World's hottest guys...revisited

About a year and a half ago, as one of my 43 things on 43things.com, I made a list of the 43 hottest male celebrities of all time, spending hours pouring over pictures and determining exactly where each of them ranked. Two more people were added after the list was over, and I would since add one more, so the list currently stands at 46. I haven't looked at the list in about a year, so I'm going to revisit the list here and see how it holds up to time. Here are the original 43, in their original order:

43. Leonardo DiCaprio
42. Eric Bana
41. Anthony Kearns
40. Will Smith
39. Adam Sandler
38. Viggo Mortesen
37. Billy Zane
36. Jamie Bamber
35. Matthew McConaughey
34. Dane Cook
33. Gerard Butler
32. Derek Jeter
31. Blaine Larson
30. Luke Mably
29. Ryan Reynolds
28. Vin Deisel
27. Orlando Bloom
26. Ryan Phillippe
25. Zach Braff
24. Gene Kelly
23. Elvis Presley
22. Joaquin Phoenix
21. Mario
20. Brad Pitt
19. Ioan Gruffudd
18. Ralph Fiennes
17. Alex Rodriguez
16. Montgomery Clift
15. John Krasinski
14. James McAvoy
13. Prince William
12. Daniel Craig
11. Ewan McGregor

And the top ten!

10. Johnny Depp
9. Shane West
8. Ami James
7. James Franco
6. Clive Owen
5. Channing Tatum
4. Jonathan Rhys Meyers
3. Matt Damon
2. Heath Ledger
1. Jude Law

The two later additions were Dominic Cooper and Jeffery Dean Morgan and the one that I would add now, quite possibly as my number one, is Wentworth Miller from Prison Break (see photo).

Overall, looking at the list, I would say it's pretty accurate. There are a couple people I would movie higher (Ryan Phillippe being one) a couple people I might add (Taylor Lautner) and a couple I would remove all together (Zach Braff). But over all, it's pretty good. Although I would make Wentworth Miller number one. No question about that the more I think about it. He beats them all out by a mile.

Restraint

I'm really trying to be better about curbing my ridiculous spending habits. I don't splurge on a regular basis, but when I do, I do it so much that it just threatens my budgeting for like a month. I went into today planning on spending no money, just chilling at home and eating the food we have here. But then I woke up this morning and was really craving pizza. Aaron is lactose intolerant, despite the fact that he LOVES cheese, and he has a really hard time keeping himself from eating it anyway and just dealing with the consequences. But he gets really sick afterwards so, to be a good girlfriend, I usually won't eat cheese or drink milk when he's around because it just makes it harder for him. So the only time I get to indulge myself is on days when he is at work and I am off...like today.

So anyway, I was really craving pizza but also feeling lazy, so I got online to Dominos.com to see how much it would cost me to order a pizza. It was going to be like fifteen bucks for a medium pizza and I figured that I should just go to the store, which is only like two blocks away and get one and cook it myself, since it's not exactly hard. So I head off to Rite Aid, but of course they also have the Maybelline Pearls lipstick that I've been wanting FOREVER (well, OK just since a couple of days ago when I got my issue of Cosmo). But it's $7.19 just for the lipstick, and six bucks for the pizza. Then I see the Tresemme lightweight mousse that I've also been wanting AND I'm almost out of the mousse I have, so of course that's a good justification. The mousse is on sale for only $3.99, but I really want the lipstick, so I wander around the store about twelve times trying to decide. I have the money, I'm not going to go broke if I get all three, but at the same time, I am trying to curb my spending habits, and this is definitely more than I am supposed to be spending daily.

Finally I tell myself that I will get the lipstick another day, since I don't really need it right away and it's not going anywhere, and just get the pizza and the mousse. So I get in line with my two items and right away start feeling guilty. I have enough mousse left in my current bottle to last me a few more days, and eleven dollars is still more than I should be spending, so I dash back out of line and, without thinking too much, put the mousse back and quickly pay for my pizza before I can change my mind. I just got home, put the pizza in the oven and am feeling very satisfied with myself over not buying anything other than what I came to get. I should have just walked in, gotten the pizza and left without stopping to browse. But I have to say, I am very proud of myself that even in the face of intense temptation, I was strong and did not give in.

Just wanted to share.

Anthony Kearns

I wanted to tell you about my favorite singer, actually my favorite musician all the way around. His name is Anthony Kearns and he is one of the founding members of The Irish Tenors, which originally included John McDermott and Ronan Tynan, and now is Anthony Kearns, Finbar Wright and Karl Scully. He is classically trained and sings traditional Irish music, opera and various other ballads all in a very classical style.

