Don't Mind Me...I'm Just Napping

In all my travels I love playing the game "Choose One or Die". Are you asking yourself, what is that game, I've never heard of it, sounds risky but I like it? Well don't beat yourself up to bad, I made it up one day while on an airplane reading the best shopping magazine ever - Sky Mall!

In all serious, that magazine is just funny. It has all sorts of dumb gifts and things you never need. So, back to the game...WARNING: Once you learn it you won't be able to not play it, even if next to a stranger on the plane.

It's a simple and easy game and it goes like this. Find one person to play with, if need be and in middle seat you can, play with 3. Open each page and you HAVE to choose what item you would order if it were life or death. Sounds easy huh? Well imagine a page packed with nose hair clippers, foot detox pads, bird soap dispensers and backyard gnomes in princess gowns- tough choice huh?

Best case scenario, you end up with the "Don't Mind Me I'm Napping Pillow". I want to know, if anyone reading this blog has ever seen this on a plane - let me know! Seriously, if the dude or dudette sitting next to me blew this thing up and slept I would pee all over the seat (which would immediately end their nap). Is this considered a carry on? If not, I'm pissed because my purse counts and that makes me mad!

So, if what you need is a Home Neck Stretching Kit or Cat Pillow Heating Pad you can play the game for real. Pickup a Sky Mall Magazine, it's jammed packed with all sorts of things you never knew you needed until now - like the travel sleeping pillow pictured to the left!

Nothing Like Wrigley and Chi-Town

This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel to Chicago with Jim's family to attend the Reds game and see the city! It was an amazing trip and I can't thank his family enough for inviting me to come along! I put a group picture of all of us in here too!

I was really excited to go to Wrigley Field to see my first game ever there...and it was against the Reds!!!

To make it a true Chicago experience we took the blue line on The El over to Wrigley Field. Once I stepped off The El I was really excited! All the people crowding the streets, the noise, the beer, the smell and it was only 11AM!!

We had awesome seats, right along 1st baseline and about 7 rows up. I loved how the field was open, didn't feel surrounded by technology - but just us and the players! I enjoyed some Old Style's, Chicago Style Hot Dogs, peanuts and ice cream.

We cheered for the Reds, who ended up losing :( Then stuck around for the song that Cubs fans sing if they win...something along the lines of "Go Cubs Go!" We laughed at this, because it totally sounded like a Christian Rock Church Band was playing. But all in all we had a great time at the game and the stadium was awesome, not a bad day to be a Cubs fan!

After the game we went out and partied at some of the local bars around the stadium! We went to Slugger's and listened to the dueling piano players! We had such a great time I would love to get to Wrigley every summer!

I have been very lucky to have traveled a lot this summer and had the best time. I am truly blessed to be surrounded with people who love me and I love them, no matter where we go we have fun!

I'm A Celebrity, Now Sign Up!!!

Catchy huh? I'm not Speidi but I work for a company that is continuing to grow and plans to take over the world!!! Ha, in a good, FREE way!

Last Thursday, SparkPeople was featured on Entertainment Tonight!! As I have mentioned in past blogs, SparkPeople is holding local Conventions all across the United States to raise awareness about SparkPeople and bring all our online efforts offline!

I meant to blog about this prior to the episode, but with all the Michael Jackson coverage it was never a nailed down date. And thanks to a busy weekend in Chicago and crazy work week, I didn't have a chance to blog about this until today. In fact, I wouldn't have even gotten to this until tomorrow if this guy Paul, didn't stalk me and send me threatening notes if I don't update ofter enough!

So check it out below! The weird thing is every version was different, this online version is different than the one on TV that night...I noticed because you can catch me in the background on the one I Tivo'd-HOLLA!

For some reason the embed is not working, CLICK HERE for video.

A Little Piece of Heaven

Last week I was in Sanibel, Florida for my family vacation. Every year we go to Sanibel for a week to fish, relax, snorkel, drink, eat, bike and much more. We go with our entire family, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents, etc...each year it can be anywhere from 15-25 people - so the whole Island knows which week we come each year!

For those who haven't been to Sanibel, it's North of Fort Myers and very close to Captiva. Sanibel still has no stop lights, neon lights or chain restaurants on the Island (except Dairy Queen). It is totally removed from reality and every year I'm there it gets better and better.

With 15 people this year we were always on the go. We do our annual fishing trip, which this year landed several sharks, Snapper and a Grouper that was too big to bring in the boat. We also did a snorkeling excursion where some lucky people had the chance to swim with a manatee. We then spend a lot of time at the pool, in the ocean, surf fishing at dusk and pier fishing at night.

We do a lot of eating out and great food - not the healthiest food, but it's vacation so I'm ok with it. We always eat breakfast at the The Lighthouse and Island Cow, which is my favorite breakfast place. They serve these delicious cranberry muffins for free and this year added Funfetti muffins to the mix. The breakfast places are decorated so nice and always have the best juices!

We always eat dinner at Lazy Flamingo and also down a few beers here pretty often. They serve the best steamed shrimp and wings on the island- along with the coldest beer. They also put on Reds games for us when we show up, and this year even the All Star game. We do all you can eat crab legs at McT's, Timber's for the atmosphere and good food, Trader's for Danny Morgan and usually throw in another restaurant here and there, but those four are the staples.

