We ARE The Ones That You Want!

Here are the winners of NBC's "Be A Supporting Character in the New Broadway Production of Grease!" reality show - Frenchy and Doody.

Toes and I were probably the hottest Frenchy and Doody to ever play Frenchy and Doody. Not only did we have amazing costumes (and in my case, some out of control wigs), but we had a vicious backstory and an incredible hand jive routine. Seriously, how come we only got third place? We really should have been at least second - we were a force to be reckoned with.

Ah, the good ol' days of community theatre.

Frenchy and Doody - A

You Are So Not The One That I Want

Have you heard about this? NBC is doing a reality show to find the next Danny Zuko and Sandy Dombrowski (yes, that's her last name in the play, I promise) for the revival of Grease kicking off on Broadway sometime next year. Gross! First of all, does Grease really need a Broadway revival? Isn't is doing just fine for itself in community theatres and high schools across the country? Second, a reality show, where the viewing public can just call in and vote for their favorite? No way. To me, that spells flop. Unless the viewing public can see acting, singing and dancing on TV, there's just no way they're going to pick the right person for the role. Third, and I say this with nothing but love in my heart for Grease, it's not a phenomenal show. It's super cheesy... and do we really need any more cheese on TV? No and no. Poor NBC. Their ratings must really be hurting if they're willing to try this.

You're The One That I Want! - D- (points awarded because any singing & dancing on TV is at least a little good)

A Scanner Darkly

All hail interpolated rotoscope animation! This movie is crazy. So, it was filmed for real, with real actors and sets and stuff, but then it was animated. It's really bizarre. I don't normally notice the way light and shadow play on people's faces, but in this style of animation, you can't help but notice. It kind of makes me want to throw up, but it's pretty sweet, nonetheless. The weird thing was, Winona Ryder never really looked like Winona Ryder. All the other actors looked just like they do in real life, but Nonesie looked a little off.
The movie itself was weird, and hard to follow for someone not well-versed in Philip K. Dick novels. I got it, I think, but Nate did have to explain it to me to be sure, and there were many times where I said, What was that? The plot and the animation obscured the acting, although Robert Downey Jr. was quite good.

I wouldn't recommend A Scanner Darkly to anyone but hard-core sci-fi or animation fans. If you're one of those, you should definitely see it; if you're not... eh?

A Scanner Darkly - C+

Merry Christmas, Mother F***ers!

Bruce Willis wants you all to have a very merry Christmas. He is, after all, the star of the best Christmas ever - Die Hard. Oh, you forgot it was a Christmas movie? Watch it again - start a new holiday tradition!

What's your favorite Christmas movie?

Christmas movies - A-

B-Dubs

Last night my new best friends and I went out for cocktails at our little neighborhood pub... OK, it's a chain restaurant. OK, it's Buffalo Wild Wings. I don't usually go to B-Dubs (even though I apparently go there enough to give it a nickname), but there was something very appealing about the sports-bar atmosphere last night. I had a big beer and some chili con queso, and it was all fine, but not delectable. But I wasn't expecting delectable, I was expecting fine! So I wasn't disappointed. My new best friends had some chicken fingers and boneless wings. For some reason, I am opposed to wings and fingers. They always sound good, but they never taste as good as they should.

Speaking of my new best friends, we were talking last night about code names. I've had a couple code names in my day: Sarah Adams, Andrea Simpson, and of course, naivehelga. What do you think the code name standard should be - close to your real name, or nothing like your real name? I'd like to give these new friends code names, but I can't really move forward on that without some outside opinions. Why don't you leave a comment with your code name, and how you arrived at it?

B-Dubs - B-
code names - incomplete

Casino Royale

UPDATE: I forgot to mention how ridiculously hot Daniel Craig is in this movie. I want to lick his biceps.

Even though Casino Royale was not at the top of my list of movies to see before the year's over, it was definitely on the list, so Nate and I went to see it last night. Incidentally, it was a 6:10 screening... isn't that a little early for a nighttime screening?
Anyway, Casino Royale was really good. One of my judging criteria for goodness of a movie is how far into it I look at my watch. I'm one of those people who likes to know what time it is, but if a movie captivates me, I don't look at my watch very often - and if I look at my watch within the first 45 minutes to an hour of a movie, that means it's not that good. The movie started at 6:10. I didn't look at my watch until 8:20. Over two hours of no watch-checking! When I did finally check the time, I thought, That can't be right - over two hours already? That's how entertaining and fast-paced Casino Royale is. It starts with some free-running, otherwise known as parcour, where the crazy French guy runs and jumps off of objects, and never stop running. It was pretty awesome. And there's a little car-chase action, and some sweet poker, and some beautiful clothes... basically, it was lots of fun, mostly frivolous, and I'd venture to say worth the admission price. But I'm not giving it an A. Like I said, lots of fun and highly entertaining, and nothing wrong with it, but not everything can get an A.

