Wednesday, November 30, 2005

They do it every TV season, but it drives me crazy. Especially when I’m watching the shows that they move around.

So last night I was all set to watch Threshold after TAR8, but instead a repeat of Criminal Minds came on. A repeat! Now, I realize that Threshold has been cancelled; is that immediate cancellation or just not renewing it for next season? Because I really want to know what’s up with the alien baby.

In the meantime, they moved the Tuesday 10pm show that I was watching to Fridays (Close to Home) to move Threshold to Tuesday, where they must have been hoping the post-TAR crowd would tune in. And I guess showing an extra episode of Criminal Minds is in that mix, too.

And then there are the seasonal pre-emptions that occur; one being the Rockerfeller Christmas tree lighting show tonight that is booting E-Ring at 8pm. I’d prefer E-Ring, to be honest. Fortunately, I have stuff recorded from last week that I can watch instead. Or maybe just watch CSI on Spike.

CSI, now that’s a great show. I can watch that anytime and countless times. Quality that.

I’m also wondering what happened to good shows that kind of disappeared last season - like Eyes. I loved that show.

I didn’t think last night’s episode was as boring as the past couple. I managed to stay awake anyway.

Click on the link for my 2 cents …

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

One month away and there’s still a lot to do:

I’m still working on beads. I got to 550 stems for my bouquet and called it quits on that project. That’s still a hefty bouquet. I still need to assemble it in the final bouquet form, but the stems are done.

I’ve moved on to the tussie mussies, corsages, and boutonnieres, which is much more fun because I can get several individual items completed in a sitting. Last night I got one tussie mussie and one corsage done with several extra stems made for other things. Much better progress.

My plan for next week is to print the guts of the programs for folding and assembling on the weekend. I’m hoping that we can work on the assembly of the favors that weekend, too.

I should get a phone call from the bridal shop about a final fitting for my dress soon - the seamstress said she would be ready after Thanksgiving. I also need to get the velcro for the tiara/veil.

I need to wear both pairs of shoes and get the soles scuffed up. Otherwise, I’ll be sliding down the aisle.

I need to follow-up about the sound tech.

I need to follow-up with our church coordinators on the rehearsal agenda. I really do not want to turn into Bridezilla that afternoon.

I still need to buy a few things for the honeymoon. I also need to figure out what I’m taking on the honeymoon for packing purposes. Beau and I need to figure out if we’re going to pack all of our stuff in one bag with individual travel bags or in separate bags all together. I’m inclined to consolidate our clothes for the trip and have individual overnighter bags - the overnighters having the stuff we’ll need just for the wedding day (in my case since I’ll be getting ready for the wedding at the church)/night/next day so that we don’t even have to open the larger bag until we get to Arizona. Any suggestions from the peanut gallery?

I’ve been asked a couple of times now, by ladies who plan to attend the wedding, if it is OK for them to wear black.

I say, “Yes.”

It turns out that Peggy Post does, too.

While there are many variations for today’s wedding attire, there are still traditional guidelines for fabrics, lengths, styles, and accessories. The general guidelines run the gamut, with suggestions for weddings ranging from the most informal daytime celebration, to a formal evening affair. The time of day plays an important role, too.

[...]

As for guests, it can be a challenge to determine what to wear. For evening weddings, guests should dress as they would for a nice dinner or event out. Men should wear suits, unless the invitation has requested black tie. Women should choose dresses, skirts, or elegant suits in darker, sophisticated colors and fabrics; lengths vary according to what’s in style at that particular time and place. Jewelry can be more elaborate, and women may want to carry a small evening bag rather than a purse.

It is now acceptable for female guests to wear black to weddings, especially in the late afternoon and evening. Black choices, however, should be more ornate than reserved, to give off an air of celebration rather than mourning. Sometimes, adding a little color (vibrant flower pins and scarves work wonderfully for weddings) rounds off the somber look well.

Wear what you want, my friends. If it turns out to be black, that is perfectly fine. I want you to look lovely and be comfortable.

It’s Tuesday, which means it’s timekeeping day. It’s also the end of the month, which means financial close-out.

And we got a memo from HQ saying that the IT department is going into super-monitor mode on the internet usage.

What does this all mean?

Not much blogging today.

Talk amongst yourselves…

Monday, November 28, 2005

Who hasn’t mangled sentences like this?

Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.

LaCrosse, Wisconsin; October 18, 2000

I can’t claim credit for the following list of Which is Better?s. I’ve bolded my preferences and included a few notes in italics.

01. CHEESE or CHOCOLATE? But I love cheese, too. But if you put both in front of me and made me choose, chocolate wins every time.

02. BLUEBERRIES or STRAWBERRIES? I prefer the flavor of strawberries, but I won’t eat either fruit in its natural form. It’s one of my weird mouth feel issues.

03. COFFEE or TEA? Unless my mother is reading this, then it’s tea.

04. CORN MUFFIN or ENGLISH MUFFIN?
05. PANCAKES or FRENCH TOAST? Love both, of course. However, I think I make some pretty spectacular French Toast - challah bread and I add a teaspoon of sugar to the egg custard, which makes the toast brown a bit more than just the egg.

06. YOGURT or CREAM CHEESE?
07. RICE or PASTA?
08. CAKE or PIE?
09. GROUND BEEF or GROUND TURKEY?
10. HOT DOGS or HAMBURGERS?
11. JELLY or MARMALADE?
12. AMERICAN CHEESE or SWISS CHEESE?
13. DIET SODA or NO SODA?
14. LEMONADE or ICED TEA?
15. CHERRIES or GRAPES?
16. CHOCOLATE QUIK or STRAWBERRY QUIK?
17. WAFFLES or PANCAKES?
18. WHITE BREAD or WHOLE-GRAIN/WHEAT BREAD?
19. PEAS or CARROTS?
20. PUDDING or FRUIT-FLAVORED GELATIN?
21. COLD CEREAL or HOT CEREAL?
22. KETCHUP or MUSTARD?
23. MUSTARD or MAYONNAISE?
24. MAYONNAISE or KETCHUP?
25. BLACK OLIVES or GREEN OLIVES? Neither - yuck.
26. ONION or GARLIC?
27. PLAIN BARBECUE or BARBECUE WITH SAUCE?
28. SCRAMBLED EGGS or FRIED EGGS?
29. EGGS or EGG REPLACEMENTS?
30. MEAT or VEGETABLES?
31. CHINESE TAKE-OUT or PIZZA?
32. SUSHI or DELI SANDWICH?
33. WHITE CLAM CHOWDER or RED CLAM CHOWDER?
34. KEY LIME PIE or LEMON MERANGUE PIE?
35. PIE & ICE CREAM or CAKE & ICE CREAM?
36. WHIPPED CREAM or CAKE FROSTING?
37. HONEY or MAPLE SYRUP?

[Via Deb Solo]

Beau was telling me about this and we lamented that it won’t be open in time for our honeymoon trip. Not that I’d actually walk out there - vertigo and nausea don’t make for a fun time. But cool, nonetheless.

[Via Dean]

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Jaynee, Denis, and I went to see HPatGoF last night while my parents babysat the Cootiekids. We arrived with little time to spare to find the movie theater packed with people. Denis and I ordered our food and Jaynee went into the theater to get our seats. She did an excellent job; we were on the last row of the middle section smack dab in the middle of the row. I love stadium seating in theaters! And the showing we went to was full - lots of older kids with their parents. Good crowd.

You can assume that what follows will be slightly spoilerish, unless you’ve read the book, of course. But even book readers may not remember what happened in that particular book anymore; I know I didn’t remember some things until the movie brought them back to mind. For me, the books have become a running story in my head with the individual books not standing out in specific detail. Anyway...consider this your spoiler warning.

The movie get right into things. There’s little build up; they assume you know what’s happened in the first three movies. If you haven’t seen the first three, you’ll catch on quickly, but I recommend that you rent those movies first if you want to truly enjoy this one. For enjoy it you shall - it is excellent and I think it may be the best of the four so far.

What came to my mind, too, is that the movies are growing up as much as the kids. By that I mean that the style and feel of the first two movies was more childish - not necessarily cartoonish, but much more young child friendly. The third movie got a little darker as the story did as well. This new installation of the story was very much “older” in book format - the kids are now teenagers with all that goes along with that; the menace of Voldemort increases and as such Harry’s responsibilities increase also.

