I have ordinary addictions.

2009-02-08T12:15:00.003-06:00

Most awesome thing ever.
I'm too lazy to take a picture of this and post it, so I'm just going to type it up. This is from the sleeve to the Kenny album (circa 1979), which we picked up on vinyl at Half Price Books last weekend.

JOIN THE KENNY ROGERS FAN CLUB
Send your name and address and $6.00 to:
Kenny Rogers Friends
5219 Alhama Drive
Woodland Hills, Calif. 91364

As a member, you will receive:

An 8 by 10 inch color photo autographed by Kenny.

A zippered denim bag containing a pocket mirror in its own case and a Kenny Rogers button.

A copy of the Kenny Rogers newsletter every 3 months including a complete itinerary and news of his TV appearances.

A Black and White 8 by 10 inch photo of Kenny receiving his first Grammy award.

A Black and White 8 by 10 inch photo of Kenny and Marianne Rogers on their wedding day.

A complete Biography of Kenny.

Your own personal membership card.

I'll try charging up the camera tonight and will then post photographic evidence. I wonder if I sent my $6 in, would I still get all this great stuff? I really want a denim bag containing a pocket mirror in its own case.

2009-01-26T21:05:00.002-06:00

25 Random Things
Kat and Karen have done this, and a friend did it on Facebook and tagged me, so I'm jumping on the bandwagon.

1. I have a hard time falling asleep a lot, so I often think up stories in my head to try to distract myself into sleeping. Unfortunately, this often makes me more awake.

2. I will watch anything with Paul Rudd or Hugh Grant in it. Anything.

3. As much as I hate Murphy waking me up at 7:00 on weekend mornings, I usually end up enjoying spending a few hours by myself/with Murphy before Victor wakes up.

4. I think the Wii Fit is a little judgmental at times. Why do I have to justify gaining 1.5 pounds to a machine?

5. I think I'm a 13-year-old at heart. I have the sense of humor of a 13-year-old boy and the silly obsessions of a 13-year-old girl. I have a hard time reconciling with the fact that I'm now 32.

6. Re: the above, I will always find bodily functions funny.

7. I thought I was well on my way to becoming a crazy cat lady before I met Victor. I mean, I already had the crazy cat....

8. I am such a performer at heart that I will often rewind songs in my car if I miss a word while I'm belting them out behind the wheel.

9. In stressful situations, I often forget words. Like I can't remember half of the English language. It's really, really awkward and embarrassing. And I hate it.

10. Sometimes I forget that I went to college. Like, if I'm watching a movie set in college, I'll think to myself "I wonder if that's what college will be like." And then I remember that I have a bachelor's degree and that college was nothing like the movies.

11. Part of me wants to live in an cozy yet isolated cabin in the middle of the frozen wilderness. Really, with satellite and cable and a comfy bed, wouldn't that be A-OK? The rest of me thinks this lifestyle option would slowly (or quickly) drive me insane.

12. I've got hypochondriac (hypochondriacal?) tendencies. More than you know.

13. I'm a sucker for artwork with letters and numbers. I like a nice font.

14. I can watch music videos for hours on end. Too bad no one really plays them anymore!

15. Looking at house listings is a huge hobby of mine, even though I know we're not moving any time soon. I just like to see the possibilities!

16. Yeah, my dog kisses me on the mouth. It's cool.

17. Even with all of the incredible shopping available in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, I still love to shop back home in Rogers, Arkansas. At Belk.

18. Even though it's been nearly five years since my last trip to India, my stomach still won't let me eat much Indian food before it says, "enough!" I guess I got food poisoning just one too many times over there.

19. I suck at learning Spanish. But I will persevere.

20. I will read just about anything. In fact, this year I'm going to put all of the books I read on Goodreads instead of just the non-embarrassing ones. This is Tom's idea, so it's his fault if everyone makes fun of me!

21. I sing aloud at concerts. Yep, I'm that girl.

22. When Victor's gone overnight, I will leave the TV and/or a light in the living room on all night, and I often sleep with a knife next to the bed. And I take Tylenol PM so that I can sleep. Because, clearly, having an abundance of outdoor lighting, and alarm system, and a dog just isn't enough.

23. Speaking of my dog, I put clothes on him, and he likes it. He's currently wearing an orange sweater with an owl on it. It looks like the 1970s.

24. I don't know how I'll go back to always flying coach if Victor ever leaves the airline. First class is way too awesome.

25. I may not be able to do it well, or get fancy with it, but I can still hand code HTML. Rock on, 1995 mad internet skills.

2008-12-25T12:23:00.002-06:00

Merry Christmas!

Murphy (and Mandy and Victor) says Merry Christmas to all of you out there on the internets. We're at Victor's parents for the next couple of days. Murphy is on vacation at the Dog Lofts in Flower Mound. Maybe you can catch him on their webcam.

2008-12-15T02:00:00.004-06:00

Top Ten of 2008
I declare 2008 the The Year That Pop Broke! At least, it did in my life, anyway. I had more fun listening to the radio this year than I have in a long, long time. I'm forgoing the long explanations this year...

10. She & Him - Volume One

Favorite Songs: "This Is Not a Test" "Sweet Darlin'"
Who knew Zooey Deschanel could sing this well???

9. Neon Neon - Stainless Style

Favorite Songs: "Dream Cars" "I Told Her On Alderaan"
Lately, I'm enjoying Gruff Rhys's side projects more than Super Furry Animals... hmmm...

8. DeVotchKa - A Mad and Faithful Telling

Favorite Songs: "Undone" "Transliterator"
This year's best gypsy music!

7. The Dodos - Visiter

Favorite Songs: "Red and Purple" "Fools" "Winter"
Simple, stripped-back, and beautiful.

6. Mates of State - Re-Arrange Us

Favorite Songs: "Get Better" "The Re-Arranger" "Blue and Gold Print"
I saw them in 2001, and I'm glad they're back in my life.

5. Grand Archives - Grand Archives

Favorite Songs: "Swan Matches" "Torn Blue Foam Couch" "George Kaminski"
This is my new album for turbulence when in the air.

4. Girl Talk - Feed the Animals

Favorite Songs: "Shut the Club Down" "Play Your Part (Pt. 1)" "Play Your Part (Pt. 2)"
Gregg Gillis is a genius.

3. Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III

Favorite Songs: "3 Peat" "Got Money" "Mrs. Officer" "Comfortable"
Needs no explanation.

2. Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak

Favorite Songs: "Paranoid" "Street Lights" "Heartless" "Say You Will"
Aww, Kanye shows us his sad little robotic heart.

1. Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line

Favorite Songs: "Winter '05" "Ghost Under Rocks" "Can You Tell" "St. Peter's Day Festival" "Each Year" "Dying is Fine"
So sad, so beautiful, so my new BFF.

On the Cusp:
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
Coldplay - Viva La Vida

Biggest Disappointments:
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive (I had huge expectations!)
Albert Hammond Jr. - Como Te Llama

Top 5 Singles of the Year:
5. "Viva La Vida" - Coldplay
4. "Love Lockdown" - Kanye West
3. "Bleeding Love" - Leona Lewis
2. "Got Money" - Lil Wayne
1. "Leavin'" - Jesse McCartney

So, there you have it... 2008 as seen through my headphones.

2008-12-14T19:03:00.003-06:00

First off, some housekeeping
Hi there. It's December. December?! And I haven't updated since October. I missed an entire month.

