A Spectrum

The crazy ice storm this weekend knocked out our power for about 10 hours and our cable (TV and Internet) for 3 days. It stunk not have TV and internet over the weekend. I felt lost and blind and I missed the Oscars, but I heard they were boring so no loss really. Just outside on our road heading out of town there are about two dozen poles down. The road is closed. I will see if I can get a picture tomorrow. Grr. But on the bright side I am no longer unemployed. I have a temporary job back at NIU but that doesn't start until the middle of March. Right about the time we will probably be moving, good timing huh.

I really didn't think I was actually going to write this post, but then I discovered two brand new episodes today. I was quite excited, but I am unemployed and have nothing else to be excited about. A hilarious show, quite crude sometimes, but full of lovable, idiotic characters. It started in 1994 and the two episodes I just found were aired this past Christmas. However, there aren't 13 seasons of episodes out there. There are relatively few actually. I don't understand British television. Anyway, the show focuses on a female Vicar, Geraldine Granger, and her parishioners in a small country village. A great mix of religion, goofiness, and crudeness (maybe it's a British thing). The show's signature is the joke at the end of each episode (see example below, ok it took me hours to get that to come up, argh). This one is fairly tame, but mostly it is how the character of Alice reacts to the joke.

In addition, there is a new show slated for the fall season on Fox that is based on The Vicar of Dibley. It will be called The Minister of Divine and will star Kristie Alley, but I don't see how they can even come close to the original.

Isn't rather odd that both Lost and Grey's Anatomy have a Dr. Shepherd and a Dr. Burke? Lost has Jack Shepherd and Juliet Burke, while Grey's has Derek Shepherd and Preston Burke. Spoiler Alert: By the way, they totally can not kill off Meredith. The show is named after her. Although, I did enjoy Denny's and Dylan, the bomb guy's, reappearances.

I have found a new love. And soon my love will be over, well, not really over. But there is only one more disk of unseen episodes that Blockbuster can send me, and then no more.

Firefly is...well..odd, but wonderfully odd. It is a space western, which I think is what doomed it to only one season. I don't even recall seeing advertising for it, but it was apparently on when I was planning my wedding so... Anyway, what is great about it is the writing. I am a huge fan of excellent writing. Plus, the characters, I love interesting characters. So the backgroud is secondary, a show could be about baggage handlers in the year 2100, but if it has good writing, I would probably like it. (Unfortuately, they tried this, seriously, Matthew Perry was signed to this show, LAX 2100, and was almost prevented from doing Friends because of it).

The other intersting thing about this show is that the fans it did happen gather when it was on were so adament about the show, the creator made a feature film, Serenity (2005). I watched this before I watched the series. The movie is good but the series is better. And even now, almost four years after the series was on, there are still fans trying to get the show back or have another film made. Another cool thing, is that they show the series now on the SciFi channel and Firefly has now become the highest rated show ever on SciFi.

Anyway, if you haven't seen it, I recommend it. I beleive my next post will be I love The Vicar of Dibley. ;)

If I get a house,... No, no.... When I get a house, the first thing I am going to buy, furniture-wise, is a new couch. Right now, if you sit in the middle of our couch and someone else sits on either end, you are about two feet lower than them. I swear. It's ridiculous. And if you try to sit on one of the ends, it's impossible to stay there. You automatically get pulled to the vortex of terror which is the middle. My brother would call it "the Glacier Effect" as he once had a mattress with the same peculiar properties. Alas, no house, no couch, no comfort... yet.

Upcoming Movies:

Fanboys (August 2007): Four extreme "Star Wars" fans and childhood friends from the Midwest drive across America to Skywalker Ranch in order to sneak a peak at the yet unreleased "Episode 1: Phantom Menace" as one last hoorah for their dying friend. Along the way they run afoul at a Star Trek convention and have it out with the Trekkies.

OK, can this movie be anything but perfect? ;) Score, I just found the trailer as I was writing this. I seriously cried during it, because it's funny not because it's sad. Well, maybe it's a little sad.



This makes me think back to when I saw Phantom Menace for the first time. It was at the Sandburg Mall theater in Galesburg, IL. It was the midnight showing May 18, 1999. I was about to graduate high school. I remember waiting outside the theater. I think we got there around 10:30. It was myself, Tom, my brother, and my dad. I blame 8th grade Kyle for why dad had to come. ;) Nah, it wasn't bad. Plus, my friend Brandy and her 8th grade sister, Amanda. (I think she came). Also, other Star Wars geeks from school including Justin Funk, Eli and Justin Boone, that I remember. It seemed like we took up a whole row ourselves. I remember the local radio station was there and there were a few people dressed up. But, upon subsequent midnight showings, this one was rather tame or lame, take your pick. I have found that I really enjoy going to midnight or first showing because those audiences always react the best and get all the jokes and connections. I often find myself thinking in later showings "why aren't these audiences laughing in all the right places?!?" I saw Phantom Menace 3 times in total. At one showing, Tom and I afterwards got silly stringed and so did the poor old people getting in the car next to us. We still owe Brandy, Val, and Phil for that. Watch out. Later, I saw both Episodes 2 and 3 at midnight showings and at least 3 times. Episode 2 was even with Tom, my brother, Brandy and Shane at this point, and Amanda (I think, again). Episode 3, I know I saw with my friends Tina and Rachel, and Tom. I remember at this showing the people in front of us brought a laptop and were watching the previous movies on it. Ok, that's enough Star Wars nostalgia for now.

