Nicole Tasker Woods

In August, I am flying to Manchester, NH to spend a few days at home in Northwood. Then my mom and I are flying from Boston to Paris, where we will meet up with Ryan and his mom where our EuroTrip 2010 will begin. After a week in Paris, we are picking up a rental car and heading to Bruge for a couple of days and then off to London.

I am excited to be in Paris again. I went for two weeks during the summer after my Junior year in high school and obviously did not appreciate it like I will when we go this year. In high school, I was young and stupid and all I thought about on that Paris trip was how much I missed my high school beau. I did, however, go with my best friend at the time and we had a blast. We made a lot of great memories and when I think back to it now, in all of those memories, we were rolling in laughter. It is a shame that growing up sometimes means growing apart.

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Burger King has added a glorious item to their menu…funnel cake sticks! They come with a side of frosting for dipping and were the perfect afternoon snack/dessert. After enjoying our low calorie, low fat soups and frozen dishes, we were still hungry and decided to head to Burger King to see if the rumor of funnel cake sticks was really true. And yes, yes it was. We walked in the doors, the smell of sugary fried dough hitting our faces and waking up our senses. We ordered three boxes and split them between the two of us. It was delightful!

For Christmas, my sister-in-law, Brady, got me Perfect Brownies–a kit that comes with everything you need to make perfectly cut brownies. Now, I’m not very adventurous when it comes to baked goods. I would rather hop in the car and head to the nearest grocery store and pick up a box of cookies or a cake from the bakery instead of baking something myself. But ever since the funnel-cake-maker was such a huge hit in the past few weeks, I had to give the brownies a go. When I was at the store picking up groceries for that week, I picked up the first package of brownie mix I saw that looked chocolaty enough to not suck even if I did screw it up. But I did not read the back of the mix where it called for an 8″ square baking pan and in retrospect, I should have used two packages instead of just one. However, I cut the baking time down by 10 minutes and the brownies I ended up with were near perfect.

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I think my career as paparazzi is not going to be a successful one. I do not enjoy standing for five hours straight in the cold and got sick of saying things like:

• You look wonderful tonight, who are you wearing?
• What a nice handbag!
• Are you here to play pool or just chill?
• Please come up and smile for the camera!
• Love it, own it, work it!

I arrived at 3:00pm yesterday to help get the rooms in the pool hall ready with the raffle prizes and tickets and then at 4:00pm, me and the rest of the paparazzi lined up on the red carpet to take pictures of the first guests to arrive. I was into it for the first 20 minutes, but it quickly turned into robotic motions that we were doing over and over again. However, I was happy to help out because 1) it got me out of work and 2) it was for a really great cause.

When the last radio personality guest star arrived at 8:00pm, me and four other paparazzi were cut loose to head inside and join the festivities which were hours from winding down.

Ryan had bought me 50 raffle tickets so we put all of them in the pot for the pair of Laker tickets and parking passes. We grabbed some food and watched our friends compete in the pool tournament but then were ready to leave at 10:00pm when the winners of the tournament were announced. However, we did not win the raffle 🙁 but hey, it was for charity, right?!

Tonight I am volunteering at the Variety Children’s Charity Annual Pool Tournament. Variety is a charity that is heavily supported by people and companies in the film industry so I am always in the loop on these events, but this is my first year participating. I do hate pool, so I told the event planner that as long as I didn’t have to play pool or count money, I’d help out in any other way!

After a few back-and-forth emails, I was assigned as paparazzi at this event. I’m not exactly sure what that entails, but I was told there is a red carpet and that I will be given a camera–pretty self explanatory, huh? I’m actually pretty excited about doing it and look forward to getting there and helping out!

Three weeks ago I was rear-ended on the freeway because some 16-year-old idiot fell asleep at the wheel. You know how I know that? Because he told the Officer Hottie that during questioning and let’s be honest, if you were going to lie, you should have said something less stupid.

