And The ACM Awards Goes to...

The nominees for the 49th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards were announced yesterday, with Miranda Lambert and Tim McGraw leading the pack with 7 nominations apiece. Lambert's seven nominations at this year's show include her third nod for the night's top prize Entertainer of the Year and eighth consecutive nod for Female Vocalist of the Year. Other artists up for the Entertainer of the Year trophy this year include Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, George Strait and Taylor Swift. Coming in behind Miranda and Tim with six nominations is Keith Urban, who is up for an award in Male Vocalist of the Year category. Lee Brice, Kacey Musgraves, Blake Shelton and Taylor Swift each received 5 nominations, with Florida Georgia Line and Lady Antebellum both receiving 4 nods.

Here's the full listing of nominees:

Entertainer of the Year: Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, George Strait, Taylor Swift

Male Vocalist of the Year: Jason Aldean, Lee Brice, Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, Keith Urban

Female Vocalist of the Year: Sheryl Crow, Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood

Vocal Duo of the Year: Big & Rich, Dan + Shay, Florida Georgia Line, Love and Theft, Thompson Square

Vocal Group of the Year: Eli Young Band, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town, The Band Perry, Zac Brown Band

Album of the Year: Based On A True Story… – Blake Shelton, Crash My Party – Luke Bryan, Here's To The Good Times – Florida Georgia Line, Same Trailer Different Park – Kacey Musgraves, Two Lanes Of Freedom – Tim McGraw

Single Record of the Year: "Cruise" – Florida Georgia Line, "Highway Don't Care" – Tim McGraw Featuring Taylor Swift & Keith Urban, "I Drive Your Truck" – Lee Brice, "Mama's Broken Heart" –Miranda Lambert, "Wagon Wheel" – Darius Rucker Featuring Lady Antebellum

Song of the Year: "Every Storm (Runs Out Of Rain)" – Gary Allan, "I Drive Your Truck" – Lee Brice, "Mama's Broken Heart" – Miranda Lambert, "Mine Would Be You" – Blake Shelton, "Wagon Wheel" – Darius Rucker Featuring Lady Antebellum

Video of the Year: "Better Dig Two" – The Band Perry, "Blowin' Smoke" – Kacey Musgraves, "Highway Don't Care" – Tim McGraw Featuring Taylor Swift & Keith Urban, "I Drive Your Truck" – Lee Brice, "Mama's Broken Heart" – Miranda Lambert, "Two Black Cadillacs" – Carrie Underwood

Vocal Event of the Year: "Boys 'Round Here" – Blake Shelton Featuring Pistol Annies & Friends, "Cruise (Remix)" – Florida Georgia Line Featuring Nelly, "Highway Don't Care" – Tim McGraw Featuring Taylor Swift & Keith Urban, "Wagon Wheel" – Darius Rucker Featuring Lady Antebellum, "We Were Us" – Keith Urban And Miranda Lambert

Songwriter of the Year: Rhett Atkins, Rodney Clawson, Ashley Gorley, Luke Laird, Shane McAnally

Reading the Label on Your Weight Gain

Apparently researchers have been able to better define women's eating habits that lead to weight gain and allegedly, we all fall into one of seven categories.  The eating profile determines your primary weight-loss obstacles.  Here are the "eating personalities":

• Rushers:  on-the-go people who blame their bad food choices on their busy schedules. The majority of women surveyed (about 70%) fell into this category.

• Pickers:  people who snack between meals.

• Bingers:  people who restrict their food intake all week, then go all-out over the weekend.

• Comfort eaters:  people who eat to feel better.

• Reward eaters:  people who congratulate themselves for a job well done with food.

• Socializers:  people whose social lives--including drinking alcohol and eating out at restaurants--cause weight gain.

• Settlers:  people in relationships who gain weight because their eating habits catch up with their partners'.

I don't know about you, but I actually could fall into at least three of these categories.  I guess that means I have my work cut out for me to tackle the issues and have a real breakthrough for weight loss!  What category do you fall into and do you think you can overcome it?  Drop us an email.

Love Life Revealed?