But it's not like I wasn't busy. Because this happened:

Yep, I actually finished my novel! It took buying a new computer, lots of late nights and early mornings, and even writing while on vacation in Europe, but I did it! I have named the book the sea between us. It's a young adult novel about a girl who falls in love with a boy (duh!) and starts a band. I think I was kind of living out my teenage fantasies, because I never got to be a rock star like I wanted. Anyway, I ended up with about 54,000 words by November 30, so I officially completed NaNoWriMo. My friend Diana finished her novel too. Then we emailed them to each other and spent a week editing and proofreading. Now I'm in the rewriting phase, which is way more painful than I thought it would be. I know there are things that need to be fixed and expounded upon, but actually figuring out where to make the changes is hard. At any rate, I really like my book, and once I've expanded and rewritten it, I'd like to try to get it published. I'm not sure if it's any good or not, but who knows... maybe I'll be the next Sara Gruen or something!

So, the Europe trip I mentioned just a second ago was over Thanksgiving, and we went to Prague and Vienna. I haven't uploaded pictures to flickr yet, but I'll do that this week. Once they're up, I'll do a vacation recap post.

Tomorrow is the deadline for the annual Top Ten Albums list. I've narrowed it down to 13 albums so far, so I have my work cut out for me tonight. So, I'll see you guys tomorrow with my list!

2008-10-29T19:09:00.003-05:00

Any ideas?
My sidebar (the part with all the links) shows up correctly on Internet Explorer, but on Firefox, it doesn't show up until the bottom of the page. What's up with that?

If I hadn't just renewed my domain for another year, I'd move this whole thing to blogspot or wordpress or something. *sigh*

edit: Thank you, Dan!

2008-10-14T22:06:00.002-05:00

October, and the trees are stripped bare
How is it mid-October already, y'all? Where is the year going? Half of my favorite month is already over, and I haven't even had a chance to enjoy it yet.

Well, that's not totally true. This weekend was pretty fun. My friend Mark came up from Austin for a visit, and we watched a lot of baseball, ate a lot of food, went to a terrible movie, and (of course) played Rock Band.

And Saturday, while the Texas/OU game was on (I'm not a big football fan), my friend Jake and I went to the Oak Cliff Urban Bazaar. We took Murphy, who was pretty annoying but still won the hearts of everyone in the crowd. Even if he did accidentally poop in some crafter's stall. Sorry about that, random lady!

Sunday, after Mark left, Victor and I went on the Old Oak Cliff Conservation League Fall Home Tour. We saw some really amazing homes, some of which were quite expensive. One of my favorites, however, was less than $100K more than our house (maybe much less), so one can dare to dream that we could upgrade to a nice house like that someday. We came away from the experience with a lot of house envy.

Mark spent a lot of the weekend teasing me about Twilight, which I suppose is warranted. After viewing the full trailer, I'm not sure about this movie. I've got a long history of hating movie adaptations anyway, so this will be nothing new to me. But I really wanted the film to be good. I'm hoping it will be. I'll still probably laugh my way through it, even if it is cinematic genius. How can you not???

This afternoon, as I was driving home from work, I started thinking of the music Top Ten I'll be doing this year. Yes, I guess it's time to start thinking about that again. I kind of want to do a sort of cultural roundup at the end of the year, too... like how many plays I've seen, museum visits I've made, concerts I've attended, that sort of thing. I could include books, film, tv... so many possibilities! And I could rank them. I like ranking things anyway. What do you think? (I promise I'll try to make it funny and not as pretentious as it currently sounds.)

Oh, and by the way, suck it up, Red Sox. Seriously, WTF?

2008-09-16T18:50:00.002-05:00

10 Things I've Done That You Probably Haven't

Here's a fun meme that I found on my new favorite snarky livejournal. So, ten things I've done that you probably haven't (unless you are involved in these stories... I'm looking at Ryan, Diana, and Andrew). Strangely, they all occurred during my youth... none of these are post-college, except for one that happened in India in 2003. I've tried to single out some of the more embarrassing stories of my life for this post, for your maximum pleasure. Enjoy!

1. Ridden a horse backwards. When I was little, I had a pony named Lady. She was incredibly tolerant of all of the stupid things I would do to her, including standing up in the saddle, French braiding her tail, jumping ditches. but the stupidest thing I probably ever did with her was ride her backwards. I went out into the pasture and put her bridle on, intending to ride her bareback for a while. I decided that I would get on and then turn completely around so that I was facing backwards, and I did so. She decided to try running a bit. It was not pretty. Luckily, I managed to flip my legs around so that I was facing forward, and I didn't even fall off. It's really no wonder that I'm kind of scared of horses now.

2. Scared a bunch of people with microwave popcorn. Outsourcing is fun, y'all!

3. Showed up for an audition in period costume. When I was in high school, they were filming a Jesse James movie called Frank and Jesse in my area. Some of it was even filmed at the farm up the road from my parents' farm. Anyway, they had a casting call for extras, and I was a huge drama nerd. So I showed up in what I thought was appropriate 1800s attire (but was actually a dress I picked up at a vintage store, probably someone's bridesmaid dress). I wore the costume because I thought that would impress the casting people. I stood in the freezing cold without a coat on for hours, and then had a tiny interview with one of the casting people. Turns out that most of the shooting was taking place during finals week in school, so I'm going to assume that's why they didn't ever call me back. The movie was crap anyway. (Interesting sidenote: the cavern where I worked as a tour guide in college was actually used as a location in the movie, and I used to have to point that out during tours, because, let's be honest, there wasn't that much exciting stuff to show in the cavern.)

4. Was complimented on my voice when lip-synching Sarah Brightman. Yeah. So, my friend Ryan and I performed (lip-synched) the title song from The Phantom of the Opera at a church talent show. We had a little cardboard boat, dry ice, and everything. Maybe even a strobe light - Lord knows I owned one then. Oh, and I was wearing the same dress from #3 (it also served as part of my Halloween costume for "Jack the Ripper's Victim" in college, and I think I wore it to go see Interview with the Vampire at the movie theater. I was way cool.). Anyway, a little old lady came up to me afterwards and told me what a beautiful voice I had. Anyone who knows me knows that this is untrue. I was stunned, and just thanked her. Oops.

5. Went sledding while dressed as Robert Smith of the Cure. Freshman year of college. We get a big snowstorm, and everyone is out sledding, using cardboard boxes, cafeteria trays, anything they can find, since no one actually has a sled in their dorm room. I'm not exactly sure why, but my best friend (and roommate) Diana and I are both dressed up like Robert Smith. I'm doing the regular look, and she's rocking the "Lullaby" spider look. I'd like to point out that there was no particular reason we were dressed up; I think we just decided to do it for fun. We get bundled up and go out sledding with the rest of the campus dwellers. Bonus: afterward, we relax in the dorm drinking Dr Pepper, which somehow morphs into pretending to make fake commercials with Robert Smith saying "I feel good! Drink Dr Pepper" in the manner of James Brown. P.S. I did not have a boyfriend during this time in my life. Go figure.

6. Been on "Good Morning America." Nowadays, it's pretty easy to get on national morning tv shows; just show up outside the studio with a sign. But in the early 80s, it wasn't like that. Do you remember when "Good Morning America" had groups of people tape promos like "Hi! We're the Arkansas Razorbacks cheerleading squad. Good morning America!" Yeah? Well, my 4-H club did that. We were the Hindsville Helping Hands 4-H club, and I was super young, elementary school age. Anyway, we taped the promo, and I was so excited for it to be on TV. But we somehow missed it - forgot to tape it, or the TV was out with a storm, or something. The only person who taped it had a crappy TV antenna, and the recording was all fuzzy. So much for my moment of glory.

