The People's Choice Awards

Before the age of internet I used to wonder who in the world the people were that were voting on the People's Choice Awards, now I know, teeny boppers!

OK not really but based on some of the categories, they definitely cater to the teen sect. I don't think they limit how many times you can vote either so if you have a large and unemployed fan following, your chances of winning are strong.

American Horror Story

I got Nancy hooked, have to say, it's less scary watching it with someone. Too bad she went to bed before it came on this week. Poor Lana, she can't cut a break. Seriously, she finally escapes bloody face to get picked up by a suicidal driver. 

One of the ongoing questions is who is present day bloody face. I will post a pic after the jump. 

Scandal

I can't believe I haven't talked about this show yet but my favorite new show of last season was Scandal. It came on as a mid-season replacement and I didn't even know about it until my sister in law asked me if I was watching it. I checked it out and was hooked!

Scandal is a Shonda Rhimes show, she is also the Executive Producer of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice. Two shows I've thoroughly enjoyed at some point. I stopped watching Greys when the brought back Denny as a ghost. When I watch Supernatural I expect ghosts, when I watch Greys, I don't. But the first couple of seasons were awesome and I'm feeling that love for Scandal. It's delicious!

For the man in your life

Having trouble finding something for that special man in your life. On EW they had this as their gift of the day and I loved it. Who doesn't love a snuggie? Who doesn't love Batman? A snuggie Batman sounds like a winner to me!  I did buy my nephew snuggie PJs last year that he never wore, what a disappointment, then again, they weren't Batman snuggies! 

Good news Nancy, they also have Wonder Woman!

Girl Meets World

The big news all over the interweb is the fact that Disney is launching a sequel to Boy Meets World and when I say it's big news, every entertainment news outlet is talking about it. 

I remember watching this show, sure, it was a cute show but I'm shocked by the amount of attention it's getting. The kids are coming back as the parents, which I think is fun but it's such a big deal that even the supporting actors are issuing statements on whether they're getting cast or not. At this time, Rider Strong is a no. Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel are a yes. Please bring back Mr Feeney. I loved him and Cory's relationship as he grew up.

Hottest Baby Name of 2012

Sophia and Aiden top the list of baby names for 2012 according to this yahoo article. My question is who are the people naming their children after names from 50 Shades of Grey? The name Grey jumped 155 spots and Anastasia is up 43 spots. I think the name Grey is pretty cool but maybe not the best baby name this year. Maybe baby Grey was conceived while reading this book?

I really enjoy unusual baby names but I think the parents need to remember that their children have to live with the names. A family recently named their baby Hashtag. Really? What's her nickname going to be? Hash. With parents like that, I see therapy in her future.

Ben Affleck Entertainer of the Year

I was surprised when I saw EW picked Ben Affleck as their entertainer of the year. I decided to look back at his early work to laugh at how he got there but there's not really a lot to laugh about. One of his earliest movies was Dazed and Confused, not my type of movie but it's still a classic. My brother Andy made me sit thru it. Of course it's his type of movie.

Then he began his Kevin Smith years with Chasing Amy and Mallrats, I love Kevin Smith movies, well, most of them (I skipped Jersey Girl) and let's not forget Good Will Hunting a movie he co-wrote and starred in with some guy named Matt Damon.

Oops (UPDATED)

The good news is we now have a custom domain name, http://www.leihatalks.com/ (the next step on my way to world domination) the bad news is, it messed up my facebook comment plugin so all of our earlier comments are missing. We (Lin) are working on getting it fixed. If you notice any other quirks please let us know.

Unfortunately it looks like we can't recover our previous comments, I guess it's better now then a year from now. 

Sharon's Sensational Salsa

Sharon made her salsa for us on a girls weekend, it was so amazing I actually craved it and began cooking Mexican food just so I could make this. Once I moved back to WA I started making it for family gatherings and this summer I was making it every week for my sister, it's that good!

When a recipe calls for salsa I have to make salsa, I can't use the jarred version, it's just not good enough anymore. Not when you're used to having a salsa that's so fresh tasting it's like you're eating out of a garden. 

