Sunday, October 02, 2005

evening

I’m Pretty Sure Jesus Doesn’t Want To Run You Over

Oh sure, I could be wrong about that Jesus fellow, but I’m pretty sure he’s just like that guy at our local Barnes & Noble.  Wears tie-dye, drives a VW van and sells books for a living.  Not so much into the running people over or even being like Superman and stopping people from being run over...clearly

I need to break some news to the Weaver family on The Amazing Race. When your father/husband is killed by being hit by a race car, then your mother is run over by a buggy on a reality show...it’s time to stop talking to Jesus.

The poor Black family. They seemed so nice. I wanted to steal the little boys. The sisters SCREAM TOO MUCH, but I like ‘em. I also like the siblings - the three brothers and a sister. They bring the funny. The Paolo family - I wish they’d been eliminated. Any family who treats each other like that, shouldn’t be on my tv. The family with the little girl and little boy - they do well, but those kids creep me out. I expect to hear, “Go towards the light, Carol Anne.”

Slowly, but surely, we’re getting caught up on our TiVo stuff.  Fortunately, we only seem to have permanently added two new shows to our circle of tv friends.  How I Met Your Mother and Twins, with Sarah Gilbert, Melanie Griffith’s lips and Cousin Larry from Perfect Strangers.  Yeah, you might first have a prejudice against Twins, which I completely understand.  But, it’s silly funny.  The laugh track has got to go.  If I can’t tell when to laugh, your show isn’t funny.  Canned laughter is one of the most annoying inventions ever.  Still, the show, amusing.

We still have the Geena Davis as prez show to watch, so our magic number might be three.  We’ve eliminated Bones (Kathy Reichs books are better), My Name is Earl (okay, but not enough to add it to our busy tv schedule), and probably some other stuff I can’t remember.  Oh wait, we recorded two episodes of Reunion, but neither of us could be bothered to watch it and make a decision.  So, the decision was [delete].

Most importantly, other than Veronica Mars, hockey is back on Wednesday!  The Leafs.  Darcy Tucker, Tie Domi, Pat Quinn’s hair, Ron McLean, Don Cherry’s ugly suits, Jeremy Roenick, and from Lord of the Rings, Martin St. Louis.  Yay!  Just yay!  Say, is that dumb CBC strike over yet?  I want my Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

evening

Tie Domi- The Man Can Heal Democrat/Republican Relations

It’s amazing what a Canadian hockey player who hasn’t made his political beliefs public (that I know of), can do to heal relations between a Southern Republican and a West Coast Democrat.  Sure, we agree on things other than one hockey player, but c’mon, let’s be honest, that’s a basic building block of an internet friendship.  That, and this imperative, “Go wish her a happy birthday!” from a person who shares my name.  The internet is a weird place, where we sometimes find ourselves liking people we wouldn’t give a chance to in our offline lives.  In fact, our paths would never even cross.  Interestingly enough, the two (at least) Republicans whose blogs I read, I read a whole LOT of posts before I knew their political leanings.  I’m sure it probably wasn’t the same for them.  My beliefs are pretty obvious and not so delicately addressed.

Maybe this is just a public thank you to Tie.  Even though I’ve never spoken to you (and am not even really speaking to you now ) or even seen you in person (and never expect to), you’ve changed my life in completely measurable ways.  I’ve found a new sport to like.  I’ve made several friends because of you, and by extension have found The Daily Show and fantasy football...two of my favorite entertainment things in life.  Not to mention, a multitude of blogs to read, none of which have much to do with hockey, oddly enough.  Plus, Leigh-Ann can now get me to watch her country’s national pastime, without me complaining.  Now curling, that’s probably never gonna happen for us.  Well, it’ll maybe happen around the same time I develop a taste for (ick) beer.

An aside, I think I need a new blog category for sports.

Monday, September 26, 2005

early evening

This Week in Pictures

Debbie Reynolds at the Suncoast, from the back booth, with a camera phone.  Don’t worry, even if you went to my Flickr account and saw the large size, you still couldn’t tell it was her.

Frozen Fury 8 - Los Angeles Kings vs Colorado Avalanche (Avs won 2-1 in OT) This picture is actually quite good if you see the largest size of it.

This one even has a puck in the shot, which you can only see if you look at the big picture.

And of course, the SuperZoo Pet Expo, of which you’ve already seen some pictures.  Am I a party girl or what?

Saturday, September 24, 2005

lunch time

Our Busy Week Culminates With HOCKEY!

Our busy week started with seeing Debbie Reynolds at the Suncoast last Sunday.  Us, and a bunch of old folks.  Seriously, when I feel old, all I have to do is go to a show at the Suncoast and I’ve miraculously found the fountain of youth.  We were amongst the youngest in the room, by a good 20+ years.  While I really liked Debbie Reynolds when she was cussing on the Tracey Ullman Show, she was a little too proper in person.  Also, too much singing, not enough talking.  I’m sure the other people in the audience didn’t mind the singing so much, but I didn’t even know most of the songs.  What would’ve been more fun...going out for a few drinks with Debbie.

On Wednesday, we went to the SuperZoo Pet Expo at Mandalay Bay.  It was awesome.  It was like the most amazing pet store in the whole world...and then some.  It was also completely exhausting.  For more details, check out Leigh-Ann’s entry about it.  Because I’m, well, lazy.  But for you, a couple of pictures.  Check out Leigh-Ann’s blog in the future for the jellyfish and parrot pictures.  She took ‘em, she gets to post ‘em.  I swiped the hedgehog picture though.  Because, hey, HEDGEHOGS!

And a shot from the groovy pet product fashion show.  The camera was acting up, so the picture isn’t great.

Next up on our busy week list - tonight we have tickets to Frozen Fury 8, a pre-season hockey game between the Colorado Avalanche and the Los Angeles Kings.  Neither team is a particular favorite, but hey, the NHL is back!  Also, I have Jeremey Roenick (LA) and Patrice Brisebois (Col) on my fantasy hockey team, so there’s at least someone to root for on each team.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to take some pictures.

Monday, September 19, 2005

early evening

You’ll Laugh, You’ll Cry, You’ll Cheer & You’ll Thank My Brother

My brother recommended that I read Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger, and while I generally like the same books as my brother, I honestly didn’t expect to LOVE this book so much.  It’s the most amazing coming-of-age novel I’ve ever read.  Since Publisher’s Weekly can describe it better than I can, here goes: From Publishers Weekly—Mixing nostalgia, baseball and a boy’s mostly epistolary friendship with a 1940s baseball star, this inventive but sentimental novel consists entirely of letters, fictional newspaper clippings, telegrams, war dispatches, report cards and other documentary fragments. Growing up Jewish in a tough, Italian Brooklyn neighborhood, Joey Margolis is troubled by anti-Semitic neighbors, by Hitler’s rising power, by his parents’ divorce and by his absent cad of a father. Craving a surrogate dad, Joey strikes up a correspondence with Wisconsin-born New York Giants slugger Charlie Banks. The boy’s outrageous fibs, tough-guy posturing and desperate pleas grab the reluctant attention of the superstar, whose racy vernacular guy-talk (peppered with amusing misspellings and misusages) hints at his deepening affection for Joey. Charlie is a politically enlightened proletarian ballplayer with a heart of gold. His liberal views find an echo in Joey, whose best friend, Japanese-American Craig Nakamura, gets shipped off with his family to a wartime internment camp. In a plot that swerves from Joey’s Bar Mitzvah to a White House meeting with President Roosevelt to a tearjerking climax, Kluger keeps changing the pace and piles on a slew of period references with a heavy hand. Despite these flaws, this debut novel is at its best a poignant, golden evocation of one boy’s lost innocence.

The “heavy hand” that Publisher’s Weekly talks about didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book at all.  It’s right up there at the top of my favorite books of all time.  Just the right amount of baseball, history, politics, sarcasm and heartbreaking love stories.  Normally, I just tell you how much I loved a book and don’t tell you to read it, so I can talk about it with you.  But...read it.  If you don’t like it, you can yell at me or something.