7. Gotten cursed by a gypsy. OK, maybe they do this to everyone they meet. Anyway, I was walking into Leicester Square in London with my friend Andrew (I think it was Andrew, anyway), and we got accosted by these gypsies selling roses. This tiny, old gypsy lady kept trying to get me to buy one. I refused, maybe not very politely. She gave me the most hateful look and said something venomous in another language. I'm assuming it was a curse; it would explain so many things if it was.

8. Castrated a bull calf. Look, I grew up on a farm, alright?

9. Made up a solo tap dance routine on stage in front of hundreds of people. I took tap for 14 years, and each graduating senior at my dance school gets to choreograph and perform a solo at the end-of-the-year recital. I decided to dance to the Pogues' "Metropolis." It was a nice Irish instrumental song, really fun. I booked the dance studio a couple times to create and practice the routine, but I never got very far. So, during the dance recital, I just got up there and danced. Made it up as I went along. That's pretty hard to do with tap, since it's all about combinations of different steps. Even worse: since this was right when Riverdance was super popular, I decided to throw in some Irish step dancing, except - wait for it - I didn't know how to do it. Total disaster. My parents have the video of this recital, and I have never watched it. I doubt that I ever will. No need to relive that experience.

10. Spit a fake tooth across the stage during a play. I was born without one of my teeth (the one next to my right front tooth), so I had a really gappy smile up until high school, when I got a retainer to fix everything. I then had a bridge put in with a fake tooth to fill the hole. Well, since I grind my teeth, I kept popping off the (supposedly permanent) bridge. It happened so often that I would put off going to the dentist to get it reattached yet again. It would stay in place unless I was eating, so I would take it out for meals. This was terribly attractive, by the way. Anyway, I was portraying Ouiser Boudreaux in Steel Magnolias, and a few days before the show opened, my bridge came off. I didn't get it fixed in time. There was a part of the show where I was supposed to drink some coffee and then do a huge spit take. Yep, spit that tooth all the way across the stage. Horror. Without breaking character, I crossed the stage, picked it up, and put it back in my mouth. Guess what? Same thing happened the next night.

Now that I think about it, I didn't have a boyfriend during any of these incidents. Now it's your turn, friends with blogs!!!

2008-08-24T21:44:00.002-05:00

Remember me?
It's weird... once you get out of the habit of blogging regularly, it's really hard to get back in. I've been wanting to post for about two weeks now, but I don't know what to write about or where to start. This happens every time I take a hiatus (which is kind of in between every post these days...). I guess the remedy for that would be to stop being so lazy and post often.

So, instead of having something big and important to write about, I'm going to write about a few things I'm currently interested in. Or obsessed with. Whichever.

First off, I'm trying my hand at writing. I'm sure no one remembers this, but I tried to do National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short) in November 2006. I started off strong, but got distracted. Go figure. Anyway, I thought I'd try again this year, maybe with a young adult novel. So I started formulating a plot in my head, and I think I've pretty much got it down. The only problem is that it's August, and if I'm participating in NaNoWriMo, I can't actually start writing until November. So, the other night I couldn't sleep, and I dug up my previous failed attempt from 2006 on the computer. I started reading through it, and it wasn't half bad (for a crappy first attempt at writing a novel in a month). So I'm working on it now, sort of as a writing exercise. I've been working on it since Wednesday, and it's slow going. But I'm having a good time figuring out what's happening to my characters. I hope to have the rough draft done by the end of October. It's funny, I've never taken a creative writing course or anything, so I don't know why I think I can pull this off. Oh well, I'm having fun doing it.

As I prepare for November and my young adult novel, I'm worried that I'll run into the same problem as the last time I tried NaNoWriMo - the fact that we usually take a long vacation over Thanksgiving. Victor's laptop is literally six years old and on its last legs, so taking it with us is not an option. So, we're going to bite the bullet and replace it. We went to Best Buy yesterday to scope out computers, and they've got some decent, lightweight machines for less than a thousand bucks. We don't intend the laptop to do much other than word processing, internet, and maybe photos... our music and stuff will all still remain on the desktop computer. So there's no need to get crazy with a super expensive laptop.

Oh, also at Best Buy, we picked up a Wii Fit!!! I haven't hooked it up yet, but I'm so excited to give it a try. I've been wanting one since they came out, but couldn't find it anywhere.

One of the things I keep meaning to write about is my latest sad, sad obsession: Twilight. I've never hidden the fact that I'm a teenage girl at heart, so it shouldn't come as any surprise that these books would appeal to me. I read all of the books in less than a week, and I've pretty much reread them all, except for the parts that really annoyed me. Some of my favorite scenes I've read maybe fifty or sixty times. It's really silly. I feel like an idiot. And yeah, now I'm checking fansites and snarky livejournals and the movie webpage all the time, looking for the latest news, interviews, movie stills... But I've hesitated writing about it, because I don't know if anyone cares what I think about these (fairly poorly-written but completely compelling) books. I am pretty sure Victor is about to kill me at any moment, if I mention Edward Cullen or vampires or Robert Pattinson one more time... At any rate, if I ever get my thoughts together I may post them here.

Finally, one last obsession... sad Scottish music. Ah, how I have neglected you! I'm glad you're back in my life, and I'm sorry it took four straight days of rain in Dallas for us to get back together.

2008-07-30T20:09:00.003-05:00

Ten Hours
This is my contribution to Ryan's group blogging project. The assignment was to write a short essay about something that happened to you in a very specific place. The goal was to make the essay more about the intrinsic connection to the physical place than about what actually occurred there. Here are the participants:

Beth
Bryan
Emily
Meredith
Stacy
Ryan
Tom

And this is my story:

My junior year of college was spent at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. I often point to this experience as a turning point in my life. I packed so many experiences into those nine months abroad that it seemed like I was gone for many years. Before I left for Ireland, I was just another confused college student muddling through life. When I returned, I felt like I knew who I was. My career choice had changed, my world view was different… I was no longer just a kid from Arkansas. I was a world traveler! I was cosmopolitan! I was ME!

Yes, still very self-involved, our heroine. But now I had some confidence to back that up. Whether that was a good thing (self-confidence was definitely new to me) or a bad thing (I was maaaaaybe a little snobby about having "seen the world"), well, I will let the history books decide that. I was definitely more self-reliant after a year abroad. It's one thing to leave home and live in a dorm, where someone is still cooking your food, you have a car to drive around, and mom and dad (and their laundry facilities) are just 40 minutes away. It's another thing altogether to be in a foreign country, relying on your own cooking, utilizing public transportation, learning a new culture, spending Christmas away from your parents for the first time, all that jazz. It was scary but exciting. I loved it.

I also loved being so close to mainland Europe. This being the mid-to-late nineties, flights around Europe weren't that cheap yet, but I managed to make a couple of trips over to the mainland. And that is were our story begins.

Spring break 1998. Three friends and I decided to do a little backpacking. We were all Americans, part of the same study abroad program. The group consisted of myself, K (another girl), B (a boy), and P (another boy). We planned our trip to include Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Avignon, and then a split – they would continue to Italy while I flew back to Dublin to spend St. Patrick's Day with my friend Megan, visiting from the US. We planned our route so that our last stop together would be in Marseille, and then they would go their way while I took a train to Zurich, where my flight back to Dublin awaited me.