Mini-me wallpaper

Thanks to Mia's talents we're going to be adding wallpapers to this blog. It's wonderful to be a sometimes muse for an artist! Click on the image to pop up a larger version and save.

I'm dreaming of a green Christmas!

Nestled oh so nicely on my Christmas tree are Powerball tickets. Nancy picked up $14 worth of tickets yesterday for us. As the old WA state lotto ticket commercial says, "you can't win, if you don't play." Someone at some point will win, why not us? OK the chances are slim that we're going to win, I would say 14 in 425 million chances but that's better then zero chances.

I don't buy lotto tickets often but always find it funny that those of us who don't play on a regular basis will buy when the winning amount gets crazy high. Is 1 million not worth trying for? The reason I don't buy lotto tickets more often is because I'm lazy and I'm cheap. While a ticket is only a dollar, I could use that dollar towards some beef jerky.

Damn, it's good to be me!

Entertainment Weekly had a recent article, 21 Classic Opening Lines in Books. One thing I notice about lists such as this is they never include books that I actually read.

I don't really remember opening lines from books but one I will bever forget, maybe because I can relate so easily to it, is this line from The Immortal Highlander by Karen Marie Moning, "Damn, it's good to be me." Adam Black, talk about setting up a book!

Are there any opening lines that you remember? Please share.

Adult diapers outselling baby diapers

Nancy told me about this article, it was a business week article about stocks in Japan and we both took away only one line from it: Last year, for the first time, sales of adult diapers in Japan exceeded those for babies.

Apparently Japan has an aging population. All I could think about was the fact I know I'll be wearing them when I get older.

Cranberry Chutney

I've never been a fan of canned cranberry sauce, part of it I'm sure is because I don't eat cranberry with my turkey. It's all about the gravy for me, I may have mentioned that before. But I do love to make this awesome and easy cranberry chutney and use it as an appetizer, with some set aside for those who want to enjoy it with their turkey. 

It's not quite as popular as my cheese ball but I really enjoy the tart sweet combo and of course, it's served with cream cheese so it has to be delicious. I tried it once with brie, cream cheese is definitely better. 

That was the Thanksgiving that was

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I have to say, I think this Thanksgiving is one of my favorites. Since I cooked most of what I needed to cook I stayed in bed watching football when I woke up and then dragged myself into the living room to watch it and do a little cleaning in the kitchen. 

The football game went into overtime so we left the house a little later then planned but since I was planning on getting there early, we weren't really late. We have a family tradition of going to Andy and Christina's house for Thanksgiving and Kimberly and Jeff's house for Christmas. 

Soap characters are like family

This week General Hospital said good-bye to the much loved Edward Quartermaine and the actor who portrayed him John Ingle. I wanted to blog about it after the holiday, this story made even more poignant by the death of the actor who made JR Ewing and "Who shot JR?" a national catchphrase Larry Hagman. 

When my mom moved to the US soaps were what she watched to help her with her English. Since she watched soaps, I watched soaps. I remember waiting until after my shows were done before I'd run out and play with my friends. Or coming home for lunch to watch Bo & Hope on Days while my mom watched a different soap in the living room. My dad also came home for lunch and would make fun of the characters the whole time yet he knew everyone's name. 

He Ain't Heavy, He's Alfie Boe

It's one month until Les Miserables comes to our movie theater featuring Hugh Jackman. I love Hugh and think he's a wonderful talent but he's going to have to sing his butt off to erase the memory of Alfie Boe in my head.

Alfie played Jean Val Jean in the 25th Anniversary edition of Les Miz. While rehearsing for the show he became great friends with Matt Lucas who played Thenadier. They were such good friends that Matt opened his home to Alfie while he and his wife were house hunting. The only requirement was that Alfie sang for his supper. Here they are singing, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother." Talk about talent! He's sitting in the kitchen belting this out!

Nancy and I are hoping to see the midnight showing Christmas Eve but I can't find any info on it. Anyone have any information about it?

What I'm thankful for this year

Tis the season to be thankful! Unless you're from a really dysfunctional family, we're all thankful for our family and friends so I thought it would be fun to think of non-tradional reasons to be thankful. Here's my list:

I'm thankful that my eyes are bigger then my stomach, if my stomach was bigger then my eyes, well, it's not a pretty picture.