There's a silly game going around on the internet, where you're supposed to grab the nearest book and open it to page 45, which will explain your love life.  Many of my friends have had stellar results with this.  "Pretty accurate," "Freaked me out," "OMG it is SO me!" were just a few of the words of others who participated in this experiment.

Being one that enjoys fun little things of this nature, I searched around my desk for a book.  The only one available was a thick paperback about urban legends.  I quickly flipped to page 45 and this is what I saw:

So, that's encouraging.  Have you ever participated in this game?  Share with us what your results were!  Drop us an email.

Queen of the Backup

That was a title that my mother held and likely still does, only now I'm giving her a run for her money.  Yes, I've become my mother.  When I go to the store, I buy two of something, to ensure that when the first runs out, I still have a "backup" on hand to carry us until I can get to the store again.

This plan is quite seamless and rarely is there a hiccup, unless my husband is involved.  He's not the best communicator when his toiletries run low and I don't exactly check out the levels of his stuff, as I'm generally running arse-over-tea-kettle to get myself ready in the morning.

It has come to my attention that he is out of deodorant, not that he told me or anything.  I happened to notice a big ol' armpit hair on MY deodorant this morning.  At first, I panicked, thinking, "My God! Have I taken this winter no-shave thing too far?!"  

But then I remembered that I have been breaking down and actually running the razor over the offending areas more frequently, mostly because I don't want stray cats to begin using my legs as scratching posts. 

So there I was, staring at this nasty, long hair on my deodorant from my husband's arm pit.  It was then that I cursed the advertising slogan of this particular brand:  Strong Enough for a Man, But Made for a Woman.  Well, bravo! It doesn't mean I wanted his hairy pit to be slathered with my stick.

I went back into the bedroom and nudged his snoring body in the bed.

"Hey, I know you used my deodorant.  Are you out of yours?"

A fuzzy reply, "How do you know I used it?"

"Because there was a huge pit hair on it!"

The bed began to shake with his stifled laughter.  Needless to say, I will be making a trip to get him his own underarm deodorant today.

Has your husband ever "borrowed" some of your products?  Did he leave them "untainted?"  Share your story with us!

I Don't Think This Was Original Equipment!

So here's the deal: I was putting a new battery in the KICKS 106.3 truck last week, and as I was tightening the cables on, I glanced down and saw this next to the lower part of the engine block:

I boxed it in in red so you can see what I'm talking about. So I says to myself, "That looks like the bottom of a phone. I wonder what piece of equipment that is?" Upon closer inspection, I discovered that it was indeed a phone! Not a cell phone, but someone's cordless landline phone. Here it is after I pulled it out of the engine compartment:

We have no idea who it belongs to or how long it was in there. We have had some work done on the truck like oil changes, etc., but really no idea where it came from! So if you've worked on the KICKS truck and you're missing a phone, we've got it!

Country Birthdays.... And Brantley Gilberts Jeans

A milestone birthday today for a country legend: John Michael Montgomery turns 50 today!

And happy 29th birthday to Brantley Gilbert! 

Brantley admits that at the beginning of his career, he stayed put in his home state of Georgia to make sure he stayed true to who he was as a singer and an artist. Now, Gilbert embraces the Music City as well as maintains exactly who he is. He shares:


"I was happy where I was at and I was just a little hesitant about Nashville. I didn’t want management, you know, in the beginning, a booking agent or a label. I was scared to death somebody’d try to slap some wranglers and a bucket hat on me and tell me to sing somebody else’s songs. So, I was a little standoffish but eventually we grew to the point where those things were a necessity."

I guess I'm just wondering how many of you ladies would like to "slap" those Wranglers!

Give Me a Signal

I cannot afford a brand new car, so could someone please tell me, do the new models not come equipped with turn signals?  I am forever amazed at people who do not use them.  It's the simplest concept that nonverbally communicates your intentions to other drivers.

The turn signal is quite amazing.  Did you know that it was a woman who invented it?  True story.  Florence Lawrence, a silent-film star in the early 1900's, came up with the idea in 1914.  It originally was a "signaling arm," that when a button was pressed inside of the car, would raise a flag on the rear bumper to notify another driver which way the car was going to turn.  She also fashioned a brake signal.  It was a little sign that said, "STOP," which flipped up from the rear bumper when the brake was applied.