I've been a fan of his since I was about 9 years old when I saw the Irish Tenors sing on PBS for the first time. Since then I have been to two of his solo concerts in the US and am anxiously waiting to find out when he will be in the area next. I got to meet him once after the first concert that I went to of his, which was pretty much the thrill of the lifetime. He was very kind, very gracious with his adorable Irish accent. I highly recommend that anyone who has not heard him sing, get on YouTube and listen to a few of his songs. He has a voice that will just warm your heart. It is so rich and full and vibrant.

Get Him to the Greek

Well I watched it the other night, and thought I'd give you a quick review.

First, the plot. Jonah Hill plays up and coming record company employee Aaron Green whose career and reputation is put on the line with his idea to have has-been druggie rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) star in a anniversary concert at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. But Aldous is in London, so Aaron must attempt to escort him back within 72 hours for the concert, and make an appearance on the Today Show along the way. But Aldous has other ideas and won't come quietly.

Their 72 hour journey to get back to LA is somewhat reminiscent of the Hangover, as they attend party after party and Aaron's innocence is taken advantage of. Russell Brand is hilarious as the out-of-control rocker and Jonah Hill's surprised, innocent facial expressions get a work out. Over all a very funny movie, and one that had my boyfriend and I laughing out loud on many occasions. My only complaint is that toward the end, they tried to put in the moral in the form of a long, serious scene between our two main characters in which they discuss their lives and the mistakes they've made and how they are going to change for the better. It is only broken up with some hilarity by the fact that Aldous Snow is bleeding profusely into the pool and doesn't seem to notice it. If they had to put in a lesson or show that the characters had learned theirs, they did the best they could have. But it is an unnecessary distraction for viewers who are not watching the movie in hopes that Aldous Snow becomes Mother Theresa. But other than that one scene and a couple shorter ones like it, a very watchable, laugh-out-loud movie. Four stars out of five.

Budgeting and other downfalls

So I have a list (previously shared) of things I want to do in the next year or so, nearly all of which take some degree of money. So in order to accomplish these things, I need to have a plan in place to to be able to come up with the cash-ola.

So I figured out what I want to do that will be expensive, how much money it will cost and how much I will need to save by various points to be able to do it. The good news is, I can do pretty much everything on my list without too much pain or saving. The bad news is that I do have to be pretty disciplined in my spending habits.

But with some proper saving, and assuming I don't lose my job before then, I can go to Paris for two weeks with my sister in April, go to LA for a couple days to see Craig Ferguson in the summer and then go to NYC for a week or so around my birthday, all of which would be super awesome. So it's no splurging or crazy shopping trips for me for a while. But traveling is what I love second best (after Aaron), so it's worth it. So hopefully next year I can do the City of Light, City that never Sleeps and City of Flowers and Sunshine in one AWESOME spring and summer!!

Guilty pleasures

I was thinking about guilty pleasures today, since I was indulging one of mine. Every month I end up in line at the grocery store, waiting with my groceries, when the sirens begin. The new issue of Cosmopolitan will be there, gleaming in all it's sleek glory. Every month I attempt to resist it's call, since it's five dollars that could be better spent elsewhere. And every month I have varying degrees of success. This month, I resisted for about two weeks before finally giving in and justifying it to myself (I was good. I ate lots of fruit and vegis this week. And I only spent four dollars yesterday. I deserve it) So I bought it, devoured it in all of it's meaty, gossipy, consumer goodness, and immediately felt guilty. Especially since it's never just five dollars. Every issue features MUST HAVE buys for (insert season here). They range from clothing, which I can usually avoid, since I hate trying things on, and they are usually so far out of my price range, to hair products, which I immediately buy all of, since my goal is to have Kim Kardashian hair.

So that is my guilty pleasure. What's yours?

Home is the Sailor

I was watching the videos on YouTube of Jessica Watson's homecoming to Sydney in May, and I noticed that her mother, as Jessica stepped off of Ella's Pink Lady, said "Home is the sailor, home from the sea." It was such a perfect line for the moment and I knew I had heard it from a poem before so I had to look it up to refresh my memory of it's origin. Turns out it is from a lovely Robert Lewis Stevenson poem, which I put here:

Requiem

Under the wide and starry sky

Dig the grave and let me lie

Gladly did I live and gladly die

And I laid me down with a will

This be the verse you 'grave for me

"Here he lies where he long'd to be;

Home is the sailor, home from the sea,

And the hunter, home from the hill."