Casino Royals - B+

Timbaland

I like Timbaland. He drops some mad beats.

I have no idea what I just said.

But I do like Timbaland. I don't know a whole lot about his work as a producer, but Wikipedia says that he revolutionized hip-hop. That's cool. I know him as the guest artist in three fun videos that I really like: Promiscuous, My Love, and my personal Timbaland favorite, Wait A Minute (or whatever it's called) by Pussycat Dolls. He's super funny. He tells the lead Doll to shut up... why can't more people do that?

I think Timbaland and I could be pals. We'd go to funny movies together.

Timbaland - B+

California

I hate California.

OK, that's not true. I had some good times in CA when I was little girl on vacation, and I know some lovely people who live in California. What I hate is the time difference. I know it's a very Eastern time zone mentality, but seriously, when I am in the office, you should be in the office, too. I hate getting in at 9 AM and getting messages that came in at 8 PM the night before, because I sort of feel bad that I wasn't here to take the call, but I also get really annoyed - you couldn't have called me earlier? But what's worse is when I want to return the call first thing in the morning but have to wait for three hours until those people get in to the office and can get back to me.

My annoyance is dumb, but it's out there.

California time - D+

Wedding Pictures

1. Me and NinjaNate, looking acceptably cute.

2. The bride and groom.

3. Me, obviously talking about something dirty.

Wedding #46, and a Deep Question

This is not the cake from wedding #46. This is a fantasy fairy tale cake. But since it was a Christmasy wedding, I thought it was OK to use this picture.
The wedding was fine - simple, solid, nothing ridiculous to speak of except for the behavior and dress of some wedding guests (one of whom may have been a hooker). The food was good, the DJ wasn't, I came home with two cute little candy dishes as favors and picked up a few ideas for my own wedding.

Which leads me to my next question: do I talk about money too much? I've been taught that money is a taboo topic, that you're not supposed to ask how much things cost, or volunteer that information, either. But recently - oh, who am I kidding... not recently, more like forever - I've been talking about money to people outside my network of family and close friends. I say "I can't afford that, it costs X dollars" to casual acquaintances, I say "I know how much my boss makes, I could make a living in the non-profit sector" to people I hardly know, and I actually asked my buddy the other day "How much did your wedding cost?"

Is this rude? Itr's not like I'm asking people how much credit card debt they have. When I asked my buddy (incidentally, someone I've known over half my life) about her wedding, I told her that it's because I was at her wedding and could relate to the expense, so I hope it wasn't too bold of a queston. But my New Year's resolution is going to be to quit talking about money so much. I hope I can do it.

wedding #46 - B+
money talk - C-

Just Back...

from wedding #46. Will catch you up later.

Somerset Collection

UPDATE: I did NOT go to Somerset today. My stupid school friends told me that it was too far to drive and come back in time for my 3:30 class. I think they were wrong, but nonetheless, I went to Target in town. Some other time, Somerset. Some other time.


I have to buy a wedding present for wedding #46, and lucky me, they are registered at Crate and Barrel and I have to go to the Somerset Collection to buy their present! Yay for Somerset! I haven't been there in so long. This is the classiest mall in the world, and I am ready to do some serious browsing. I can't afford to buy, which is a little sad, but who cares? This is way better than my neighborhood mall!

Somerset Collection - B+

The Electric Eye, and Why I Hate It

Here's something else I don't love: automatic flushing toilets. I suppose, on some level, that they're really wonderful - you don't have to worry about the germs associated with touching the flushing mechanism. But really, these things are not awesome. First of all, sometimes they flush on their own mid-use, which is unpleasant. And sometimes, they don't flush at all, which is worse than when they flush too soon. And I also don't like that these toities can sense when I get off the pot. That just creeps me out.
Even though my friend Charlie doesn't like cartoons, I included this one because it sums up my feelings about automatic flushing toilets. Also, this cartoon was actually on a website that sells the automatic flushing components. Really, does this make anyone want to buy an automatic flusher?



automatic flushing toilets - D

O Tannenbaum

I haven't had a Christmas tree of my own in five years, so I was pretty adamant that I would have a tree this year. Last week, on a particularly bad day, I said to myself, "Self, it's time to get the tree." Michael's had just what I was looking for: 4' tall and cheap (no, not how I also like my men). I'm very pleased with how cute it looks.

Here are pictures of some of my favorite ornaments - the pink poodle, the Frog Prince, Frankenstein, a baby giraffe, and a lemon wedge. Wheee!





























































my little Christmas tree - A+

Bath and Body Works

During this most wonderful time of the year, when people are generous and thoughtful and generally try to buy good gifts for their friends and loved ones, it behooves me to tell you that I am not into lotion. I have very sensitive skin, and can't use products with any dye or perfume. I really can't use them on my legs, back, and torso, or I'll break out in a rash, so fancy soaps, scrubs, and lotions are pretty much out for me. However, in this most wonderful time of the year, the air is dry, and sometimes I have to use the fancy lotions on my hands (somehow, thankfully, my hands and arms are immune to the rash reaction).

Just a little bit ago, I needed some hand lotion, so I used a little Bath and Body Works Gardenia Lily body cream we have in our office (not sure why, but it's there). Here's my response: ew. EW. The consistency is nice and thick - I hate a puny lotion - but the smell is not delicious. It certainly doesn't smell like gardenias OR lilies.

I think I need to invest in some good lotion for my office - and then hide it.

B&B Gardenia Lily body cream - C- (points awarded for thickness, points off for smell)

ANTM Season Finale!

Tonight's the season finale of America's Next Top Model - who's going to win? I hope it's Eugena. I am so not into Melrose, and CariDee is high-maintenance. But maybe that's a good thing.

Unfortunately, I'm supposed to be leaving for a conference in about five minutes, so I'm taping ANTM, and will find out what happened when I get home tomorrow.

America's Next Top Model - B+

What the...?

I didn't know I changed my template! How did that happen? Yes, I was tired of the brown, and wanted to change, but I don't really know how I managed to do this. I was trying to use a blog template for a webpage project for one of my English classes, and I guess I inadvertently copied this look into my template.

I'll get those link right back up - Bethro, you need to send me yours, 'cause it's some crazy Xanga thing.

new template - B?

Ow! Damn! Shit!

Yesterday Nate made a delicious rotini/sausage/sauce concoction, and all it was missing was a little grated cheese on the top. Lucky for us, we have a nice block of Parmesan ready to add to the top of our piping hot pasta.

But as I was grating the cheese...

I grated my thumb.

And it hurts so bad. It's kind of like I gave myself a skin graft, only I just took skin off and didn't put any on. Damn you, Microplane grater! Damn you!

cheese, with a little skin mixed in - F

Jesus Wants You To Do Your Homework

Why do businesses close early on Sundays? It's dumb. I'm OK with the opening-late part of Sunday. Give people some time to worship, that's cool. Or, if you're going to close early, close really early, like 5 PM, like the mall. But who decided it was acceptable to close down an hour early on Sunday? We do that where I work, and it confuses people. Earlier this evening, I needed to get ink for my printer and some paper, so I went to Best Buy. It was 8:05. They were closed. Closed at 8 PM! Every other day of the week, Best Buy is open until 9 or 10. I was annoyed. I was still able to run in, buy my ink and paper, and dash out, probably because I told my "I need ink" sob story to the lady at the front door. Thanks, Best Buy lady.

Why do places do this? I really don't understand. It can't really have anything to do with church - church is long over by 8 PM. It seems like a good idea, to give people some time at home with their families, or catch up on homework, but when you need to buy something that will make you able to do your homework, closing early is no good.

closing early on Sunday - C-

Last Sunday

Remember when I said I was super busy? Yeah. Still super busy. It shouldn't have taken me this long to wrote about five days. Thanks for hanging in there.
So, last Sunday, I was at the airport by 4:30 AM. Not my favorite time of day. I sat at the airport waiting to buy breakfast, and when I finally got my breakfast sandwich, it was nasty. Then, on the last leg of my journey, I had to sit right next to the engine. Holy shit, it was so loud, I almost cried. There should be mandatory free earplugs on all seats in that close a proximity to the engine. I was pretty miserable - tired, headachy, sick to my stomach from the tiredness and the noise. By the way, I pretty much hate flying.

everything that happened before 2 PM - D-

I got home, took a delightful nap, and when I woke up, showed Nate all the pictures from Dad and Barbara's wedding. Then he said, Wanna see all the goodies I brought back for you? In the first grocery bag were clothes from various resale shops, courtesy of Nate's mom. In the second box was...
this. This fabulous Coach purse. Wrapped up all pretty in a big brown box and hot pink bow.
Now, I don't know if you know this, but earlier this year, when I told Nate that when we decided to get engaged we would use my grandmother's ring and he had no need to buy me a ring, I told him he should get me an engagement Coach purse. Because I am a purse whore. I desperately wanted a fancy-dancy Coach purse. But when I saw this bag, my first thought was, Nate's so sweet, he knows how much I want a Coach purse and he just bought one for me because he's cool like that. But then it hit me. I asked him "Does this mean we're engaged?"

He said, "Yeah!"

And so, that's the story of how Nate and Amanda got engaged. No candlelight, no roses, just the N&A way of doing things. Good times.

everything that happened after 2 PM - A+

ps. here's a kind of crappy picture of the engagement ring with the engagement purse as a backdrop... I'm so chic