The trip was full of crazy adventures, the kind that can only happen when you let four college kids travel alone together. There were fights, missed connections (with me crying, alone, in several Paris metro stations), mangled French and Spanish resulting in surprise meals, even a little topless sunbathing. I think there may have been a breakup (K and P were sort of dating at the time) and a reconciliation. Needless to say, by the time we made it to Marseille, we were exhausted! It had been an incredible trip so far.

We arrived at the Marseille train station a little after noon, I believe. Maybe 2pm. I recall having about 10 hours to spend before hopping on a midnight train to Switzerland. We decided that we would all hang out in Marseille and then take night trains to our respective destinations.

European train stations have a nifty feature called "Left Luggage" or some such term. You can rent a locker to leave your 75lb. backpack while you explore the city. We all agreed that this would be a fantastic option for us in Marseille, so we all got lockers, left our bags, and headed out to see what the city offered.

None of us had done any research on Marseille, as we hadn't planned on spending any time there. So we were pretty much flying blind. We had heard that there was a lot of crime there (drug smuggling, maybe?), so we were a little on edge. But that's all we knew. We decided to make our way down to the harbor.

It was pretty impressive. We walked around some and eventually found ourselves at an old fort. Wikipedia tells me that there are two forts guarding the port, Fort Saint Nicolas and Fort Saint Jean; judging from pictures, I think we were at Fort Saint Nicholas. What I do know is that it was pretty deserted, and we decided to have a picnic. We had some food with us in P's backpack. I remember grapes, and I'm sure there were some crackers with delicious French cheese. We might have had some wine with us as well… knowing us, we did. So we had our lovely, leisurely picnic. There was a beautiful view of Marseille, so I took some pictures. The sun was beginning to go down, so we decided to head out.

But no. Remember how I said it was pretty deserted? Well, I guess whoever was in charge hadn't noticed the four American students having a picnic in a secluded corner of the facility. The gates had been closed, locking us in. Crap. I started to panic a little bit, knowing that I had to catch a train in a few hours. Someone suggested trying to crawl over the gates and slither through the crack between the gates and the metal bars extending from the top of the archway. I thought this was a terrible idea for two reasons: I am not athletic or strong, and I was fatter than the rest of these people. OK, three reasons: I am also clumsy. I was sure I would impale myself somehow. However, I was overruled. K tried going over first (she was the tiniest), and she made it. So did the rest of us.

Ah, the sweet air of freedom! How we drank it in! At this point, we were pretty much pissed off at Marseille. So we celebrated our freedom by engaging in that time-honored tradition of Americans abroad… the trip to McDonalds! Oh yes, I had my McPoulet sandwich and frites. It's amazing how a little comfort food will make everything better. Thus fortified, we decided to head back toward the train station and maybe get a drink along the way.

Not far from the station, we found a bar. It was apparently run by a creepy, middle-aged, mustachioed gentleman. Very few people were in the bar. Because we believed that Marseille was overrun with criminals, we all agreed that it was probably a front for some drug- or gun-smuggling operation. However, we decided to stay and have a drink or two. A short, older gentleman (also mustachioed) kept hitting on K, and eventually got her to dance with him to whatever song was playing on the jukebox. Later, some young(ish) French men came in and tried talking to us in English. Being rather paranoid about the perception of Ugly Americans Abroad, we decided to tell them we were Irish. They were overjoyed and began singing Irish rebel and/or drinking songs. We pretended to know the songs as we waved our beers in the air.

As it was growing quite late, we left our seedy newfound friends and trudged back up to the station. I recall it was now around 11pm. We made our way to the left luggage facility… oh no. More locked gates. A sign, in French, explaining that the left luggage room closed at 10pm and would not reopen until the morning. Oh no.

All I had on me was my money belt, containing my Eurail pass, plane tickets, passport, and credit cards. Crap.

At midnight, my friends put a very tearful Mandy on the train to Zurich. They proceeded to try to sleep in the train station, but were kicked out after an hour or so. So they tried to sleep in the stairwell leading down to the train station, where at some point K and P were propositioned by a random Frenchman (or was it a Frenchwoman?) for a threesome. The next morning, they grabbed our luggage and headed off for a week or so in Italy. God bless them, they dragged my backpack with them the entire way.

Friends tell me that Marseille is a wonderful place, full of beauty and good times. I just can't bring myself to agree with them. Maybe I'll go back again someday and try to find the other side of Marseille. But I'll check to see when the left luggage closes.

2008-05-12T19:50:00.003-05:00

Consumer alert! Consumer alert!
Dear friends and readers, let this be a warning: do not stop at the A&W/KFC restaurant in Atoka, Oklahoma. If you do, you will regret it.

Allow me to paint the scene: I was driving home from Arkansas yesterday. My trusty dog Murphy was in the front seat, sacked out in his doggie bed. I am tooling through Atoka, a small town of about 3,000 kinda famous (to those of us who have to drive through this part of Oklahoma on a regular basis) for its speed traps. I'd been in the car for four or five hours and had recently finished a 20 oz. Diet Dr Pepper.

Now, when I was on my way home last Friday, I had spotted the A&W/KFC restaurant and had wanted to stop. But it was on the left side of the road, so I gave it a miss. On the way back, however, it was on the right side. I needed to pee, I figured Murphy needed to pee, and I wanted a root beer float. So I pulled in. I let Murphy pee in a grassy area and put him back in the car (windows cracked, of course). I took out some of the trash from my previous stop (Diet Dr Pepper bottle, beef jerky wrapper) and walked toward the restaurant.

I should have known something was wrong when both of the trash cans flanking the doors were full... overflowing. I chose the one on the left. On top of all the trash was... a poopy diaper. I mean, this diaper was wide open and you could see all of the little poops inside of it. GROSS. I deposited my trash on top and went inside.

The ladies room had two stalls. The handicapped stall had a toilet that had recently seen a large explosion of some kind. The toilet had been pretty hosed down by someone who had eaten food that didn't agree with their tummy. I went into the second stall to see that the toilet hadn't been flushed after someone had peed. I decided to take my chances with the pee toilet. I flushed - it went down. Hooray.

Women's bathroom stalls usually have two extra features: a metal trash can where you can put your used feminine hygiene products and a metal toilet seat cover dispenser. This stall had both. Unfortunately, someone got confused, and they had put a used maxi pad in the toilet seat cover dispenser. Just wedged it right up in there. As I pondered why someone would do this, my eyes traveled to the toilet paper dispenser. Oh yes, no paper. I hobbled to the poopy stall, grabbed some, and hobbled back. Anyway, I figured it couldn't get worse than this.

I was wrong.

After I finished in the bathroom, I walked into the main room. There was a haze in the air, and I could tell someone had burned something in the kitchen. Oh well, that shouldn't affect my root beer float. I stood at the counter a couple of minutes, as people going through the drive-thru were helped and employees bantered to each other. Finally, some young kid (I will call him Bob) came up and asked if I had been helped.

Me: No.
Bob: How are you today?
Me: Um, I'd like a small root beer float.

Bob starts putting my order in the computer. Then he takes out two sizes of cups - I'm thinking they were the small and medium size.

Bob: (holding up the cups) What size do you want?
Me: Small.

So Bob goes to make the float. He is having some trouble. He calls back to another employee (I'll call him Joe). "Hey Joe?" He starts fiddling with the root beer tap again. "Uh, never mind."

