I decided to keep 4 consecutive issues of US Weekly magazine as to later compile a comprehensive list based on everyone's favorite feature: Stars, They're Just Like Us! Or is that US? No matter. With a month's worth of material, I think we can safely determine whether or not we and the stars are, like, totally the same.

How many of these ring true for you?

1. They stretch and yawn!
2. They fight with parking meters!
3. They get self-tanner stains on their hands!
4. They take their friends shopping (ed note: this is the only item missing an exclamation point)
5. They love their Sidekicks! (this refers to the wireless device, not Nicole Richie)
6. They eat junk food!
7. They drop their Netflix!
8. Their kids feed the meter!
9. They play croquet!
10. They fix their friends' hair!
11. They play frisbee!
12. They buy paper towels!
13. Their dogs visit the vet!
14. They do bunny ears! (like in pictures, behind other stars' heads)
15. They eat fries!
16. They love slippers!
17. They ride bikes around the 'hood!
18. They crave gelato!
19. They scratch their noses! (a personal favorite, though the scratcher is Ray Romano in this case)
20. They take books to the beach!
21. They work out with fitness balls!
22. They multitask!
23. They inspect new clothes!
24. They shop at The Gap!
25. Their dogs mark the spot!
26. They lick their fingers!
27. They towel-dry their kids!
28. They get a pizza to go!

Wow, I didn't realize stars were so damn busy. FYI, I'm at 12/28. I'll work harder on craving gelato and getting a dog, so that I can be more like the stars...

A Dream Nearly-Come-True

I was on the real live radio this morning, calling in from Yahoo! to report on the hot search terms of the week. This is a new thing I'm doing for work -- and my first call was to, oh, the second-biggest radio station in the country: CBS radio in New York.

You can hear my interview (and read an excerpt, named spelled incorrectly but hey) here.

Of course, this brings me one step closer to my master plan of meeting Howard Stern. Stand by for updates.

Be Careful What You Wear For


The messaged T-shirt trend continues on in full force, causing women everywhere to evaluate exactly what message their chests are sending. T-shirt slogans have long been pop-political, imploring passers by to "save Mary-Kate" or "free Winona." My favorite T is a more recent one, however, on our favorite topic: Tom Cruise's Complete Insanity. As I'm a lucky woman blessed with clever friends, I was granted one of these fine garments for my birthday. I (perhaps unwisely) wore it the first day out-and-about in San Francisco on Sunday.

Below, a sampling of comments I received:

1. "Whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoooosh Katie?" -- the bum in the doorway of my neighborhood bar

Surprised and already forgotten what I was wearing, I smiled nervously and kept walking.

2. "Damn! I really wanted one of those T-shirts!" -- a girl a few years younger than me, at an open house in Noe Valley

I assured her there was still time, Katie still needs saving.

3. "Hey baby, I'd like to get me some of that free Katie!" -- two teenage guys hanging out on Market

Though not worthy of an in-person reply, perhaps my favorite in its creative misinterpretation of the message.

------------

I'm not sure what the moral of the story is, ladies, but I'll be ordering this one next week.

My Mom and the Nude Models



My mom is a total hippie. Having a hippie mom had its pros and cons growing up -- mostly cons, actually, until at least age 16. Mine was the type of mom that would have my friends over for dinner and announce that we'd be having "bulgar balls" and spaghetti, instead of the usual meat you come to expect at that age.

One of my favorite stories about my mom involves my brother, 16 or so at the time himself. He'd slept over a friend's house and was being dropped off at ours early in the morning. As the friend pulled into our little gravel driveway, my brother glanced at the front yard and immediately paled. There, in all her glory, stood my mom in sweats, on one leg, arms outstretched, eyes closed -- practicing tai-chi before all the world. Just a mite embarassing for a 16-year-old teen in a car with his friends.

In addition to bulgar and tai-chi, my mom also has a penchant for trying a lot of different careers. Since my birth, she's been a real estate agent, roommate matcher, school bus driver, eating disorder counselor, prison social worker, and restaurant cheesecake baker. Most recently she graduated from our state school's fine arts program, earning herself a Master's degree in painting. Our local newspaper wrote a pretty good article on her.

Of course, this new endeavor already has led to some potentially embarassing situations, like the one where she has nude models over the house for painting purposes. I'm just waiting for my step-dad to mistakenly walk into the bedroom she uses for a studio, shocking both himself and naked woman in our house. That'll be a good one.

And of course I'm terribly proud of my mom -- 61 years old and finally doing what she loves. It's a great life lesson. Check out her newly started business: selling fancy cards with her (and my brother's -- also terribly talented) artwork on them. This is one of my favorites.

Okay, we're working again. I finally tracked the invisible ink problem to the monkey photo below. I linked it differently after much troubleshooting. Sneaky monkey.

As I was saying:

Here I am, doing my part for hard-hitting journalism, and helping to send searches on Kelly Monaco through the roof. I didn't even mention the conspiracists, who claim that John O'Hurley was unfairly ousted. I tend to agree, but those searches wouldn't have been nearly as hott.

Something weird is going on with my blog. Testing, testing, 123?

10 Things I Want for My Birthday:

1. A monkey who can do human stuff, like golf.
2. To turn the clock back to when Tom Cruise wasn't crazy.
3. Everyone to go see Bishop Allen at The Independent on July 25.
4. For there to have been a mistake and Joey McIntyre really wasn't voted off.
5. To meet Howard Stern.
6. This necklace, if it's not already too outdated.
7. A photo with Arnold on Monday.
8. That this year's camping trip will be as fun as last year's.
9. A video clip of this.
10. World peace, love, and happiness.

Happpy birthday to me! No offense if you also sent me an e-greeting of some sort, but this one from Eugene really takes the, er, cake.

In 3.5 years of posting to this blog, I've never changed the template. First Flickr, now this. What's come over me!

The great news is that the archives now work. Try to contain your excitement.

What do you think? Too polka-dotty? It's quite tricky to customize these new-fangled Blogger templates.

So I'll sit on this one for a bit.

Lots of new links to post, in reverse chronological order:

1. Other photos from LA, including Sarah's birthday and Santa Barbara picnics.
2. Photos from NYC. Daaaaaaaaaaamn it was hot.
3. Here are some pics from a journalism seminar I attended at the Poynter Institute in Florida.
4. We went to the Saratoga Mountain Winery last week to see Lyle Lovett with visiting Canadians.
5. Photos from my birthday BBQ at Sue and Mike's.

As you can see, I've pretty much entirely converted to Flickr. Despite initial resistance (not host my own photo galleries?!) I can't deny the speed and simplicity. Being a bit afraid of change, this freaks me out slightly, but alas -- it's so hard to keep up with everything as it is. If Flickr can help... So be it.

And more importantly: Now you can comment and leave clever notes on all my photos! What else could you ever want? Like, I'm sure you have a lot to say about this delightful picture of my husband eating ribs.

Finally, if you are interested in checking out the She Said She Said radio show but haven't been able to listen live -- Jess added a ton of podcasts to that blog. I agree that the episode where the nice, cute Budweiser distributor came to visit was my favorite as well.