Speaking of pretty, I'm thankful that my mini-me is as pretty as the real me. 

Flashpoint

Does anyone I know watch Flashpoint? It airs in syndication on ION with new episodes airing on Tue nights at 11pm. Yes, I know it's late but since it's on cable, it repeats a lot. 

Syndication is huge for tv shows, it helps them find a new audience. Some shows I started watching once they were syndicated (when their re-broadcast rights are sold) are Supernatural, NCIS, Criminal Minds and Flashpoint. I stumbled across Flashpoint on accident. I have been trying to catch up on all of the Criminal Minds episodes, which is made easier by the fact that ION and A&E are constantly running reruns of it but a couple of nights a week, late night, when I tuned in for my CM fix, Flashpoint would be on instead. At first I would just change the channel but then I started leaving it on that channel because nothing else was one and then I found myself watching the show and now I actively seek it out.

Writing so bad it's bad

Did you know that there's a Bad Sex in Fiction award given out by the British magazine Literary Review? I didn't either! After reading the excerpts on EW where I originally read about this I think it's a much deserved award but not one someone wants to win. They included snippets of those nominated, here's my favorite. And I thought purple prose was dead. 

Infrared by Nancy Huston: “He runs his tongue and lips over my breasts, the back of my neck, my toes, my stomach, the countless treasures between my legs, oh the sheer ecstasy of lips and tongues on genitals, either simultaneously or in alternation, never will I tire of that silvery fluidity, my sex swimming in joy like a fish in water…”

The full bang!

Thank you to Brenda, she found the full version of Big Bang Theory's Flash Mob. I was originally going to just replace the original video but this is so fun I wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to see it. It's a song mash-up. BTW, Leonard does participate!

Supernatural at Comic-Con

Last night I couldn't sleep so I caught up on the episode of Supernatural I missed online. While looking at their various links I found that they had video from their Comic-Con panel. What a treat. Usually comic-con vids are shaky cams taken with people's phones so you're  looking at the back of someone's head. The video is 45 minutes long but if you're a Sam and Dean fan, you'll want to check it out. They don't do much press so it was fun to see them being themselves. If you're not a Sam and Dean fan, why aren't you?

I tried to embed the video but CW wouldn't let me. Here's a link if you want to watch. 

I'm crazy for gravy!

If you know me, you know that gravy is a must for any Thanksgiving gathering. When I lived in Los Angeles I would join friends for Thanksgiving dinner and was traumatized by attending a dinner that didn't have gravy. They were a stuffing family, not mashed potatoes and gravy. What the what?!?! Yeah, crazy!

Now I always bring a couple of packets of gravy as a back up whenever I go to a Thanksgiving dinner. Why packet gravy? Because for all of my gravy loving I don't know how to make gravy! Sob! 

About Last Night… Sunday edition

The American Music Awards were on last night instead of Once and Again and Revenge. I'm not a huge music person (gasp!) so don't really watch the music awards shows, not that this really is an awards show, it's just a bunch of live (or not so live) performances by some of the hottest musical acts out there.

While I didn't watch the show there were a couple of performances that were so buzzed about I had to look them up and share. The first is Pink. She is one of my favorite female performers right now. She can sing, she's a strong woman and she tells it like it is, not to get publicity but that's just who she is.

Luscious Slush Punch

For the holidays we like to make a punch for those of us who don't drink that is also pretty kid friendly. A super easy punch is a carton of rainbow sherbet ice cream dumped into a punch bowl with 7-up. It tastes delicious but you can't really drink much of it, it's pretty sweet and it doesn't quench your thirst. 

So back to allrecipes I went. I found this recipe and it had so many raves I had to try it. I made it for the first time a few years ago and it's now my go to holiday punch. I went to a party this weekend and Linda wanted a drink for her guests that wasn't alcoholic, I volunteered to bring this. It was a hit! I had no doubt:)

Leiha's Easy Peasy Cheesy Balls

Today I went to a friend's housewarming/birthday party and I volunteered to bring my famous in my own family Cheese Balls. Not only are these cheese balls better then any pre-made ones in the store, they're super simple and get better as each day progresses if by some slim chance you have leftovers. Actually, in my family, if we don't have leftovers, sometimes I will make more the next day to give out. It's that good. 

