Design Star

Generally, I take time off from television in the summer. However, Sundays are now TV nights for me. And I mean that in the sense of, "Nobody bug me while I'm watching this show or I will go ballistic!"

I'm completely addicted to HGTV's Design Star. Anyone else been watching it? (If not, you can jump in anytime. It's not a show where you have to struggle to figure out what's happening.) It's totally feeding my television addiction now that my laugh-out-loud shows (Ugly Betty, Boston Legal, Dirty Sexy Money and 30 Rock) are on summer hiatus.

Here's the gist: A bunch of aspiring interior designers are given projects, a budget, and a deadline. (Writers: try to imagine what you'd do if given 30 hours, a laptop, and a writing parameter such as, "Give us a story about green." That's essentially the task facing the competitors on Design Star.) They come up with some phenomenal work. For anyone in the creative arts, or anyone who's simply interested in making their home/apartment/dorm room fantastic on a tight budget, it's inspiring.

The judges--fashion designer Cynthia Rowley, interior designer Vern Yip, and InStyle Magazine editor Martha McCully--go over the pros and cons of each person's work, and each week one designer is eliminated. The last person standing gets a phenomenal prize: a spread in InStyle Magazine AND their own show on HGTV. How cool is that?! The season one winner was David Bromstad (now host of HGTV's Color Splash.) Season Two's winner was Kim Myles (now host of Myles of Style.) Both were at or near the top of my "faves" lists those seasons. I don't have a fave contestant on season three...yet. But I do hope Tracee's out soon. (Yep, there's someone I DON'T want to win, mostly because I know I wouldn't watch her if she had a show on HGTV. How sad is that?)

Tune in tonight on HGTV. If you have even a tiny bit of interest in design, you'll love this show.

Hard Work Pays Off

Check out this link to CBS-4 TV in Denver:

Moody on Day 3 of Ride The Rockies

That's my eighty-year-old great uncle, Harley Magee! If I could figure out how to download the video, I would, but it's giving me fits. (And I am so not tech-savvy.)

Ride The Rockies

If you're a cyclist, or you live in Colorado, you've probably heard of Ride The Rockies. It's a grueling, yearly bicycle ride that covers some of Colorado's prettiest--and highest--terrain. This year, the ride is 435 miles long, starting in Durango and finishing in Breckenridge. I'm proud to say that my brother, my father, and my great-uncle are all on this year's ride, which left Durango yesterday. As I write this, they've successfully completed day one, and are getting ready to take off from Cortez for day two's seventy-seven mile leg to Telluride, which means going over Lizard Head Pass, at a breath-stealing altitude of 10,222 feet. (Check out the elevation maps on the site to see just where it goes!)

If you live in Colorado or southern Wyoming, check out Greg Moody's daily reports about the race on Denver's CBS-4 Evening News. He's interviewing my great-uncle about the race! (So when you see Harley Magee on TV, you can say, "Hey! That's Niki's great-uncle!")

Go Uncle Harley! Go Joe! Go Dad! (Happy Father's Day!)

Picture Day!

Two coolio pics to share today. The first was sent to me by the fabulous Alyson Noël (she wrote the books Cruel Summer, Faking 19, and Art Geeks and Prom Queens, among others!) While I've never made it to the beach in Santa Monica, apparently my books have. This was taken at the Barnes & Noble there:



Of course, I'm horribly jealous. It's just under a hundred degrees at my house today, and I am NOT a hundred degree girl. Not without sand, a shaded lounge chair, and the sound of surf. (A book or magazine would do nicely, too.)

Today's other great pic came to me from Jennifer, the YA Librarian at Otis Library. She's collected photos of authors and made READ posters out of them for the library. You can check them out on her MySpace--just click on her Pics to see them all. Here's the one she made of me. Isn't it fun?



Finally, it's not a picture, but doesn't Picture Day always deserves a prize?? (Maybe because I'm not that big on getting my picture taken, I figure it's a good excuse to give myself a gift!) Check out Book Chic's MySpace blog to win some great prizes, including a copy of Breaking Up (Is Hard To Do), which includes my story, Last Stand, as well as stories from Terri Clark, Ellen Hopkins, and Lynda Sandoval.

Happy Picture Day!

Brasil! Brasil!

Quick, where did I take this photo?!



If you say "Brazil" because you know that "Brasil" is the way Brazilians spell the name of their country, and you noticed that the ads are not in English, well, you are a smarty pants for looking at the title of today's blog. But you would also be WRONG! This was taken in the good ol' U.S. of A.

This past weekend, Boston's Gillette Stadium played host to a double-header of the New England Revolution vs F.C. Dallas, followed by a wickedly rowdy game between the national teams of Brazil and Venezuela. I was lucky enough to go (and had a fantastic time, once I actually got a parking spot.)

To give you an idea of how things looked before the game, check out the parking lot:



You could hear the music pumping out of loudspeakers and smell the barbeque from over a mile away. (And I got asked to dance three separate times just walking from my car into the stadium. Now that's a party!)

Those of you who read Sticky Fingers, which was set in the Boston suburb of Framingham, know that there's a huge Brazilian community west of Boston. I think ALL of them showed up to the game--the attendance was around 55,000. The stands were filled with Brazilian flags, yellow soccer shirts, and even green-and-yellow striped wigs. I think Mat (from Sticky Fingers) would have fit right in. The guys behind me even brought their trombones. (Seriously. I got the evidence!)



And I met this woman as I came in the gate. Had to get my picture with her and her Brazilian Statue of Liberty!



I did see one lone carload of Venezuelans. But this was about it for the entire night:



They were parked right next to the gate, I assume so they could make a quick getaway. Smart people: Venezuela won 2 - 0. Would you want to be on the other side of this crowd after they lost? (Especially since Brazil was heavily favored and has never lost to Venezuela?) I wouldn't, either!

Evil Star-Faced Villains

I was out doing yardwork yesterday when the dog went by me at high speed with this in her mouth:



I had to bribe Tipper with a doggie treat to get her to drop the thing. All I could think was, "What is that DEAD THING? What is with its sucker-y mouth?" It's now waaaaaay back in the woods behind my house, since after I took this shot, I played a game of fling-a-mole.

According to Google (and Google images), it's a star-nosed mole. (Translation = YUCK!) Even scarier: These things have been digging in my yard.

Of course, now I'm wondering how many more of these critters are lurking....

Speaking of moles, anyone watch the debut of the new season of The Mole? I actually enjoyed it, even without the celebs. Think I'll tune in again next week.