Hello,

mrsmusicaddict surprised me yesterday and took me on a date. We very rarely have money to do anything fun, so this was actually a double surprise. We went and ate at a place we both love, Olive Garden. They are currently running their never ending pasta bowl promotion. For many years I had season tickets to B.Y.U. football games and before the games we nearly always went and ate at the Olive Garden. There's the association of B.Y.U. football, Olive Garden and Fall for me.

After eating we went and watched the movie "Julie and Julia". That's a pretty good movie, if it is a bit long. The story is great, it actually tells two stories. The first is Julia Child's fortuitous rise to a renowned chef. An amazing set of circumstances had to happen for her to become "Julia Child". The second story is about blogger Julia Powell recreating all 524 recipes from the book "Mastering The Art of French Cooking". A blogger turning into a famous writer gives hope to all of us who blog. It's an inspiration that writing is something we could do as a profession. Julie Powell is a much better writer than me. In fact, I'm not a very good writer, but I love writing this blog.

After last week's terrible "Mad Men", I thought this week's episode was much better. In fact, this is one of my favorite episodes in "Mad Men's" three seasons. I'm glad Gene kicked the bucket, I was growing tired of that storyline. He had his moments but I can do without him. I loved how Joan gave Peggy instructions on how to find a roommate. I also enjoyed how some of the admen played a joke on her about her originally very plain roommate wanted sign. Joan remains one of the superstars of this series. That jai alai ad campaign never took off either, I hope that storyline is only for one episode. Also what is the whole point of the Sal is gay storyline? I couldn't care less about his sexual orientation. Sal is easily one of my favorite characters, right up there with the amoral Don Draper.

One of the previews we saw before the movie was for "Amelia", the life story of Amelia Earhart. It stars Hilary Swank. The movie is expected to be released October 23rd. Swank is one of my favorite actresses, her acting in "Million Dollar Baby" was sensational. She certainly deserved the Oscar that year. If you haven't seen "Million Dollar Baby", why not?

Congratulations to Whitney Houston for having the #1 CD in the land. It's good to have the Queen of Pop back. Let's hope her next CD is a lot better.

Good luck to the United States Men's Soccer Team tonight as they play in Trinidad and Tobago. A win will increase their chances dramatically of playing in next year's World Cup in South Africa. A loss could be devastating. American television why aren't these games on TV? After all the World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the nation. The USA is not guaranteed to make it, so these games have a lot of inherent drama. I can find a TV listing for Northern Ireland-Slovakia, why not for the USA- Trinidad and Tobago game? Apparently the game is going to be on ESPN Classic which means 7 people can watch it.

The "big" Apple announcement is out and to paraphrase the Bard, it's "Much ado about very little". First of all iTunes 9.0 is out. Yawn! It's a complete redesign and everything is suppose to be easier to find. The iTunes music store wasn't hard to use in the first place. It's an Apple product so obviously it's well designed. It's not like they were replacing Vista. Other changes the iPod nano now comes with a video camera, to capture those very small (or very nano) moments in your life. The iPod Shuffle now starts at $59. There's also a new iPod Touch Lineup, with iPod Touches now starting at $199. Lastly Apple also released a new version of the iPhone OS. (By the way Verizon Wireless, 30 million iPhones have been sold. Just saying.) With the lowering of prices, Apple finally heard about the recession.

But here's the question really on every Apple fan's mind. How did Steve Jobs look? The 54 year old CEO looks extremely skinny, almost frail. He talked about his recent liver transplant and espoused organ donation. He received his liver from a mid-20's car accident victim and said he wouldn't be here without that transplant. The usually prickly CEO reportedly lingered near the front of the stage after his speech. It's good to have you with us Steve.

Have a great day, theapplemacandipodaddict