I can't remember why I decided to make a cheese ball the first time, other then the fact, I love cheese and I love balls. I found my recipe on allrecipes.com. I love this site due to the recipe reviews. Before pinterest scouring allrecipes is what I did to kill time.

Black Friday!

Should we even call it Black Friday anymore? Both Target and Walmart will be open on Thursday night so it's really Black Thursday now. There are some people who are so die hard about their shopping that they start lining up early on Thanksgiving so this works out well for them, for the employees of these stores, not so much. In fact, 2 workers from Target started a petition against them opening on Thursday and who can blame them? When you work in retail there are very few guaranteed holidays off, one of them used to be Thanksgiving.

A Not So Top Chef

Have you read this scathing review of Guy Fieri's new Times Square restaurant written by a New York Times food critic? He raked the restaurant over the coals but it's hilarious how he did it. 

Here are a couple of snippets: Were you struck by how very far from awesome the Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders are?When you hung that sign by the entrance that says, WELCOME TO FLAVOR TOWN!, were you just messing with our heads?" "Why did the toasted marshmallow taste like fish?" That is just a taste of the review.

The Big Flash!

I don't know about you but I love a good flash mob (Nancy did one for work). I also love The Big Bang Theory! Put the two together and we have geekdom heaven! Apparently Kaley Cuoco's sister choreographed this. I tried and tried but can't see Johnny Galeki dancing anywhere (Leonard). I have to say everyone but Amy Farrah Fowler has moves. Look at Bernadette go! My only quibble is it's too short.

Leiha Talks

My plan for Leiha Talks is multiple posts during the day to talk about things that are currently in the news (well mostly pop culture news) so we have somewhere to chat with the knowledge we wouldn't be attacked if our opinions differ.

Due to the fact I launched my blog a little sooner then I had planned (my posts were starting to get dated) I haven't been able to post as much as I had originally planned. Lin and I have been spending hours every day trying to work out the kinks, neither of us are coders or web designers so it's a lot of trial and error. Poor Lin, due to the time difference, she wakes up with a list of questions and can you do this? Why is this not working, etc?

About Last Night… Wednesday edition

Wednesday is an action packed night of TV, thank goodness The Voice is back to it's regular schedule, I'm already a couple of episodes behind on Modern Family and still haven't watched last week's Supernatural.

That being said, I still watched Supernatural. I didn't want to be 2 weeks behind! Oh Dean, how much do I love you? He carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. I wish I was there to offer a shoulder to cry on since those bros aren't great at comforting each other.

Sexiest Man Alive

Channing Tatum is People's Sexiest Man Alive this year. It was definitely a break out year for him, he co-wrote, co-produced and starred in one of my favorite movies of the year, Magic Mike. Who needs a good plot or good acting when there's beautiful men taking their clothes off? He was sensitive in The Vow and hilarious in 21 Jump Street. 

Prior to this year, I knew his name but wouldn't have been able to pick him out of a line up. He blended with a lot of other actors for me. Is he the sexiest man alive? Based on this cover picture, no. This cover doesn't sell a sexy image. I'll show you my favorite pic of Channing after the jump.

Vampires and Werewolves Oh My!

While I'm not a Twilighter I am a huge fan of Vampires and Werewolves. In reality I have no interest in meeting either, it's fun to read about and romanticize them. Jeanine Frost's version of Vlad the Impaler is much different then the wikipedia version of him. I say, let's avoid anyone with the nickname The Impaler (insert dirty joke here). 

But put them in a book or on a tv or movie screen and I'm there! Some of my faves would be Alcide is better in True Blood Eric is better in the Sookie Stackhouse books. Jean-Claude and Asher from the Anita Blake books. I really enjoy the Underworld movies, well the first couple of them anyway.

The Twilight Effect

Twilight: Breaking Dawn part 2 is coming out this week. I wasn't interested in reading the books, I've read some fantastic books featuring vampires, werewolves, etc. and while Twilight had a lot of buzz, among my fellow readers I was told it didn't compare to the books I already read (and I already admitted to being a book snob).