So he puts in the root beer and ice cream, grabs a spoon and straw, and hands me the float. I go out to the car. It's hard to get situated, since I've got a dog who is very interested in the float, I've got to get buckled in, and I've got to open the straw. I finally try the float... YUCK! No root beer, just carbonation.

I extract myself from the car, tell Murph to stay, and go back inside. There's a woman waiting at the counter. A couple minutes go by. Finally Joe comes up to help us.

Joe: Have you been helped?
Lady: No.
Joe: What can I get you?
Lady: An Oreo fudge blast. (or whatever they call their version of the Blizzard)
Joe: (to me) Have you been helped?
Me: Yes, but there's something wrong with this. (holding up the float)
Joe: OK.

After a little while, my old buddy Bob shows back up. He takes my cup from me and tells me there's something wrong with the syrup, so they'll have to make me a new one. I say that this is okay. He then proceeds to dump out my old float and rinse out the cup. You know, to reuse it. He then tries the pump again... yep, only carbonation. Joe tries jiggling the syrup line or something. It doesn't work. "Try the one in the lobby," Joe says to Bob.

Bob goes out to the root beer pump in the lobby (where you and I would normally get refills). Same thing - just carbonation. He tries the diet root beer - that's working fine. I tell him diet would be just fine. Bob goes back behind the counter.

Bob: Do you want diet or regular?
Me: Diet, regular, I don't care! I just need to get back on the road!
Bob: I can make you one with regular!
Me: Fine, whatever!

So, Bob gets two cups. One, I think, is for syrup. The other is for carbonation. He's trying to hand-mix the root beer! It somehow doesn't work, and I can tell he's getting frustrated. He throws both cups in the trash, sighs, and gets another cup (remember, this is the guy who was recycling my original cup... he's now used four or five other cups). He finally goes to the side of the kitchen, where I can't see him, comes back up front and adds in some ice cream, and then goes back into the kitchen. Then he gives me the completed ice cream float, and says "Sorry about that."

I open the straw and plunge it in. Warm, sticky sweetness. YUCK! Apparently, this is the new way to make an A&W root beer float:

1. Add in a bunch of warm syrup.
2. Add ice cream.
3. Put some more warm syrup on top to make sure the ice cream is melting from all sides.

It was so disgusting. But I had already wasted about twenty minutes of my time (or more), so I just left. I ate what ice cream I could and tossed the rest. Funnily enough, A&W's website doesn't have a "Contact Us" section for complaints. Maybe this is because their employees can't make a damn root beer float!

2008-04-23T22:16:00.002-05:00

Well, hell.
See if I ever try to pick an American Idol winner again. Syesha and Carly had the best performances (plus maybe David Cook), and they both ended up in the bottom two. I even voted three times for Carly. First time I've ever actually voted.

And she's been kicked off.

Guess I have to root for David Cook now. *sigh*

2008-04-22T18:49:00.007-05:00

Live-blogging American Idol's Andrew Lloyd Webber night
This is the second Andrew Lloyd Webber fiasco I've live-blogged. So turn your eyes to this post for some background information. Suffice to say that the 15-year-old theater geek in me still loves some ALW. I've not really followed his career post-Aspects of Love, though I did see Sunset Boulevard on Broadway. Anyway, I'm not familiar with his newer stuff. So I'm wondering what they're going to sing tonight.

My coworkers and I have been talking about it. We figure someone will sing "Memory" from Cats, someone will do "I Don't Know HOw to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, and the girls might fight over who gets to belt out "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" from Evita (they may at least know the Madonna version).

7:00pm: here we go!

Earth Day, Schmearth Day. Get to the cheesiness. I'm glad that they're doing a fuller band, complete with strings. Nice. I would hate for the usual band to attempt these songs.

Just for the record, I was totally a Michael Johns girl. Right now I'm kind of rooting for Carly.

Yay, Andrew Lloyd Webber montage! Did Ryan Seachrest just say "the-ah-tuh" in a British accent?

Hey! The Venetian! I saw Phantom there in January!

Randy says it's the toughest night of the season. Hmm. I might agree, as much as the judges have made fun of musical theater voices. His songs are not easy to sing. I'd like to see one of these contestants tackle the operatic stuff at the end of "Think of Me."

First Contestant: Syesha Mercado. Crap. I don't really care for her. Holy crap, she's singing a song from Starlight Express. Where are her roller skates??? She's not doing that bad, actually. Her hair is cute. Girl has some boobies! Randy liked it. Paula liked it. Simon? Thought it was sexy and liked it. My verdict? Yeah, not bad at all, and she really sold the song.

OK, it's a commercial break. Jason Castro is going to sing "Memory." Jesus. I'm going to publish this every commercial break and then go in and edit it.

So, back again. The publishing took a little long, so I hope that doesn't continue all night. So, "Memory," a song sung by an old lady cat... now will be sung by some hippie dreadlocked guy from Rockwall, TX. I believe that one of us called that one.

Second Contestant: Jason Castro. Wow, what's up with that outfit, dude??? Andrew Lloyd Webber is funny right now, and Jason is a dumbass. What's up with that pussy mustache, dude? Anyway, here we go. DAMN! They cut the first verse, my favorite. Someone kill me now. The way they chopped this song is breaking my heart. NO! The final verse should be powerhouse! ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Randy didn't care for it and thought it was a bad song choice. Paula liked the choice. Boo. Simon? Hilarious. Didn't like it. HAHA! I am laughing out loud. My verdict? I want to kick Jason's ass and shave his head. I hope he goes home after this. He should. What should he have sung? Something from Joseph - would have been more his speed.

Third Contestant: Brooke White. Not cool to sing a song written for the Evita movie. That’s silly. I love that ALW said she didn’t know what she was singing about. I’m kind of tired of Brooke. Here she goes. HOLY CRAP! She started over! Can you even do that on Idol???? That’s not going to be good for her. You can tell she’s nervous. There are better songs from Evita than this. Wow, her voice is sounding really, really bad. Randy didn’t like it. Paula is mad that she stopped. Simon didn't like it either. Maybe she would have been better if she hadn't freaked out. My verdict? Boo... crappy choice and she forgot the words.

Next contestant will be David Archuleta. I wonder what his song choice will be... I'm sure it will be a feel-good ballad.

Fourth Contestant: David Archuleta. Oh my god, he looks 12. Victor just said "Are you sure he's not 12?" HE'S SINGING "THINK OF ME" - ARE YOU KIDDING ME???????? Is he going to do the opera stuff at the end? No, of course not. ALW called him "Little David." Hilarious. Here he goes. Oh no, it's the "caring and sharing" acoustic guitar version. I want to drive nails into head. NO! BONGOS! NO NO NO NO NO NO! My ears! My ears are bleeding! The little girls are going to be all over this. He's going to be our next American Idol. I hated the way he ended it. My life is over. Randy liked it - "it was the bomb." Paula thought it was "absolutely perfect." Simon? Didn't really like it. My verdict? I agree with Simon... except I also wanted to throw things at the TV.

Why is Paul Stanley there? Inquiring husbands want to know.

