Melissa Writes

Well, well, well I haven’t been writing weekly like I wanted to.  It’s been an odd summer.  Let me get you caught up quickly.

I bought a gluten-free bread book a couple weeks ago.  I’ve read it cover to cover twice.  I’m now ready to make the leap and buy a bread maker, something I swore I’d never do when I baked with wheat.  I’ve made cinnamon rolls from the book.  I was not thrilled.  The bread portion wasn’t bad, they just didn’t have the cinnamon flavor I was looking for.  I’ve got a few ideas bouncing around on how to fix it.  When I get it right, I’ll post pictures.  I’m not showing things that don’t look good.  Amazing part of them, the butter soaked in.  That’s right the butter soaked into the bread.  If you’ve been in the gluten-free world for awhile you’ll know what an exciting thing that is.  If not, butter used to roll right off the bread.  You make them in muffin cups, I made the 12-cup version, but my 12-cup muffin tins must be slightly smaller than the recipe author’s.  They went over the top of the pan and were a pain to get out.  I’m going to attempt french bread later this week.  Maybe it will be picture worthy.

My summer addiction came back on TV this past week.  That’s right I am a Big Brother addict.  I don’t know if there is a support group for it or not, but even if there was I wouldn’t want to join.  I enjoy my addiction too much to give it up.  I’m not thrilled that Jesse is back on the show, but I am thrilled that this group of house guests are the craziest I’ve seen so far.  In the short two weeks that they have been in the house we’ve had fights, racial slurs, possible love/sex triangles, and already at least one sexual act under the covers.  It blows me away.  I look forward to the upcoming weeks of watching the show on TV, live feeds, and chatting away at hamsterwatch.com.

Crafting yes that’s a sad face after the word crafting.  I love crafting but I’m running out of room in the house, I need some place to set up my stuff.  I’m attempting to make a quilt, I’ve done it before, the attempt comes in trying to use the kitchen table.  I get the table cleared, set-up my stuff, get a few strips or blocks cut and it’s time to do something else.  When I finally get back to the quilt, the table is covered, my stuff is buried and I’m irked.  I did knit the other night during the commercial breaks of Big Brother.  I’m going to attempt to do that every week during at least one show.  Class will be starting back up and I’ll still be working on the same project I was when class stopped.  I also want to sew some reusable bags for grocery shopping, I’ve got crochet patterns for them but I think I could sew them quicker.

Nascar is starting to irk me.  Why?  Well you’ve got teams wooing Danica for money not talent, a judge over turning Mayfield’s suspension who hasn’t attempted to make the field since, and Kyle Busch acting like he is three I’ve about to give up.  Come on, you can’t win everytime.  It’s bad when Larry Mac is calling you out on the carpet for not giving interviews.  You can read it here.  I agree with everything he says there.  At some point no one is going to want to hire or sponsor Kyle and that’s a shame with the driving talent he has.

I started shooting a girl’s senior photos over fourth of July.  Since I’m not a pro and she’s not totally ready, I get to do a little here and there.  It’s nice.  I was super worried about it but she is so photogenic it’s not even funny.  I’ve had a blast doing it.  I hope she likes them.  I can’t wait to see them all printed.  I’m waiting on my CS4 to arrive.  Then I can have lots of fun with them.  I think I’ll go catch the mail box now.  Have  a great day!

I’ve been going to do this for over a week now, but I’m having now luck with getting time to write. It’s almost midnight now.  Before I get on my rant, let me get this part out I have no problems with female drivers.  I am a female, I want a great female driver out there, and I have done a series on female drivers.  I am looking at interviewing Chrissy Wallace sometime this summer to add to the series.  Now my thoughts and opinions about Danica.

Danica is a gorgeous woman.  I will admit that.  I think that’s what she has going for herself.  I’m not a prude, here’s a dirty little secret of mine, I loved the show The Girls Next Door.  That’s right, Hef’s ex-girlfriends were my second favorite thing to watch on a Sunday.  I just feel that Danica is selling her looks more than she is selling her talents.  That cheapens the whole thing.  It makes it feel like she’s out there for her looks instead of talent.  I have major issues with women being judged for their looks.  There is so much more to a woman than that.

Danica has been consistent in IRL.  I’ll give her that.  Nascar is nothing like the IRL, look at the guys who have made the transition.  Tony Stewart is one of the few in recent years that has been successful.  I’m worried that she’ll be a mid-pack at best driver.  I’m not looking forward to that.  I want a front running woman.  There’s no reason we can’t have one.  I’m just not sold on the idea that Danica has it in her to be that woman.

Why do I think she’s getting romanced by Nascar?  She’s a sponsor’s dream.  She’s going to be bringing big bucks.  Men love her and I’m guessing that they are betting that there are women who will be drawn to her because she’s a female in a male dominated world.  That’s not a good enough reason if you ask me.  I understand that you have to have sponsors in the racing world, it just costs too much money.  I’m tired though of having a bunch of ok, so, so drivers because they can draw big bucks from sponsors.  I would rather have a field of less than forty-three cars that was amazing then a full field of O.K. drivers.  I want great racing again.  I don’t think Danica is going to contribute to the sport in that way.

I also think that this is a way to draw/grab more watchers.  I’m not going to go off on that whole issue, that will have to be another post, catch the Open Letter To Nascar for some of my thoughts on it. I’m sure there will be some come over to Nascar.  Danica has dedicated fans and I would hope that those fans would follow her to the new sport.  I bet a few people will tune in just to see her in action.  I know that I tuned into IRL to see her in action a couple of times.  I’m just not sure if the racing is exciting enough right now to hold them.  I think once you turn someone off it will take a lot to get them back into it.

Ok, so what are your thoughts on it?