I did check out the movie when it came out on DVD because my sister loved it. I was unimpressed. Then about 6 months ago we did a Twilight Marathon at my sister's, and the movies weren't as bad as I thought they were going to be. I know, what a rave, LOL. Once the last movie comes out on DVD I'm sure I'll watch it at my sisters house. She won't give me a choice.

The Voice

It's the Top 12 and the power is now out of the judges hands, in some ways I really like that (Christina gets it wrong every year) but in some I don't (Dez Durant will get the teen girl vote for sure) but I definitely think it's better then the way the X Factor does things, where the judges never vote out their own team, even if they're the worst.

Here are my impressions on each singer as they were singing, I can tell you right now, I would make an awful judge. I critique based on who I've liked all along, not just on tonight's performance. I'm not impartial and make no apologies for it.

The Kardashians don't live here

One of my favorite gossip sites spends a ton of time talking about Kardashians, Real Housewives, Teen Moms and the like. It's getting to the point where I'm ready to unbookmark them because I want to go there for celebrity news and gossip and to me, these just aren't celebrities!

The Kardashian article du jour was about the fact that Kim had zits on her face! Is that really newsworthy? For the past year I've had to struggle with adult acne, there have been no news article about that (but now that I have my own blog, that could be changing, LOL).

About Last Night… Sunday edition

Two of my must see shows last year are on Sunday nights this year and I couldn't have been more thrilled, well that was until the television season actually started.

Is it me or has Once Upon a Time and Revenge lost their magic? Granted, I don't watch OUAT live like I thought I would a lot of the times because of Sunday Night Football (Fantasy Football has changed my life, LOL) but I did tonight and most of the other episodes I've caught On Demand.

Not so deep thoughts...

We have Gen. Petraeus having an affair with his biographer. There's John Edwards who had an affair with his documentarian. Needless to say, if I was a wife, I would not trust anyone writing an authorized biography or shooting a documentary on my husband. I was going to say female, but you just never know, LOL. I was trying to think of other public affairs that involved biographers or the like. Can you think of any?

Banana Crumb Muffins

I go thru phases with my baking. I will bake something new every day and then I won't bake for a month, wow, sounds like me and books, LOL. 

Nancy's parents dropped off some bananas for us and they were starting to turn brown. I like my bananas with a touch of green so once they get to the brown part that means one thing, Banana Crumb Muffins! It makes Nancy very happy. This is my go to recipe when I have bananas I want to use up, it's easy and it's delicious. 

The MannTrap Family Zingers

This summer my family really got into playing volleyball at family functions (we also play a lot of spades and poker). To say we're competitive is an understatement but usually pretty easy going in our competitiveness, in that no one leaves crying (usually). There's a lot of laughter and a lot of trash talking, not necessarily in that order.

Well my brother in law, Jeff found out there's a beginner's volleyball league near us and he sent out a text to the family asking if we wanted to put together a team and the response was an overwhelming yes!

Talking Books

It's a fact that once I started working for an author I stopped reading as much. I used to read before I went to bed but now my computer is glued to my lap and I surf before bed or play Bejeweled Blitz while I watch tv. I don't read. Unless it's by one of my favorite authors, then I'll drop everything to devour the book.

I'm very much a book snob, I won't buy a book by it's cover, I have a kindle, I rarely buy printed books. But for me to pick up a book by an author I haven't read before I need recommendations, a lot of them. There has to be a buzz about the author before I will pick them up. I want to know ahead of time I'm getting a great book. My reading time is precious.

Veterans Day Deals

I have a lot of friends who have served in the military or are spouses of people who have served in the military or are currently serving. Thank you!

It's funny how I never really thought of myself as a vet. I served, I served during a war but I wasn't involved during that war. I was stationed in Korea during the first Gulf War, what I thought would be the main conflict of my lifetime. Little did I know. It's only over the last few years and thanks to my fellow soldiers, air men, sailors and marines that I've really learned to appreciate what I was a part of. Not that I was never proud of being in the Army, I loved it. I just never considered myself a vet. That was for people who went to war.