Fifth Contestant: Carly Smithson. “All I Ask of You?” I’m glad ALW nipped that in the bud... it would have been terrible So, she’s singing the theme to Jesus Christ Superstar… we figured she’d sing the Mary Magdalene ballad from that show instead. But I can get behind this. Here she goes… Messing up the words a bit, unless it was intentional… Uh oh, is there going to be a fatwa on her for asking “Could Muhammad move a mountain, or was that just PR?” Not a bad performance… much better than another awful ballad. The crowd liked it for sure. Randy liked it. Paula liked it. Simon? Really liked it! My verdict? Yay for Carly!

So, one left… what is David Cook going to sing? He’s going to have to go balls out to top Carly’s energy.

Sixth Contestant: David Cook. He’s going to sing “Music of the Night.” I’m glad that he’s an ALW fan and has done musical theater before. Let’s see what happens… My husband wonders why no one did anything from Les Mis or Miss Saigon. I had to school him. He says he wasn’t a gay man growing up in Arkansas, like I was. Ha ha ha. Anyway, back to David Cook… he’s not doing that bad! I think he could do a more theatrical version, but maybe the judges wouldn’t like that. You know what? I’m digging it, to use Randy’s phrasing. Oh no, the end was terrible. Terrible, but very David Cook. Randy loved it. Paula loved it. Simon? Didn’t care for it, but thought it he made the most of the song. My verdict? It was pretty good, except for the end.

Somewhere along the way, we have broken my blog. I’m logging on to my provider to see what’s wrong… Oh wait, it’s back.

Either Brooke or Jason will go home. I think the night belongs to Syesha or Carly. David Cook did the best of the guys. They’re recapping right now, and the David Archuleta song made me gag a little again.

It was interesting to see how they used ALW’s songs this week. I can’t wait to discuss at work tomorrow with other musical theater nerds. MUSICAL THEATER NERDS UNITE!

2008-04-20T19:33:00.002-05:00

Weekend Endorsements
We had a fairly busy weekend. We saw two movies at the theater, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and My Blueberry Nights. I enjoyed both, although I wanted to gag Natalie Portman in MBN. I just don't care for her as an actress, and the fake accent she put on was so annoying. I thought FSM was hilarious, particularly the Paul Rudd character. I told Victor that every movie needs a Paul Rudd cameo... it would just make everything better.

We also took Murphy to Dirty Dawgs on Oak Lawn for a bath. It's a do-it-yourself dog wash, complete with blow dryers, scented sprays, and grooming tools. I usually just wash him in the tub, which is exhausting and nerve-wracking for both of us. He hated getting the bath at Dirty Dawgs (especially the blow drying), but it was so much easier than doing it at home.

I'll not mention about how he tried to run away from us by escaping from the dog park.

This morning, we went to sunday brunch at the Tipperary Inn for full Irish breakfasts. Even though they forgot to give us the grilled tomato, it was very yummy. We had never been there for brunch before, and I really enjoyed it. It looks like their summer hours aren't going to include brunch, so I guess that it will be a while before we have brunch there again.

Tonight, we're having a Mexican cookout with fajitas, chicken, sausage, avocados, yummy tortilla chips, and palomas. That, coupled with the epsom salt bath that I just took, will make for a great ending of a good weekend.

2008-04-17T19:34:00.002-05:00

Not nice!

I got dive-bombed by a bird this morning, right outside my front door.

I usually put my hair in a bun for the drive to work (helps control the frizz), and this morning, a mockingbird dove down and hit me in the bun. I'm pretty sure the bird has a nest in our ornamental tree next to the front door. I see and hear it in there all the time, and I think that I can hear little peeps coming out of there too. In fact, I can hear the mockingbird in there right now. It's loud enough that I can hear it through the window, and I'm across the living room from it.

I'm all for nature, but come on! It's not nice to hit people on the head first thing in the morning.

2008-04-15T20:48:00.002-05:00

House envy
I've been kind of obsessed with Apartment Therapy lately. I used to visit it occasionally a few years ago, but there wasn't really much for me there. These days, I have been getting so much inspiration there! Even though we're no longer in an actual apartment, we still have a small dwelling and a small budget. I've been feeling restless lately with our decor; I think it's time to shake things up a bit. So I've been looking at AT's home tours to get ideas. They're currently in a Small Cool contest, where people send in picture tours of their small apartments and people vote on whether they like the decorating and whatnot. So there are a lot of great apartments to look at right now. They also do home tours of houses, too... I wonder if I could ever get on there. It makes a nice break from getting inspiration from various TLC and HGTV shows, which eventually kind of all blend together.

Also, our house has so much IKEA stuff... I'd like to add in a few other pieces so that it doesn't look like walking into an IKEA showroom. If I'm in Dallas this weekend, I want to hit up some garage sales and a couple of architectural salvage places I've been hearing about. I'm also in the market for some new stuff for our walls. We've been living with the same framed vintage poster prints for too long now, and I'm ready for something new.

It's also time for us to get our crap together for our own garage sale. We have so much stuff stored in the garage that needs to go, and I want to weed out some old paperbacks. Victor and I both also have a ton of clothes and shoes to rehome. Once we can get the garage cleaned out, we can work on finishing it out a bit more to make it more usable. I'd eventually like to have a little fridge out there as well as a workbench or two for any silly projects I'd like to try. Plus, some improvements to the garage (like the light that my dad and I installed) can only help our resale value, right?

Indulge me...

2008-04-13T14:18:00.001-05:00

Murphy April photoshoot
Originally uploaded by Mandy Aguilar

...in more cute pictures of Murphy. Why? Because he is so cute, especially when sitting still. Not so much when he's running all over the house...

It's a beautiful spring day here in Texas. I wish that spring lasted forever here. I know that all too soon we will head into the interminable Long Hot Summer, which is really no fun. Maybe if I had all summer off to go swimming, I would enjoy it more. Should we tear up the fish pond and put in a pool? Nah... pools aren't for lazy people... they require too much work. So it's mosquitos and terrified goldfish for me.

We haven't really been traveling much lately, as Victor is working on something Very Important at work and doesn't have much free time. We did go down to Austin a few weeks ago, which was lots of fun. I had kind of forgotten why I love that city so much, so it was a nice reminder.

We have been sticking to home a lot during the weekends, working on the yard. I've got a decent flower garden going, with irises (left by the previous owners - thanks!), petunias, bluebonnets, shamrocks, and some other kind of pink flower. I think I might add a few more things in this weekend. We're also trying our hand at container tomatoes, strawberries, and herbs. Wish us luck, because our thumbs aren't very green yet.

2008-02-18T17:50:00.000-06:00

Murphy
We have a new family member! Now, if that doesn't warrant a new post, I don't know what does.

When Victor and I moved in together, I gave up my cat, Liam. Victor is allergic to cats, and Liam was quite the handful anyway, so we found a better home for him (the fact that he was regifted again to an even better home doesn't really matter to this particular story). Since then, I've been lonely for a pet. I figured we could someday get a dog, since neither of us are allergic. I grew up with dogs, and had maybe the best dog ever while I was young, Sam. Sam and I were fast friends, and I taught him all sorts of tricks. But he passed away when I was in college.

Anyway, when we decided to buy a house, I got very excited about the prospect of a dog. Yard = dog, right? I did a lot of research and decided that keeping a dog outside would be pretty cruel to an only dog, and we weren't ready for two dogs. Plus, we travel a lot... so we decided to hold off getting one.

That didn't keep me from scouring Petfinder on a near daily basis for the better part of a year, looking for the perfect pet. I researched types of dogs, finding ones that didn't shed much, were kind of lazy inside, easy to train, all that jazz. And I started chipping away at Victor's "no dogs inside the house" edict. I guess I was really annoying, because he finally gave in. We decided I could get one for my birthday (January 24).