We noted later that Goblet the movie has less overt magic or the teaching aspect of the story than the previous movies. This one is definitely more character driven. But there’s plenty of action - the Quiddich World Cup scenes are magnificent as are the Tri-Wizard competition tasks. The special effects are very well done, to the point that I never really made a mental note about how good they are as I normally when watching a movie. I was completely enthralled with the movie as it progressed.

The actors were brilliant - I didn’t think anyone could surpass Richard Harris as Dumbledore, but Michael Gambon was very good. Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort was excellent casting. I love Brendan Gleeson and his MadEyed Moody was very fun. The casting that made me giggle was Katie Leung as Cho - she’s lovely, but I never expected the Scottish accent to come from her lips for some reason. Turns out she is Scots-born and comes by it naturally. The others that I really loved were the twins that played the Weasley twins - hilarious.

Actually, the movie as a whole was incredibly funny. They got the whole teen angst thing perfectly and the kids acted so well that I felt that they weren’t really acting most of the time. And my, how those kids have grown up!

On the whole, I think Harry Potter fans will love this movie. I can’t wait for the next two installments. Parents: be aware that the film rating is appropriate. Younger kids might be scared at some of the scenes, especially the last 10-15 minutes. I know that Holly had her eyes covered during much of that part because she’s sensitive to those kinds of scary images. And they are scary, even for adults.

HPatGoF gets 4.5 stars out of 5.

Friday, November 25, 2005

Do you know what this is?

Can you do it?

I can.

Have you seen the ad campaign at CBS lately? They’re bragging about how they have the #1 shows pretty much every night as well as the #1 reality show (Survivor) and the #1 overall show (CSI). I laughed when I realized that most of the shows that I watch are on the Eye Network.

Hey, if you missed last night’s episode of Survivor: Guatemala, you have a chance to see an encore of the show online for free at CBS.com. That’s nice of the network.

I like Criminal Minds, but I was thisclose to dumping the show after last week’s episode. It was a little too graphic and disturbing for me. However, this week’s episode was great so I’ll stick with the show.

Threshold is improving. I thought this week’s episode was very interesting and I’m curious how the new development is going to play out. On the other hand, I think that Invasion is losing steam, although I plan to stick with it.

I started recording Martha Everyday last week. It’s fascinating to watch Martha Stewart with a live audience. She’s much looser than you’d think, although her stilted way of talking is still fully evident, and she interacts pretty well with the celebrities she has on everyday. Monday’s episode had me nearly in tears I was laughing so hard at her showing a guy how to roast a turkey - he screwed up royally and instead of losing her cool she was laughing, too. This is what I enjoy about her show; she has one celeb on for the full hour and then makes them go through the “helpful hints” portions of the show with her. I don’t watch every episode, it depends on the celeb and what tasks they’ll be working on.

TV ... It’s a Good Thing. Heh.

I bet you think that the first Thanksgiving in America occured in Plymouth, MA, right?

Wrong:

The first Thanksgiving occurred when Captain John Woodlief led the newly arrived English colonists to a grassy slope along the James River and instructed them to drop to their knees and pray in thanks for a safe arrival to the New World.

On this day, Dec. 4, 1619, these 38 men from Berkeley Parish in England were given the instructions:

“Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrivall at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God.”

This saying is now carved on a brick gazebo, where it is believed that Woodlief knelt down beside the James River.

Berkeley Plantation is not far from Jamestown, VA. Note the date; more than one year prior to the feast that we duplicate every November. The Massachusetts Thanksgiving that we commemmorate was actually a harvest feast that was given after years of near famine. The date of that celebration was 1621.

Pat Morita has died. He was 73 years old.

Rest in peace, Mr. Miyagi.

It had been several months since I last saw my adorable niece and precious nephew.

CootieGirl has this amazing hair that most adult women would kill for - long and curly and the perfect strawberry blond. She is a happy little girl who is content to play by herself, sings all the time, is very loving, and is a good big sister.

CootieBoy’s hair is blonder and he still has that wicked dimple in one cheek. He has an intense stare and a sweet smile. And every once in a while he gets this mischievous gleam in his eye that tells you that he will be Big Trouble in a few years.

Sweet kids.

Regarding my post of Wednesday, let it be known that the offender is a comment spammer. He doesn’t spam links, but his own opinions in essay form. I just discovered one of the exact same comments he left here at another’s blog. I’m sure there are others that he decided to bless with his verbage.

Bad netiquette, dude.