Tuesday, August 26, 2003

Today is the release day for The Two Towers (theatrical release version). I’m waiting for the extended DVD version release in November (it’s on my Christmas list).

But the best news is this little tidbit:

Although the December release date for Peter Jackson’s Third Rings film, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, has not been changed, the distrib has decided to re-release both Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers into theaters, with added footage and scenes, prior to the world release of Return of the King.

Return of the King ... is slated to hit theaters on December 17th. Two weeks before the King release, starting on December 5th, New Line will put the extended DVD version of Fellowship on 100-150 theaters in 10 major U.S. markets and on about 20 screens in Canada. The next week, on December 12th, Towers will re-enter the marketplace just a month after debuting on DVD. The new Fellowship will run 208 minutes, while the extended Towers plays for 214 minutes.

The re-releases of the first two films will lead to a marathon of the Rings films on December 16th, when all three films will be screened back-to-back.

I first heard the news from Mrs. Cootiehog this weekend.

It’s payroll day again. Man, those two weeks go by fast. So I’ll be busy today, which is fine.

I’m having dinner with an old friend and his wife tonight at their new house. He and I led Young Life club together many years ago. Actually, he’s the one who gave me the “Freakin’ Jen” nickname. He still calls me FJ occasionally. I haven’t seen him since 2000 - I saw him briefly at a YL conference - but he’s got two kids now. I’m looking forward to seeing them all.

So I don’t know how much blogging will occur today.

Monday, August 25, 2003

Many thanks to a prince of a blogger - Dan of Wall of Sleep - he helped me get the trackbacks feature working. So start pinging me, people!

Also, you might notice some color changes - it was time for a change. Tony’s Rename the Blog Contest that resulted in no name change sort of inspired me. So he goes from orange to boring white *winking at Tony* and I go from my nice rose-brown to red.

There will be tweaking until I get it just right.

UPDATE: I think it’s done. I like it.

Today is the first day of school in Loudoun County. Woo hoo! Traffic will be awful now, I can’t wait for that commute tomorrow.

So I picked up Annie, the bill was discounted because my vet gives a “Senior Citizen” discount for older pets. Since Annie is 14, she qualifies. She was filthy, so after a quick trip to the grocery store for a few things, I immediately put her in the tub and gave her a good long bath. She hates it, but it had to be done. She was moving pretty slowly up the stairs, so she must have really worn herself out. She’s konked out on the bed behind me. Poor thing.

I decided to stay home all day - partly because I’m lazy and didn’t feel like getting ready for work, mostly because of Annie. She would not have been happy to have me leave her again after just getting home.  I know, she’s just a dog. But I don’t have kids - she’s my baby.

Anyway, back to the school thing...while at the store there was a lady behind me in line with a disposable camera. She was rushing to take her daughter for her first day of 1st grade and didn’t want to miss getting pictures of her precious one’s big day. She was so proud and also a little choked up - prepare yourselves, Cooties!

Then on the road home, there was a school bus, loading up with kids - a large contigent of parents consoling (or congratulating each other, you decide) each other on the sidewalk.

And it’s a gorgeous day - 70s, low humidity, sunny. Feels more like October than August. I may have to go sit on my balcony and read my book a little later.

We had a fabulous time with the Cootie family this weekend. I would have blogged on Saturday, but I couldn’t remember my control panel password - it’s cookied on my computers and it’s the original gobbledegook that pMachine sent to me. So it was a mostly blog-free weekend - I did manage read a few though.

We got to the Cootie home at about 1pm on Saturday - the drive up with fine, normal, until we hit Baltimore. We came to a complete stop because the cops had I-95 blocked off for the 100s of motorcycles to get on the highway. We sat for about 10 minutes and then crawled along for several miles. We decided to stop at the Maryland House rest area - pulled off the highway and found that the motorcycles motorcade had stopped as well - we just kept going to get ahead of them. From there it was smooth sailing. We think there had to be close to 1000 bikes. Anyone know what was going on?

Saturday was spent hanging at the house cooing over CootieGirl. She is just too cute - very responsive, very happy. We got to see a hilarious video of CootieGirl “dancing” to Oklahoma. She laughed through the whole thing.

Denis is the cook of their little family - he made a fabulous dinner. Jane showed me a few things about Photoshop. Dad watched Little League baseball. Mom took a mini-nap. It was a very relaxing day.

Sunday was the CootieGirl’s baby dedication at their church. It was a really nice service - their church is really committed to the families and they love the Cooties. Afterward we went to lunch at their favorite diner with the friends who also came out (hi, folks! It was great to see all of you), then we went back to the house for dessert and picture-taking, and then we hit the road. Here’s a photo of CootieGirl and me. (For more pics, go here.)

Knowing we would hit beach traffic along the way home on I-95, we decided to gamble on a western route - we took I-80 to I-81. We got home in 5-1/2 hours, not too bad. I actually got home about 40 minutes after we arrived at my parents - we had to unload the car and I had to drive home. Once home I pretty much crashed into bed.

So I’m lazing at home today...I need to head over the pick up Annie from the kennel.

Friday, August 22, 2003

I don’t get to listen to much talk radio because I can’t get reception in my cubicle and the firewalls on our network prohibit internet streaming. So I was happy to hear a little bit of Rush Limbaugh on my drive home this afternoon.

