For those who love The Muppets’ Christmas:

And for those who liked the above clip:

He’s even holding my Sharpie (a good fangirl always has a Sharpie on her) and he signed my copy of his book. I have a lot more pictures that I’ll post after work, including some humorous ones with Herky. He was quite bemused by the presence of our mascot on a bike.

• More live Bonerama recordings. Bonus happy points for ‘Lost My House’, ‘Hard Times’, and ‘Folsom Prison Blues’
• Best Game Ever: Fun and heart-warming.
• Iowa is thisclose to having a smoking ban! Woo! [Though I honestly wonder what will become of The Deadwood.]
• Spending time online with Lisa looking at hotel rooms for Mardi Gras 2009…
• Finally, this clip from SNL last week continues to crack me up:
  

LOST in 8:15

Jack is a doctor. He has a compulsive urge to fix things.
On the first night there is a monster in the jungle.
There’s other weird stuff too. Like polar bears.

Heh.

Saturday evening was really nice as I did nothing but sit in my clean apartment with my cat and watch the entire latest season of Entourage. [Thanks, Jerry!] I also reset my clocks and got a nice night of sleep.

On Sunday I went to Des Moines to have a Girls’ Day out with Kelly and Kristy. Julie didn’t manage to make it, but we’ll catch up sometime over the holidays. Kelly, Kristy, and I started out at the Cheesecake Factory where we had brunch. I had some of the best French toast. (One thing I just can’t ever get right myself.) It was just so perfectly crispy, made on thicker Texas Toast style bread. I don’t know how they prepared it, but it didn’t need any butter, just a dash of syrup. mmmMMMmmm French toasty! After our meal, we headed out into Jordan Creek to attempt to accomplish some shopping. We shopped for over four hours without a break. Just kept going. In the end, I got a pair of pants from Ann Taylor Loft, a Columbia sweater from Scheels, a pair of nice black leather shoes from Clarks, a new eye shadow and some brush cleaner from Sephora, and a Cup-A-Cake container. I think I was the most thrilled with my $4 purchase of the Cup-A-Cake container. I’ve wanted one for a long time. I have a weakness for all things cupcake related. Kelly also had some shopping successes, getting jeans, shoes, and a sweater. Kristy got a shirt, but she works near Jordan Creek and was more just along for the social time. (We must talk all things TV and movies!)

The most amusing part of the day came when we were in Scheels. Kelly saw this sweater she wanted that was on a mannequin in the women’s casual department in the middle of the store. We looked all over the section to find that sweater, but it didn’t seem to be anywhere. They checked the size on the mannequin and it was what she needed. So Kristy and Kelly asked a store employee if they could take the sweater off for her. They told us to go ahead and do it ourselves! So here we are in the middle of the giant Scheels store, right in front of a mannequin display trying to figure out how to get a sweater off of it. The three of us were just puzzled for a bit, then we realized we could raise the arms. Kelly and I are wresting with the arms while Kristy tries to hold down the other shirt that was layered under the sweater. I managed to pop the arm I’m yanking on out of the socket like a broken Ken doll or something. Then in the middle of our madness, this rather good-looking blonde guy with a foreign accent (sounded German or Nordic to me) pops up next to us and asks us if he can be next (in the sweater-removal line)! We were all very “whuh?!” And then we couldn’t stop laughing. So funny. Eventually the sweater was removed and determined to be the right fit, so Kelly got it. Thank goodness!

I got home on Sunday night in time to catch the premiere of The Amazing Race. PHIL! How I’d missed him. And the racing. Airports! Bunching! Driving! Wheee! After they flew out of LA, they went to Shannon, Ireland. From there they went to the Aran Islands, one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been. I completely freaked out, had to pause my TiVo, dig out my Ireland map from my trip in 1998 and follow along. I was yelling at the TV telling them which roads to take. Loved it! Of all reality tv shows, TAR is by far my favorite and the one I’d love so so much to be on.