We had a great time and lots of funny stories. I swear, someday someone in our family could write a book with all the crazy things that happen. Between my Uncle bringing home fish and meatballs on the plane to my Grandma requesting no fizz and ice on the side for her pop - we are a lot to handle but always a lot of fun.

I can't wait until next year!

Just Wrong

I recently saw an article that featured controversial foods and was completely grossed out by some of the meals on the list. They were controversial because they were inhumane, almost extinct, deadly and some had such high caloric intakes my heart hurts thinking about it.

One that was on the list was a restaurant in Arizona known as the Heart Attack Grill. This hospital-themed restaurant has dishes loaded with calories and fat and even names them after medical procedures you might end up having if you eat unhealthy or even eat just one of these burgers!!. But they don't even hide the fact that their food is unhealthy. The burgers are named after medical procedures which you would need if you had a heart attack, which you might have if you eat one. On top of that, the waitresses are dressed as nurses!

The burger pictured here, The Quadruple Bypass, weighs in around 2 lbs with lots of mean and loads of cheese and contains a whopping 8,000 calories. I checked out their website and almost cracked up when I got there. The home page totes “Deep Fried in Pure Lard”! That made my stomach hurt thinking about it and my blood just got thicker reading the word lard. Even better, on their homepage they feature Jolt and no filter cigarettes?

So, the website had a blog and some other interesting stuff on it that claimed you can eat, drink and smoke yourself healthy? And their logo is “taste worth dying for.” Seriously, and people support this man? Even worse, if you are over 350 pounds you can eat here for free? Seriously, someone over 350 pounds already has enough issues with their healthy and you are promoting them to become even more unhealthy? The owner of this place should be charged with negligence, we’ve seen stories like this all over the papers recently.

Don't ever eat here, it's not worth it! Your heart, arteries, stomach, butt, lover and whatever else you like will thank you! I can't believe a place like this is even allowed to exist!

Now, don't all scream at once! I'm on vacation next week so it might be a slow week! If you land on this page and wonder where I am, just think Pina Coladas and feet in the sand.

Duh or No Duh

This blog is all thanks to my friend Paul!! Who has been begging to be featured in the hottest blog to hit the Internet since PerezHilton - JennyUJunk.com!

So, last week PAUL and I were talking about some good blog topics and he brought up that "duh" and "no duh" mean the same thing, he just doesn't get it. After he brought this to my attention I thought "You know PAUL, you are right, that doesn't make sense."

I think "duh" and "no duh" basically mean "No Shit Sherlock." For example:

Paul: "Jenny, did you know that Anna's best part about the SparkPeople Rally was you"!
Jenny: "Well duh PAUL, I'm awesome"

However, this conversation could have also gone something like this:

Paul: "Jenny, did you know that Anna's best part about the SparkPeople Rally was you"!
Jenny: "No duh PAUL, I'm awesome"

It's one of those words that it doesn't matter if you put the "no" in front of it, it means the same thing without it. So why do we put the "no" in front of it? It totally baffles me and I don't have the answer folks. It also baffles me that this website exist - WTF?

Do you have words that you don't understand or they totally mean the same thing? I could totally get into words that I can't stand to hear (like moist), but that would be a-whole-nother blog (and there's another one...a-whole-nother and another = same thing).

The Number One Aesthetic Affliction in the World?

Yeah, with a title like that I got your attention and you are probably like what the F does that mean? Well, I received an email request a few weeks back that I literally spit my water out at the screen when reading it and purposely saved this blog for the day the website lunched - saynotocankles.com .

So here it is folks, according to Gold's Gym if current trends continue, by the year 2012 Cankles will surpass Love Handles as the number one aesthetic affliction in the world! (not sure exactly what trend they are referring to here since it wasn't noted) This was seriously on the website and is frickin hilarious to me...have you ever heard about belly fat or jiggly ass?

This just cracked me up that they have created a Cankle Awareness month in July to make people more aware that Cankles are not attractive and you can somewhat do something about it. Even more, here's a piece of the email I received letting me know about this month:

Muffin tops. Love handles. Spare tires. As if there weren’t enough embarrassing body burdens to worry about, here’s one more: The Cankle. What exactly is a cankle? The word comes from the combination of “calf” and “ankle.” On the leg, it’s when there is no clear distinction between a person’s calf and foot, essentially no ankle.

Sadly, this growing epidemic has fast become a pop-culture punch line, but to sufferers of the condition, cankles are no laughing matter. That’s why this July, Gold’s Gym is launching a campaign to combat this pop-culture punch line, helping America put its best foot (and ankle) forward as we head into the season where people trade in their long pants for cropped pants, shorts and skirts.

I mean I love the pun, "put it's best foot forward", it's just hilarious. An this is worth deeming Cankles as an epidemic, I mean epidemic is saved for major diseases that kill millions like Influenza and The Plague - not for something so simple as Cankles.

At the end of the day this is a funny email and not something you'd expect to receive in your inbox. But many people struggle with this hereditary disease and it's no laughing matter. But for the purpose of this blog and Cankle awareness month, visit saynotocankles.com and together we can put an end to Cankles!!!