I had picked out a whippet mix named Murphy that was being kept at a vet office's pet orphanage. He had a real sob story: his previous owner's large dog had bit him, and instead of taking him to a vet, they dumped him. Neighbors fed him while he was on the streets. Police found him when they saw him wandering around a crime scene. By the time he made it to the vet, his bite wound was infected, and he was skinny and scared. The Petfinder entry said he was gaining confidence and needed a home. His story tugged at my heartstrings.

I called East Lake Pet Orphanage to ask how he was doing. They said he was doing very well, was working on socialization, and was crate trained and housebroken. I went to see him on my birthday. He was wearing a ridiculous lime green sweater, but he was very friendly and sweet. I liked that he sort of pranced when he walked; in fact, his walk was kind of a bouncy trot, like a racehorse. He was smaller than I expected, less than 14 pounds, but his long whippet legs made him tall.

Victor wanted to meet him before making a decision, but I went ahead and turned in an adoption application. It was approved, and on Saturday, January 26, we went to pick him up (pending Victor's approval, of course). They got along, and we adopted him.

It has been rather a wild ride since then. He's still adjusting to his new house, so we've dealt with some accidents inside the house and the crate. I am still getting used to the idea that crating him during the day isn't cruel, but he likes to chew on things, so I'd rather crate him than have no possessions. I wanted a whippet because they are light shedders, but the other breed in Murphy (whatever it is) must be a big shedder. We've bought a new vaccuum cleaner to help deal with the mess, along with lots of brushing tools. I've learned how to give a dog a bath in the tub. We've dealt with some protective barking and an under-the-fence escape artist. I'm getting used to the wettest nose possible poking me all the time.

But all of that doesn't stop the fact that he's the cutest dog ever. He's really fast, mega-athletic, and springs in the air with glee when he's out in the yard. He prances around like a little deer. He curls up in a tiny ball when he's sleeping, after he turns around in his dog bed several times. He follows us around everywhere. He loves to play with his toys and will throw them around and jump after them. So despite all of the craziness, we're enjoying this.

2007-12-19T22:06:00.000-06:00

Top Ten Albums of 2007
I have finally finished this year's list, just a couple of weeks late. Not being able to blog at work is tough, especially since so much of my post-work time is spent playing Rock Band.

This year, I broke two "rules" by including two albums... let's see if you can guess which rules they were! Without further ado...

10. Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters – The Twilight Sad

This album seemingly came out of nowhere. I'm so glad Victor brought it home, or ordered it, or stole it from some poor Scottish orphan... at any rate, this is the sleeper hit of the year!

Favorite Songs: "Cold Days from the Birdhouse" "I'm Taking the Train Home"

9. Boxer – The National

Boxer was more accessible to me than their previous album, and I found myself coming back to this again and again. I never disliked the National, but this year I found that I really like them.

Favorite Songs: "Apartment Story" "Squalor Victoria"

8. Candylion - Gruff Rhys

Gee, this is a surprise. Gruff Rhys's latest album on my top ten? Next I'll be telling you that Texas is warm all year long. Anyway, what a fun, playful, and gosh darn it, adorable album this is. And sad. And wonderful.

Favorite songs: "Lonesome Words" "Con Carino"

7. Wincing the Night Away – The Shins

Ah, the Shins. Your music will always be so enjoyable, even if I feel like a cliche while listening to you.

Favorite Songs: "Australia" "Turn On Me" "Split Needles"

6. Neon Bible – The Arcade Fire

When exactly did Bruce Springsteen join the Arcade Fire? If Funeral was a glorious mess of beauty, then Neon Bible has channeled that mess into downright fervor. It took me a long time to get into this album, and I have fond memories of falling in love with it while painting my house.

Favorite Songs: "Keep the Car Running" "Intervention" "(Antichrist Television Blues)"

5. Cease to Begin – Band of Horses

It's hard to follow up on an album that topped my year-end list last year, and this album is so understated compared to Everything All the Time. But it's a fun, beautiful little album all the same.

Favorite Songs: "Is There a Ghost" "Islands on the Coast" "The General Specific"

4. Challengers – The New Pornographers

Nothing but hits, son, nothing but hits.

Favorite Songs: "Myriad Harbour" "All the Old Showstoppers" "Unguided" "Mutiny, I Promise You"

3. Once - Music from the Motion Picture – Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová

So, this is the first time a soundtrack album has appeared on my top ten list. And you know what? I don't care. I loved this movie. I love these songs. I listened to this album until I literally never wanted to hear the songs again... and yet, I still wanted to hear them. Over and over and over.

Favorite Songs: "When Your Mind's Made Up" "Lies" "Trying to Pull Myself Away" "Falling Slowly"

2. Yours to Keep - Albert Hammond, Jr.

I kind of laughed when I heard that Albert Hammond, Jr. was putting out a solo album. Well, who's laughing know? I mean, seriously... this album didn't leave my car CD player for weeks on end. I nominate AHJ to write the next Strokes album. Who's with me?

Favorite Songs: "In Transit" "Bright Young Thing" "101" "Call an Ambulance"

1. Writer's Block - Peter Bjorn and John

It's not cheating if I didn't buy this album as an import, right? This totally came out domestically in 2007. Anyway, this is one hell of a beautiful album.

Favorite Songs: "Up Against the Wall" "Young Folks" "Writer's Block" "Chills" "Paris 2004"

On the cusp...
We All Belong - Dr. Dog
23 - Blonde Redhead
Graduation - Kanye West

Biggest disappointment...
Under the Blacklight - Rilo Kiley

2007-11-01T21:29:00.000-05:00

Is your house famous?
So, when we bought the house, we were told that it was used to film a movie a few years ago. The movie is called Hate Crime, and the previous owners even left us a promotional poster for the film when they moved out. I immediately put it on my Netflix queue. It arrived a couple of weeks ago.

I didn't feel good today, so I stayed home from work. I watched a couple of things on the DVR, and then Victor convinced me (by phone) to watch Hate Crime. He wasn't that interested in watching it with me, so I decided to watch it by myself.

The movie was filmed in 2004, before our house was renovated, so it was very interesting to see what the place used to look like. The library was a functioning porch, with a glass door and everything. I'm not sure what was up with the sunroom, but it either wasn't there or was vastly different. My guess is that it wasn't there, and there was a huge window or something where the interior french doors are. Apparently, there used to be a way into the kitchen from the hallway. It was distracting, actually, because I kept pausing and rewinding to figure out the differences in the house. But it was totally our house. Same mantle over the fireplace. Same windows. Same oak tree in the front. Most of the landscaping was different, and the fence was chain link instead of wooden. It also had weird colorful trim on the outside, instead of white.

The film itself wasn't that great... it started out pretty laughable, but it turned out to be engaging enough. I got into the story. For the first 20 or 30 minutes, I kept thinking that the main character was familiar. So I looked it up on IMDb. And then I figured it out! It was Robbie from "Providence" (aka Seth Peterson)! Robbie Hansen, totally in my house! Come on, I know some of you must have watched that show. It was lame, yes, but addictive. And it had B.J. Hunnicut in it!

A large part of the action took part on our street. I recognized neighbors' houses and wondered what it must have been like to have a fairly big budget movie filming in the neighborhood. The behind-the-scenes features showed cranes and dollies and everything. It must have been exciting for the 'hood, especially with marginally famous actors roaming around.. I'm glad I watched the movie, and I'm glad that my house is immortalized in film, even if it looks different now.