Monday came all too soon. Work is busy as usual. People are freaking out about things that I am just done caring about. Yesterday after work, I had grand intentions of getting some things done, but I don’t know what it is about Monday evenings for me. I can just never do anything Mondays after work. I’m usually productive at work on Mondays, just not afterwards. I don’t get my “Mondays” until after 5pm for some reason.

Today at work, I got approved for training. I’m going to a class on MySQL for four days in January. In Columbus, Ohio. I can only imagine how lovely the weather will be, but I don’t really care as long as I get to go for the training. But I did realize this afternoon that Iowa plays basketball at Ohio State on while I’m in town. I’m going to definitely have to get a ticket for that game.

That’s about all that is rattling around in my head. Oh one more thing, brrrr, its cold. 35 degrees this afternoon. But I guess it is November, what does one expect?

Now its 8:22PM and I need to be watching House.

First, I read that Joss Whedon (he of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly/Serenity fame) is bringing his Jossy goodness back to television sometime this spring (hopefully) with a new show called, Dollhouse, starring Elisha Dushku (formerly ‘Faith’ from Buffy & Angel).
My only reservation: its going to be on FOX.

Secondly, I read that the X-Files 2 movie now has a release date of July 25, 2008! This summer!
My only reservation: the studio made this comment about the plotline:

the pic is a stand-alone story and supernatural thriller that takes the complicated relationship between Mulder and Scully in new directions.

Please skip all the requited/unrequited love/weird child storyline. Please. Go back in time if you have to. (And while you’re back there, bring the Lone Gunmen back with you.)

[updated to link to a copy of the video because its no longer available on YouTube. Shut up, FOX]

Someone put a lot of work into that. It made me chuckle. And now I must work. Bleh.

Link via Pop Candy

I set up my scanner the other night to scan pictures for Mac’s birthday and now I can’t stop scanning! Be forewarned: if you’ve ever been in an embarrassing or amusing photo of mine that wasn’t previously digital, its only a matter of time before you’re all over Flickr!

Had to share this geeky gem that I discovered in a box at my mom’s house a few weeks back. Of course it was a framed 8×10.

This is me with Terry Farrell, of Lt. Jadzia Dax fame from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The actress is also originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. [I loved that character's name, it was my handle on various bulletin boards for several years in college.] This was at my first Star Trek convention. My mom made my uniform top. It was (and still is) a spectacular piece of sewing. I got a pattern that was a copy of the actual patterns for the uniforms on the show. I remember how unamused my mom was when saw all the pieces and vague directions. She put in countless hours on it and it was really rather perfect. So much better than all the other crappy “I ordered this from some costume shop” crap the rest of the people were wearing. I wish that still fit.
I don’t remember where this convention was other than it being in Iowa sometime in 1994 or 1993.

Work is still all-consuming. I don’t mind it that much really because I’m learning new things and finally getting to do things I’ve wanted to do for years. It just sucks that I’ve got to cram what looks like about a year’s worth of work into about two months. My to-do list, reduced to only the really essential things, is still more than a page of notebook paper long. I have another list entitled Things for My Clone To Do hanging on my wall where I write down all the tasks that seem like pipe-dreams at the moment. The scary thing is that a lot of those tasks don’t look all that frivolous and really should be gotten to soon.

Pretty much all I do these days is come to work, then go home and watch TV because I don’t think about anything outside the TV show when I watch whatever it is. I haven’t even been reading much in the last few weeks because every time I sit down to read my mind wanders away into SELECT and if...else statements. Its sad. I actually think about code in the shower and while I’m driving. I’ve really crossed a geek line somewhere along the road. I was doing so good with my reading too, but I’ve had two books I’ve been working on for several weeks now.