He was talking about the UN-France-US-Iraq, about how France thinks that they need to have some say in the process, yadda yadda yadda. Rush’s response to that idea?

Right, France is working on a surrender to the sun with this heatwave they’re having.

Today’s Friday Five

1. When was the last time you laughed?  About two minutes ago. I laugh all the time.

2. Who was the last person you had an argument with?  Denis?

3. Who was the last person you emailed?  Jaynee

4. When was the last time you bathed?  How many people are going to be truthful on this one, I wonder? I took a shower this morning at 6:45am.

5. What was the last thing you ate?  Peanuts.

Gary Cole will be playing the next VP on The West Wing.

As Adam said, “Right… Right… We’ll need that TPS Report on the Oval Office Desk by Sunday...”

[via no-lyfe journal]

Let me say that I was expecting the ending to be a little more dramatic. I’m not unhappy with the winners. I was completely impressed with the reaction of the third place team - I really hoped they would win because they had a positive attitude throughout the whole race. They made a really boneheaded mistake that cost them a ton of time, if they had done what the other teams did to get out of Australia, the outcome may have been very different.

And I’m being vague for anyone who may not have seen it yet.

I will say that as the show was wrapping up, my phone rang. It was Kirby, celebrating the winners. Cracked me up…

Oh, and 1976 was awesome. I taped 1977 and will be watching that when I get home later. I set my VCR to tape 1970-1973 this afternoon. LW called out today, so there won’t be any viewing at lunch, and I’m leaving at noon anyway.

When I logged into the pMachine control panel, the number 1500 jumped out at me. I’ve had 1500 comments since moving Jen Speaks from Blog*Spot in June. That’s pretty amazing.

So who was the milestone commenter? Eric from The Fireant Gazette with this gem about the 70s:

What does it say about me that the only video game I have in my house is—are you ready?—a Pong game, still in the original box.

And I’m still lousy at it.

[posted on Aug 21, 03 | 11:08 pm]

Thursday, August 21, 2003

I plan to be parked in front of my television for the finale of The Amazing Race. At the same time, I have the VCR in my bedroom taping I Love the 70s episodes for future viewing. I started with 1974, so I’m going to need to get 1970-73 later.

I mentioned the shows at lunch and the folks in the room asked for me to tape it and bring it for viewing tomorrow. I can’t wait to share the good badness. Just sitting here rewatching 1974, I’m still laughing out loud.

And I don’t care what others may say, I love the 70s.

I’ve just added the Just Call Me The Yellow Pages category because of the myriad phone calls I get here at the office with requests for other phone numbers.

This just in:

ME: US Marshals Service.

HIM: I’m wondering if you have a national directory? I got a call from a friend who got a call from a friend in the middle of the night that shook her up pretty bad and I want to be able to help her but I don’t know who to contact. (He went on about how the caller was mentally ill.)

This is going to be a beaut. I recognize the area code on my caller ID as being from the western part of Virginia, so already he’s got a strike against him - I know he thinks he reached HQ.

ME: There is no national directory, sir. Your best bet for something like that is to check the internet....

HIM: Sure, if we had the internet. She doesn’t have it and I don’t have it at home. We’re in Lynchburg and the caller is in Pennsylvania.

ME: Well, I’m not going to be able to help you much. Do you know where in Pennsylvania?

I was thinking I could give him the USMS number to a field office up there. Heh.

HIM: No, I have no idea.

What the? Then how on earth do you expect to know who to call then? Good grief.

ME: Well, I think you’ll need to get some additional information before you can start calling folks up there then. I’m sorry I can’t help you.

HIM: That’s OK, thanks.

I’ve been busy wrapping up my payroll project this week. I have completed the bulk of the code changes. Yay! I still have a few from much earlier in the fiscal year, but I’ll get to them later, they’re not as critical. All told I think I’ve helped our district recover about $20K, which may not seem like a lot to some, but it is for us.

***********

I had this call just a few minutes ago:

ME: US Marshals Service.

HIM: I’m trying to reach (gal’s name)?

ME: Is she an employee of the Marshals Service?

I didn’t recognize the name, she could have been a HQ person.

HIM: Um...no…

ME: Is she an inmate?

HIM: No, no...um…

I’m thinking this guy is definitely an idiot.

ME: Do you know where she works?

HIM: I think the US Attorneys Office?

Yes, in the form of a question. Like I’m supposed to know.

ME: I have that number. Try 703-###-####.

Him: Oh, OK. Thanks?

I think he phrases everything in the form of a question.

***************

I’m taking tomorrow afternoon and Monday morning off. We head to NJ on Saturday for CootieGirl’s baby dedication on Sunday. I’m looking forward to some quality baby time and to seeing a few of the Cooties’ friends too.

I was looking for something to watch last night (really, I just wanted something remotely interesting on while I finished reading a book) and stumbled upon I Love the 70s on VH-1. I came in at the end of 1973 and watched 1974 and 1975 as well. I plan to catch the repeats of 1971, 1972, and 1973 as well as try to watch 1976-79.

While I was teenager in the 1980s and therefore loved the I Love the 80s{/i] series, I do have a soft spot for the 70s as well. I was in elementary school and junior high for that decade and I have vivid, specific memories of that time: