybe I do- proving the point that you really can get tooo mellow), but he proved to be own worst enemy. Hopefully though, some smart label co. will pick Jason up. As much as I enjoy David Cook, Jason is probably the only artist this season I'd buy a CD from.