I have seen a couple of movies in the theater as of late. Saw The Bourne Ultimatum twice. Loved it. Though if hand-held camera work bothers you at all, I’d steer clear. Apparently some people get nauseous. But it didn’t bother me. I think I’m too caught up in trying to figure out how they film the crazy action sequences without killing everyone involved. Possibly my favorite movie of the summer, though this summer did actually didn’t disappoint. I saw The Invasion with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig last weekend. It got bad reviews and didn’t do well at the box-office, but I just saw it to see Daniel Craig. He’s my current movie boyfriend. The movie was fine. It wasn’t amazing, but it definitely doesn’t suck. I was creeped out sufficiently for my matinée movie price.

As for TV, the summer shows I’ve been following are Top Chef, The 4400, Eureka, and Damages. I really really love Top Chef! (Go CJ!) How have I not been watching this show the last two years? Its so engaging to watch all the chefs battle it out, and they’re all pretty civil and professional, which is nice. Just enough drama thrown into make it a Bravo show. The 4400 and Eureka both fill my need for sci-fi and smart geekiness. Neither are top-level shows, but they’re lovely summer diversions. We need breaks from the intensity of Lost and 24 sometimes. Damages is providing more than enough intensity to make up for the other shows. Its kind of like Law & Order meets Alias. Glenn Close is deliciously sinister. Not sure how much of a future it will have beyond this summer season, but I’m engaged enough to finish this first season. I’ve also started watching No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain: travel, food, and sarcasm? Where has this show been all my life?

Oh oh oh! How could I forget Feasting on Asphalt with Alton Brown?! This is probably the summer show I love the most. I was recounting parts of episodes to my mom last weekend. Alton (of ‘Good Eats’ and Food Network fame) travels with his crew on motorcycles looking for classic American road food, like diners, food stands, fish fries, etc. Last year they went east to west kind of along Route 66. This time out they’re going up the Mississippi river, starting, of course, in New Orleans.

[and I completely lost my train of thought as our office's very own Milton is currently singing loudly in his cube: Doo Doo DOOOO! Doo Doo DOOOOO! He's so very strange. ]

So yeah. TV. Lots of TV. I’ve also gotten completely sucked into House this summer. I’ll have watched the whole series (seasons 1-3) by next week. I love TV on DVD.

That’s better. My head doesn’t hurt nearly as much. Apparently it was just bursting with some random ramblings that needed to get out. I need to get home and do some basic cleaning in my apartment. Things are being neglected. And I’ve finally given up hope that my cat might actually vacuum something while I was gone. Lazy cat.

Right after work on Friday, I went to see The Simpsons Movie. The theater was pretty full and the crowd was entertaining. Though one of the biggest laughs for me came before the movie even started. Sitting behind me was a group of seemingly college-type guys who were trying to be amusing to each other. One of the trailers before the movie was for Bee Movie, the Jerry Seinfeld animated movie. At the end of the trailer, the voice over announces that the female lead voice in the movie is done by Renée Zellweger, who is known to have certain amount of squintyness or sourpuss about her face in real life, but the character doesn’t resemble her. One of the guys then says,

Thank god we won’t have to look at her.

For some reason that struck both me and the woman sitting to my right as absolutely hysterical and we both just busted out laughing and couldn’t stop for awhile. Between my guffaws I heard the guy say kind of embarrassed, “oh I didn’t think I said it that loud.” As for the movie, I thought it delivered for all the Simpsons fans. It was an actual movie and not just four episodes smashed together that stayed true to the show and the characters. I thought the opening was really clever and enjoyed the ‘to be continued’ part. SPOILER: Is Dr. Nick really dead forever now? There were so many good lines, but having 90 minutes to keep trying to remember something that was funny while hearing dozens of other funny lines made it so hard for me to come out with lines to quote. I did find this one on the IMDB that I loved, though a lot of the funny was in the delivery: “You ever try going mad without power? No one listens to you.”