After the kid got squared away, the cops let him drive away in his little pick up truck because it was leaking fluids. I on the other hand had to hang out in the light drizzle at 5:30pm at night waiting for my mother-in-law to come pick me up. I was lucky to have four extremely good looking CHP officers attend to my accident. They were really nice and kept giving me and my mother-in-law updates on the status of the tow truck while we waiting in the warmth of her car.

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My trip to Boston for my birthday weekend was a success! For those of you who do not know, Ryan surprised me with plane tickets to Boston for my birthday. I visited with friends and reserved Birthday-Sunday for my favorite cousin Carrie–we had a blast! We did lots of shopping and talking during the day (I finally got to see her awesome house!) and then we met up with the Wheaties (Ryan, Luke, Christina and Aubry) for dinner at the Melting Pot at the Providence Place Mall in Rhode Island.

This is probably my favorite restaurant. I just love the flavors and being able to leisurely cook my own food and make conversation. The cheese and chocolate are what I look forward to the most! The bartender made me a birthday-cake-martini to enjoy with my chocolate fondue and it had a candle on top so that I could make a wish before blowing it out.

The cold weather was a bit of a cold shock, but we survived it. Monday was the only bad weather day and it was like we were in a monsoon–we got so soaked! But that is the day we went to the Renaissance Hotel at Patriot Place for massages and some much needed relaxing time in the steam room.

The flights were pretty agreeable as well. We flew JetBlue so we had Direct TV there and back as well as near empty flights so we were able to stretch out.  I was excited to go to Boston for a quick birthday trip and while I had a great time, I was so happy to be home in Los Angeles cuddling with my Cali under the covers.

I just can’t stand the stuff. I’d rather go out in a snow blizzard then get drenched in the rain. I’d rather be cold&dry than cold&wet. I hated the rain back home in NH and I hate it here in CA.

My worst fear is that my hair-do will get ruined. I had an AWFUL experience with that in high school back in NH. Every day, part of my morning-getting-ready routine was to “do” my hair. It was long and thick and super straight so I attempted to curl my bangs and then plaster them in place with hairspray. Even to this day, it is stick straight (despite sporting a really short hair cut) and as smooth and soft as it was when I was 10, but still I plaster. Anyway, back to the high school story…

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Please join me in remembering a great icon of the entertainment community. The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71 years old.

Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The grave site was piled high with flours.

Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers.

He was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times, he still was a crusty old man and was considered a positive roll model for millions.

Doughboy is survived by his wife Play Dough, three children: John Dough, Jane Dough and Dosey Dough, plus they had one in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart.

The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.

Today would have been Elvis Presley’s 75th birthday.

Can you imagine what Vegas would be like today if Elvis had not died sitting on the toilet? He could still be a sell out performer, his name in lights and fans screaming like crazy. He would have had to loose the weight and silly sequined jumpsuit.

Maybe go back to the suit and skinny tie or black leather jacket…yeah, black leather like the ’68 comeback special.

All the oldies radio stations are playing around the clock Elvis Presley tunes and I’m doing the same from my iPod at my desk. Happy Birthday, Elvis!

This is the lull after the holidays that I love. The house is back to normal and there is nothing planned for the next few weeks; everyone is just trying to get their sleeping schedules back in whack and to stop eating so many sweets. But seriously…how can you when there’s chocolate bread pudding just screaming your name from the refrigerator???

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Tonight Carolyn made an awesome, casual meal for us and another couple…mac&cheese, meatloaf & chicken dumpling soup. She also cracked open a bottle of Cristal Champagne (which was divine by the way) and then we had coffee and dessert…chocolate bread pudding, coffee walnut ice cream, rice crispy treats & cake.

The company was great and the food was incredible. I finished the clean up while they got dressed up for a night of dancing at the Country Club. Every New Year’s Eve the club has a live band play for the club members while they eat dinner and then dance until midnight. Ryan and I have gone in the past few years, but wanted to enjoy tonight by the fire in our jamies watching movies. So that’s just what we did. After watching It’s Complicated and then an indie soccer film called The Damned United, it was already 12:16am. We missed the countdown to the start of 2010, but to tell you the truth, I do not really care.

I look forward to 2010 and more nights by the fire with my husband and puppy dog curled up in a ball between us.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!