The Voice (edited to add my reaction to the results show)

On last night's show Team Christina and Team CeeLo performed. Their group performance didn't do anything for me. Nancy thought the sound was off overall.

I have never been a big fan of Xtina but I have to say, there must have been some serious feedback after last season because she's not as bitchy as she was last season and her boobs aren't on display every episode, just every other episode.

As far as CeeLo, I love him. He's a pure entertainer but I find him very nurturing as a coach. I was really looking forward to seeing what he did with his team.

TV Talk

I need a fun catchy title for my tv recaplets. TV Guide has The Watercooler, another entertainment mag has It Happened Last Night, which is my fave. If you have any suggestions please post them here.

Since The Voice was on last night it totally threw off my normal We night schedule. That and the fact that the new season of Top Chef started. Thank goodness cable likes to repeat their shows.

Since The Voice doesn't let me FF On Demand I prefer to watch it live. I'll be doing a separate post about it, sharing my favorite singers.

Let's Talk Turkey

It's November and that means it's time to celebrate one of my favorite Holidays, Thanksgiving! A day that you don't have to worry about buying gifts, it's all about food and it's traditionally spent with people you love. No wonder it's my second favorite national holiday (my birthday being my first but that's more of an international holiday).

Even though I don't host Thanksgiving dinner, I do like to spend the month of Nov thinking about the menu and what I want to bring. There are some tried and true, like my cheese balls and cranberry chutney but I always like to research and find new dishes to bring. I'll be sharing some of my favorite recipes as soon as I can find pics of them to go with the recipe, I'll have to do some test runs if I can't find a pic.

The Art of Men by Kirstie Alley

Kirstie Alley has a new tell all book called "The Art of Men (I Prefer Mine al Dente). I've always loved her and her ball busting humor and I love a nice juicy Hollywood read. I find biographies fascinating, especially of actors and actresses, they live such different lives then us but I have to say, from the press she's been doing on this book, it's left a bad taste in my mouth.

I guess because I'm not big on kissing and telling. I'm sure some people still think I'm a virgin, ok, maybe not. It's one thing to talk about someone who is alive, like John Travolta who she calls the love of her life (I honestly don't believe it, I think she's trying to help his reputation but that's just me) but she has been giving interviews all over the place talking about how her and Patrick Swayze fell in love on the set of North and South (side note: I loved that miniseries!).

Les Misérables

There weren't really any current movies I wanted to talk about so I thought I would post about the movie I'm most excited about this holiday season, Les Misérables!

I never had any interest in Les Mis. It always came across as a dark story and I'm a shiny happy kind of gal. I watched it because my friend wanted to. She was switching back and forth between the 10th Anniversary DVD and the 25th Anniversary one and my only thought was ugh, they sing the entire thing? Well she went to bed before it was over so I took them both to my room to watch and wiki'd the story while I watched and slowly but surely got pulled into the story. The next thing you know I'm watching it every day and googling all kinds of factoids and looking up youtube videos of the various behind the scenes footage. I probably watched the DVD a month straight (I prefer the 25th Anniversary edition with Alfie Boe) and whenever nothing is on TV I will pop in the DVD. You'd think I knew the words, I don't LOL.

The Voice

I don't watch a lot of reality shows but The Voice is one of my must sees. I love how they work on building singers up, not breaking them down. We've finally hit the live rounds. I don't mind that they add more people each season but I honestly don't remember most of the singers until the start to whittle them down.

Now we're in the Top 20. Last night they showed Team Adam and Team Blake. I love those guys. I definitely think Adam has the stronger team because I was going to pick my favorite from each of them but Team Adam I had to pick two favorites. Hey, rules were meant to be broken.

ICED by Karen Marie Moning

ICED is the first book in the Dani O'Malley trilogy by Karen Marie Moning. Since I'm Karen's friend and assistant it's hard to think this post is unbiased but those that know me, know I don't promote books that I don't love. I take my friend's money as seriously as I take my own and I won't recommend something that I don't love and think you should read.

I know some readers were a little hesitant over a book featuring Dani, they were worried that Mega would be too Mega. Remember the fans who complained about Mac? Karen said trust her, we did, and she wrote a kick ass heroine. We watched her grow and evolve and become a woman to be reckoned with.