After I got home from the early movie (thank you 4:40pm matinée), I went nuts cleaning my apartment. I did three loads of laundry, dusted, vacuumed, cleaned my bathroom, scrubbed the kitchen, and I even scrubbed my kitchen floors. I also finished watching season one of Entourage on DVD, which is a fun guilty pleasure. TracyA described it to me as ‘Sex and the City for guys’ and she was right. Instead of four girlfriends in NYC, its four buddies in LA and I think the way its all shot on location in LA really makes it interesting. After all the cleaning and all the watching, it was nearly 2am and I was still wide awake. Since I knew I didn’t have anything in particular to get up for on Saturday, I took an Ambien and finally knocked out around 2:30am.

Saturday I rolled out of bed around 10am, it was lovely. I went out and ran a few errands, including recycling, which I love to do. I decided since this was the big moving weekend in town, one that I wouldn’t have to particpate in until next year, it was time I finished moving into my place by hanging the rest of my posters. I started hanging a few posters in my office and then I got distracted and decided to watch a movie, so I tossed in the Infamous DVD that I had gotten from the library. It was yet another film based on Truman Capote and his writing of In Cold Blood. I thought it was a good character study with many great actors and actresses in supporting roles. Special bonus points because Daniel Craig played the murderer Perry Smith. He even went brunette for the role, which I’m glad he didn’t do for Bond because his natural blond suits him much better.

I’d been hungry for something to snack on, so I made a batch of puppy chow/muddy buddies for snacking. I’m still working on my goal of reading 50 books this year and on Saturday I finished reading #32 The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King. It was good and creepy, but not too much for my tastes. I did a little more cleaning and then I watched an episode of MST3K which was a really funny one that I hadn’t seen before.

Mac woke me up a bit earlier than I wanted to rise this morning, so I begrudingly got up and fed her and myself, then laid on the couch and watched the new FX show ‘Damages’ with Glenn Close. Its very ‘Alias meets John Grisham’ and I’m interested enough to watch a few more episodes and see where it goes. This morning was Antalya’s dedication at Jerry & Sara’s church. Here are a few photos:

After church and a tasty lunch at the church, I ran into Walgreens to buy some conditioner. I ran into my mom’s old boss who is now a pastor in Iowa City and bought my conditioner. I paid cash, which I rarely do, and on the way out, I threw away my receipt at the garbage can outside the store. I then got in my car and went to Office Depot and bought some magnets. Riveting stuff. I get back to my apartment and go to get out of my car and I cannot find my conditioner. I tear the basically clean cart apart thinking I’ve lost my mind. This was a big bottle of conditioner (it was on sale), where could it be? Then I thought, “someone stole my conditioner when I was in Office Depot!” But that made no sense to me since why would they only take the conditioner? Then I thought back to when I left Walgreens and thought maybe I had actually left it on the garbage can outside the store. But would it still be there? I headed back and it wasn’t outside. I went in and, of course, the girl who had checked me out wasn’t working the registers anymore. There were two guys working now. I went to the one who was the assistant manager and started with “I was here just a bit ago and has anyone brought in a bottle of conditioner that might have been left outside?” This guy is looking at me like I’m nuts. But then, from the other register, that guy says, “is this what you’re looking for?” and hands me my bag and my conditioner! Woo! Conditioner is very important to my life.

The rest of today I spent hanging posters, they’re pretty much all up now. Though I always have things that need to be framed and matted. I hadn’t done any matting in awhile, but I did this this afternoon:

[What? You didn't think I could go an entire post and not mention Bonerama in some way, did you?]

After all the hanging, I watched 3 Days of the Condor with Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway. It was decent, but spies have come a long way in the last 32 years. I think I could’ve taken him out three or four times along the way.

Now I’m watching tonight’s episode of ‘The 4400‘ and then I’m heading to bed having enjoyed a good weekend. I have a lot to do at work tomorrow, but I’m glad I didn’t go in this weekend. I needed some non-work time. Have a good week!