But I digress.  This morning, as I was trekking my way into work, I had a vehicle come to an abrupt stop in the middle of the road.  It was pitch black dark, so from my vantage point behind him, I could not tell if some little varmint had dashed out into the road in front of them or what was going on for them to hit the brakes.  As it turned out, they were turning, without a turn signal.

I couldn't be certain in the dark, but I'm fairly sure it was a man driving.  I say this, because so often it's women who get the bad reputation of not driving well.  Yes, I keep a score card.

Regardless, I'm urging all drivers to USE YOUR TURN SIGNALS, it's particularly important in winter driving, when stopping and slowing can trigger a scene akin to billiard balls bouncing off of one another.  Seriously, there is no excuse for not using your turn signals.  If you're yakking on the cellphone with one hand and can't be bothered to flip the lever, because you only have two hands, then you are an even worse driver, who deserves to be shamed mercilessly in front of everyone.

And while we're on the subject, consider brushing the snow off of your headlights, taillights and other pertinent equipment on your vehicle this winter season for your own safety.  It should go without saying that if you drive without clearing your windows you deserve to have your license revoked.  You are a danger to everyone and most importantly, incredibly stupid.

What are your pet peeves when it comes to driving?  Drop us an email. 

Death by Wedgie

I couldn't believe this was a legit story, especially because I heard about it from my nephew, who can spin a great tale.  And like most nephews, he enjoys horsing around and delights in the art of the "wedgie."

But this is a true story.  The source was Reuters.  Yeah, THAT Reuters, respected news source to the world.

Wedgies, beer and death.  A 33-year-old Oklahoma man, Brad Lee Davis was drinking beer and eventually got into an argument with his step-father, 58-year-old Denver St. Clair.  According to the story, St. Clair started to bad-mouth his wife, Davis' mother.

Apparently, Davis decided to inflict an "Atomic Wedgie" on his step-dad in a fit of rage.  It was a real brutal one, where the waistband of the underwear went over his head and around his neck, causing him to suffocate.

True story.

That IS one seriously Atomic Wedgie.  The act left ligature marks on St. Clair's neck and blood spatter was found in various parts of the home. Davis is sitting in jail as I type.  I think I might have to continue to follow this story as it goes to court.

It's a tragic story, but yet I find myself struggling not to laugh.  It just sounds like a punchline to a joke, but it's a horrible way to go--death by wedgie.  Mercifully, St. Clair's death certificate will read asphyxiation and blunt force trauma, not "Atomic Wedgie."

I suppose this makes a good case for going commando.

Tat Chat

There was a time when I thought it would be hysterically funny to get Disney's "Tigger" tattooed on my inner thigh, hollering, "Hello-o-o-o-o-o" toward my nether regions.  I've since realized that it's a good thing that my plans fell through and I did not go forward with it.  I truly believe I would've regretted that.

Speaking of regrets, there's this guy:

Um… yeah.  Kids, don't undervalue those weekly spelling quizzes that your teacher gives you.

I have nothing against tattoos.  There are some incredible works of art that I've witnessed on skin.  For me personally, I've never had that big of an attachment to something that I felt the need to permanently put it on my flesh.  There have been times when I seriously considered getting one, but ended up tabling the idea.

Do you have a tattoo that you regret?  Or maybe one that you really cherish?  Share it with us!  Drop us an email.

~Jacklyn

So Is It Bluetooth, Or Blueteeth?

Wow! What will they think of next!?! Meet "Kolibree", the "world's first connected toothbrush". Announced this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Kolibree is able to provide users with details on their brushing habits, helping them to improve their overall dental health. The Kolibree uses Bluetooth to connect to an iPhone, automatically synchronizing data each time the toothbrush is used. A built-in sensor measures the amount of time that a user spends brushing and whether hard to reach areas were properly cleaned. Do we really need this? I guess I can see it helping teach kids how to brush properly, but how many other "personal products" can we connect to apps via Bluetooth to monitor ourselves. Bluetooth razors? Bluetooth hairbrushes? How about Bluetooth toilet paper? OK that's way out there, but who knows? Get more info on the Kolibree here.