Oh, and guess what? Of course our house was where the bad guy lived. Of course it was.

2007-10-31T21:12:00.000-05:00

Some thoughts on the World Series

So, the Red Sox won the World Series again. Wow, I sure like typing those words. I guess there are a lot of people who thought they might never see those words in their lifetime.

I'm not one of those - I was never a long-suffering fan. I started watching Red Sox baseball in 2003 (maybe 2002?), because Victor didn't give me much choice to do otherwise. I was never a baseball fan... I grew up in a football household. But the more I learned about the game, the more I liked it. I liked that it was as much about the individual as it was about the team. I liked how much Victor and Mark could nerd out about it. I started paying attention, and found that a lot of people I knew were baseball nerds. I learned a lot, I became indoctrinated into Red Sox fandom, I began to be able to hold my own in baseball conversations. I lived through the heartache of Aaron Boone.

And then 2004 came along. I watched a lot of baseball that year. We went through an incredibly stressful postseason. The unthinkable happened... the Sox made a comeback, and Oh my God, we're in the World Series! And after four butt-clenching games, they won.

This year's World Series was different. In many ways, it was more enjoyable, although nothing will ever take away the amazing feeling of the 2004 win. Anyway, here are a few thoughts on the series.

It wasn't tense. At least, it wasn't tense compared to 2004. I admit, I was a little tense during the ALCS when the Sox were trying to make their comeback. But, for the most part, I was able to relax a bit during the World Series. There was no bloody sock, no "oh my God, Foulke's arm is going to fall off with that next throw" no "holy crap, how did they do that??" - it was pretty much smooth sailing. I had a lot of confidence in this team. They weren't the loveable idiots of 2004, they were just a strong, confident team. And while we did try to wear the same unwashed outfits during the games, it wasn't a crisis if I changed out of jeans to sweatpants or whatever. It just wasn't that kind of year. It felt nice.

Pitching - my new favorite sport. This year, I really started getting into pitching. Not personally - I'm still as inept at sports as ever - but more as an informed spectator. I used to love watching at-bats and while I understood the importance of good pitching, it never really moved me. But I'm way more into it now. I think I enjoy it more now than watching someone slugging away. Maybe it was Josh Beckett's hard-ass, precision pitching. It definitely has something to do with Jonathan Papelbon's crazy-intense closing. I guess I just understand it more now, and it gives me such a thrill to watch a 1-2-3 inning or an amazing strike out.

Yay, rookies! I loved seeing the young guys steal the show, and I loved how the veterans gave them props for doing so. Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury were just fantastic, and my love of Jonathan Papelbon is well-documented (now that the World Series is over, I can finally wash my Papelbon shirt!). I bet those guys are just on top of the world right now.

Slow and steady wins the race. Well, maybe not exactly slow and steady, but watching someone like Mike Lowell win the MVP award was fantastic. He's not one of the big names (like Papi or Manny), he's not flashy, he's just consistently good. He wasn't even supposed to be good when the Sox acquired him - he was just part of the trade for Josh Beckett. Oh well, little did they know. He seemed really thankful and humble when he accepted the trophy. And I think he totally deserved it... even if the mustache in his goatee makes me cringe a little.

And now for a few things I won't miss now that the postseason is over...

Dane Cook If I had to hear him say, "There's only one Ack-tober!" one more time, I would have ripped the TV off of the wall with my bare hands.

Fox baseball coverage I don't think I have to explain this one.

"This is oooouuurrr countryyyyy" Oh wait, that commercial will never go away. It's like a biblical plague or something.

2007-10-30T20:13:00.000-05:00

I'm a reader, because I read.
We're starting a book club at work. Anyone that knows me fairly well knows how much I love to read, so I'm excited to be in my first book club. I'm also very interested to see what everyone picks for us to read (each month - or however often we meet - the book will be chosen by a different book club member). I have no idea when I'll choose a book, but I'm already fretting about it. Do I choose something I've read or something I want to read? Do I choose a classic? Pop-culture non-fiction? Something nerdy? A play? Chick-lit? Young adult fiction? Will people still like me if I make them read Thomas Hardy? What about Marian Keyes or Shopaholic?

I've been thinking about the phases I've gone through as a reader. As a kid, I read books about horses or teen detectives. In my early teens, I lived on V.C. Andrews, romance novels (shut up!), and Anne Rice. Once I became a "serious reader," I wanted to read only classics (or old) books. More recently, I've started reading modern literature, the It Books of the moment, and books I've read or heard about in the press. Now, I'm pretty indiscriminate in my reading, while still focusing on favorite authors or themes. I love a good book set in medieval Europe, or a Newbery Award winner, or those kinds of books you see on college reading lists. But I'll devour crime novels my mom gives me and chick lit that I pick up to read on vacation. I'll buy an old book because I like the cover, because the title sounds interesting or funny, or because I think the cover typeface is pretty. I'll even read books about baseball (and understand them!).

Yes, these days, I'm an equal opportunity reader, and I guess that will work well with the book club.

P.S. Ryan has a recent, interesting post about books, too. It's a little surreal.

2007-10-28T23:11:00.000-05:00

YAY!!!!!!!!!!

YES!

YES!

YES!

I'm so tired. I'll have to blog about the World Series tomorrow. But YES! YES! YES!

2007-10-26T07:15:00.000-05:00

Love, thy name is...
... blueberry mojito! Some friends and I went to Trece for their Ladies Night. $2 frozen blueberry mojitos and frozen margaritas, plus free quesadillas. We sampled some of their appetizers. So, so yummy. I want to try this place for dinner sometime. Or lunch.

And yes, in case you were wondering, I'm not writing about the World Series on purpose. No need to jinx things.

2007-10-24T18:36:00.001-05:00

Danger, danger!
Yesterday afternoon at work, I got a call on my cell phone. The caller ID said it was a 1-800 number, so I figured it was a telemarketer. Prepared to give them a piece of my mind, I answered the phone. Turns out it was ADT, as in our home alarm company. The motion detector in our living room had gone off. Did I want to meet the police there? Hell yes!!!

So, I flew out of the office, yelling that my house was being broken into, and jumped in the car. Couldn't get Victor on the phone. I was almost out of gas. I ended up stopping for gas, and of course the pump wouldn't accept cards, so I had to go inside to prepay. All the while, I'm imagining some dudes making off with all of our stuff. Wondering if my good jewelry would be gone. Worrying about the TV and computer. Becoming outraged that said dudes were tramping through our house. And where on earth could we find replacements for the windows they must have broken? Pumping the gas took forever.

Of course traffic was bad. Of course they were doing construction on the road.

Eventually, I made it home. There were two police officers there. They said the house looked secure from the outside, and we went in together. Nothing. Everything was fine. No broken windows, doors still locked, house still semi-messy from the morning. I have no idea what could have set off the motion detector. The mail comes through our mail slot every day without setting it off (it seems to be facing the opposite direction from the mail slot). So what could it be? Maybe it was just a malfunction. Maybe a giant raccoon got in (and out) of the house. Could a ghost set it off? Anyway, the good news was that everything was still safe.

I hope I never get a call from ADT again. Then again, I'm so glad that we have an alarm system and that they call the instant the alarm goes off. I'm so glad that we made the decision to pay a little bit each month for peace of mind.

Hell of a way to get out of work early, though.