Today's tickle-my-fancies

1) Dr. Condoleeza Rice played a Brahms recital for the Queen of England today, along with members of the London Symphony Orchestra and violinist Louise Miliband, wife of British Foreign Secretary. In order to be a classically trained pianist in your spare time, and Secretary of State as your full-time job, what do you have to sacrifice? No matter, it's still cool.

2) The Oceania cruise ship M/S Nautica outran pirates. Those cruise liners are seriously badass. So are the people that are in charge of them. In order for the customers to be pampered, the staff will have NO ONE f* with them, not even pirates (let alone my former company/job).

3) Britney Spears' movie on MTV was killer! I hafta say, I like the girl and hope things work out. But when you still insist your life is normal, and then cut to footage of 30 people chasing your car on foot and bicycle, I am sorry but you are NOT normal. The most interesting parts were not the interviews, but to actually see how she works and lives, trying to appeal to the public but hide from them all at the same time. I can't imagine.

4) The Dudders. They intrigue and fascinate and scare me all at the same time. I am addicted to their TLC show (yes I stayed up till 1am watching last night. Even though I have a Tivo.). What would possess a woman to birth 18 children? And my evil little questions - can you love them all enough, and equally? How do get to know your kids on a really personal level when you have so many?

5) Free hazardous materials and electronics recycling. Where we live, they have a year-round recycling center that takes all sorts of dangerous things like old paint, varnish, computer monitors, lawn mowers, just about anything. It makes me want to clean out the house just to do something good for the environment!