I encourage everyone reading this to go out and rent this movie. I have seen much of this information presented before, however, the movie presents it for the layman. Nothing too overly scientific here. An excellent discussion of what they call "a climate crisis." I tend to agree. Please click on the widget in the right hand content and pledge to see this movie.

I know a politician, Al Gore, made this movie. I tend to despise politics and try to stay away. However, this issue is not really political, it extends way beyond that. You owe it to yourself and your children to see this movie. Ohh, I sound so radical. ;)

courtesy of my brother

The high pitch whirring of the drill. The puff of dust emanating from my mouth with pieces of my teeth now floating about in the air. The right side of my face is drooping and I giggle with my half smile. Such was my trip to the dentist.

I have been quite anxious about this trip recalling my last and only cavity. It was the worse pain I have experienced. Now, not having undergone the miracle of childbirth yet, I won't presume to go on about the pain I experienced. Suffice it to say, I was not looking forward to today. However, it was not bad at all really. I barely felt a thing.

I am now supremely convinced that my previous dentist has never heard of a little thing called Novocaine. God bless it. And God Bless Epidurals. Amen.

Super Bowl XLI, here we come. Sweet.

My in-laws, Tom, and I went to the show last Saturday. It exceeded my expectations. It was an excellent production, a good mix of dancing, talking, video, a local dance competition, Joey McIntyre wearing John Deere suspenders, Joey McIntyre singing. Plus, the music was LIVE, oh that makes a huge difference. The only taped music they used was for the local competition pre-show. The stars danced some, the professionals danced some. They did some dance numbers from the show plus new ones. There were group dances and pair dances. From our seats we could see everything suprisingly well. It was so fun to see the dances that I remember from the TV show, Lisa Rinna's Jive, Joey Lawrence and Edyta dancing to Singing in the Rain, Drew Lachey and Cheryl Burke's Paso Doble to Thriller, and of course Drew and Cheryl's Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy free dance. That was awesome to see. What a fun night.

This is great!

NASA, in a housecleaning exercise, threw out their plans for the Saturn 5 rocket, the one that sent humans to the moon.

Courtney Cox was in the movie Masters of the Universe starring He-man.

The Chicago Bears started out as the Decatur Stanleys.

Gravity is actually the warping of spacetime.

Thomas Midgley, who invented tetra-ethyl lead which was added to gasoline and employed in various other ways but because of the toxicity of lead was eventually largely discontinued, also invented cloroflouocarbons (CFC's), those pesky things that punched a hole in the ozone layer. Two for two.

How cool does this look? Check it out.

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 75% Spider-Man 65% Robin 60% Supergirl 57% Hulk 50% Wonder Woman 47% The Flash 45% Green Lantern 45% Catwoman 35% Iron Man 30% Batman 20%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Went to my friends house to visit. Her son Micah could not quite get my name right, so he called me Dory. Her son Micah could not quite get my name right, so he called me Dory. Hmm, seems to fit.

A new study out claims left-handers tend to think quicker than right-handers because they have better connections between their two brain hemispheres. Thus they tend to do better at computer games and sports.

Well I don't know about the sports thing. Although I was always amazed at how well I could catch fly balls in softball given that I have horrible depth perception because of my crazy eyes. (They're crossed by the way).

However the computer game thing I can attest to. My whole family is left-handed, with writing at least. And if you ever watch my brother, my mom, and I play Jeopardy on the computer, it gets dangerous. ;)

Yet the most dangerous game in our house has to be spoons. One of my mom's kitchen tables met its doom during a game of spoons. Even with plastic spoons its dangerours, they tend to have better aerodynamics than metal spoons. Use your imagination.

I have been to two weddings recently, one was my second cousin's and the other my oldest friend's. Oddly enough they were both in Iowa. My oldest friend was married in Des Moines at the Botanical Garden which made for a lovely evening wedding. It was great to see her. I rarely get to. My second cousin was married in Bettendorf but the highlight of her wedding was that they had all their special dances choregraphed. It was so cute. Plus the bride and groom danced to the same song Tom and I did at our wedding. Good times.

Given that they were both evening weddings with receptions in dark halls, my wedding picture curse lives on. I didn't even get one of my second cousin and her groom but they did give us as our favor a CD with Christmas songs. Very unique.