Cousin Reunion #9: Other random things we did

I mentioned in the last entry that we spent approximately one-seventh of the cousin reunion doing things that were not eating or drinking. Some of those things, such as running road races and playing ladder golf, have been covered in other entries. So I have just a brief list left of things to recap:
--We sat on the porches of the cottages and talked.
--We sat on the porches of the cottages and talked about how cold it was.
--We sat on the porches of the cottages and wondered if we should go inside cause it was so cold (this part took amazingly longer than you might think)
--We sat inside and talked.
--We had a photo shoot, in which a photographer took pictures of us.
--We took informal photos as well.
--We relived things that had happened just hours earlier by looking at the informal photos that had been taken.
--We took naps
--Some people went for walks.

And one highlight, at least for the female cousins, was an activity that involved perusing the latest celebrity gossip magazines. Mary arrived with an arsenal of guilty pleasures that included the People, the US Weekly and the OK! from the week of October 27. And we kind of read parts of them aloud, laughing at how crazy celebrities are. Some people, particularly those that have toddlers or who have been out of the country, needed to be schooled in the ways of Hannah Montana, High School Musical and Gossip Girl, because you really need to understand those three things to understand celebrity magazines these days.

But I thought I would present some choice highlights from the magazines, with apologies to Worth who was off with much higher-brow reading material and to Grant who is on record as preferring jigsaw puzzles to trashy magazines.

First off, I wanted to start with the Celebrity Gossip Magazines Trifectas, which means that all three magazines covered the same item, sometimes with the same photo. These items included:
--Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal's trip to a London lingerie store. All the magazines agreed that they seemed quite happy.
--Salma Hayek and her cute baby on the set of 30 Rock
--J-Lo renewing her vows with Marc Anthony

Near-trifectas, or coverage in 2 of 3 magazines, included a picture of the Olsen twins pushing their own luggage, the only unattractive picture of George Clooney ever taken (he was sunbathing, has a weird mustache and was making a face), and pictures of Hugh Jackman celebrating his 40th birthday with his kids. Also, 2 out of 3 magazines agreed that "The Secret Life of Bees" is a good movie. US Weekly was unsatisfied.

Here are highlights from each individual magazine!

People
--John Mayer and Jennifer Aniston: Totally hanging out!
--DJ AM is glad he survived a plane accident
--Toni Braxton had a heart problem. Now she's on Dancing with the Stars. Or she WAS.
--Maureen McCormick wrote a book about all her problems. Just get a blog, Maureen!
--Suri Cruise got custom shoes
--There's a new thing called vibrating mascara! I don't wear mascara but I'm intrigued!

OK
--Kelly Ripa wore six inch heels one day
--Tori Spelling's boobs look weird in a picture where she's playing golf. (big topic of conversation on the porch!)
--Sarah Palin and Tina Fey look a lot alike (My father would probably like me to point out at this moment, as he does whenever Tina Fey comes up, that she went to the University of Virginia)
--There's a thing called cut-out booties. It's where boots have cut-outs. According to someone who holds a position of editor (it doesn't specify what she's an editor of), "These are the hot item this fall, but if you don't pair them with the right thing, it can look like a mess. They work best with dresses and skirts, with or without tights. They're also great with jeans and pants that are tailored with slim-cut legs, where you can see the detail of the bootie."
--The weekends might be ruining your diet
--You know the guy who plays Bree's son on Desperate Housewives? It doesn't matter if you do or not. But just listen to this thing he said: "Right now, I'm making an ostrich filet with butternut squash puree and a raspberry reduction." I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS.

US Weekly
--This magazine spurred serious discussion about autism because Jenny McCarthy was on the cover
--US Weekly concurs with OK! that John and Jen are back on.
--Shanna Moakler sad about that plane crash. I didn't even know who Shanna Moakler was before that plane crash.
--Some people on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition had their homes foreclosed. Then my cousin Elizabeth told a sad story about some people who were on a home improvement show and did not get what they wanted out of it!
--Also US had a tidbit about my arch nemesis Jennifer Love Hewitt. She is planning a wedding and it's going to be very intimate, so intimate that somebody's Great Aunt Sylvia can't come. Not very LOVE-ing of you, Jennifer LOVE. If that is indeed your name!

Anyways, I'm glad I got to keep the celebrity magazines after everyone was done looking at them because it made this entry much easier to write. And now you have a better idea of things we did that were not drinking or eating. The only things that we really planned to do but never got around to were a basketmaking class and a game of Tripoley.