Happy Flag Day, Y'all!

Best. Commercial. EVAR.



Heh.

If I had money to burn...

I would totally buy this:



A miniature floating Tardis!!!ZOMG!!!1!

It's a completely useless geekery gadget and I love it.

LOVE. IT.

[sigh]

I indulged myself in a late evening of watching Colin Firth in a wet shirt Pride & Prejudice last night after the kids went to bed.

Caturday Olympics

Dad & Dude

Dad is watching the Olympics.

Dude is not.

Dude is, however, occupying his favorite spot in the house, next to his favorite person in the house.

I spent most of the day today at school at an academic competitive meet (UIL, for those of you from Texas who know what that is), so I wasn't around to do my usual Saturday blogging. Once I got home, I had to start cooking for tomorrow's church pot-luck lunch. I made a pasta salad with basil chiffonade, grape tomatoes, baby portabella mushrooms, Caesar dressing, avocadoes and Romano cheese. I also put a pork butt into the crockpot with Dijon mustard and Sauvignon Blanc wine and put it on Low to simmer all night long (I'll pull it apart in the morning before church so it'll be "pulled pork" but not barbecue-flavored). Finally, I fired up the breadmaker and tossed in some flour, peanut butter, honey and pistachio nuts. Should be tasty. Smells heavenly as it's baking.

Burrrrrn

Can I just say that Gabrielle Anwar's character Fiona in Burn Notice just might be my personal hero? I love love love love love her. What a terrific TV show, too. If you haven't caught this cheeky spy thriller on the USA network, you're missing out. The whole family loves it.

A chuckle for your day

I really am a bit ashamed of it

My fondness for HBO's True Blood series. Some of those characters are as naughty as they can possibly be, really. If you're my mom or grandmother or auntie, please do NOT watch this show, ok? Promise me? And even if you're not related to me, but you have children under the age of twenty-one living in your house -- forbid them from watching this. I mean it. Don't allow them anywhere near it. It's shocking and it crosses a LOT of lines I'm just not accustomed to seeing be crossed on a television screen. It's unwholesome.

And more than a little addictive and funny. The acting is simply superb. It really is.

I think my favorite characters just may be Tara and Lafayette, two black characters in the Louisiana town of Bon Temps. In this exchange, they are protecting the main character, Sookie, from all the townspeople who are gathering with food after Sookie's grandmother died. Remember, this is on HBO, so the language is pretty rough:
----------------------

Lafayette Reynolds: [looking at all of the food brought by the town] What the f*** is it with white people and jello? I don't understand.
Tara Thornton: [annoyed] What the h*ll we gonna do with all this?
Lafayette Reynolds: Toss it. Sookie don't need no bad juju cooking.
Tara Thornton: Bad juju?
Lafayette Reynolds: Way to a man's heart is through his stomach. That sh*t true as gold. You put some love in your food and folk can taste it. [picks up the cornbread] Smell this. You can smell the fear and nastiness comin' off that cornbread.
Tara Thornton: [takes a bite] Tastes just fine to me.
Lafayette Reynolds: See b*tch. You gonna wish you ain't did that. Watch.

-----------------------

I think I've HAD food at church socials that fit that description... fear and nastiness (not recently, mind you)... heh... and the jello thing? I've wondered that, too, particularly after having lived in Des Moines, which is reported to be the city in the United States which can boast the highest per capita consumption of Jello.

Anyway, these two characters -- while they are riddled with flaws -- are strangely likeable and are amazingly acted (Nelsan Ellis and Rutina Wesley).

Engage.

The Great Geek Debates: Kirk vs. Picard

Advantage: Picard
I would have to agree with this one, but that's probably only because I have had a crush on Patrick Stewart for probably twenty years now.

Little Twin Stars

Blackeyed Susans, or Rudbeckia hirta for those into the Latin. I like Latin, personally... somehow the Latin name for something makes it sound more important. That, and I grew up watching Roadrunner cartoons every Saturday morning. Carnivorous vulgaris, anyone? How about Roadrunnerus digestus? hehe

Potato-free

That's me. Potato-free AND corn-free. Or more specifically, potato STARCH free and corn STARCH free.

Looks like starch just might be the culprit behind my misery. I had improved dramatically after eschewing potatoes, and last night I made myself some pistachio pudding. I was up half the night, in abject misery. I went to the garbage can, dug out the pudding mix box, and the second ingredient after sugar was "Modified food starch."

Which I'm betting is taken from corn and/or potatoes mostly.

The research I did said that wheat and rice usually didn't have the same negative impact that potatoes and corn did, and so far that seems to be accurate for me.

So it's not a gluten issue and I don't need to go gluten-free... I just need to stay away from the really potatoey and corny starches.

Which is kind-of a bummer because that stuff is in EVERYTHING.

I can have fresh veggies and meats and stuff like that. I can have cheese -- but not processed cheese food fakey-stuff because a lot of that stuff is thickened and stabilized with starch. Mac & cheese? FULL of starchy stabilizers. It's not the pasta that kills me, it's the cheese sauce. The good part. [sigh]

I love potatoes. I think I'll miss them most. But I won't miss the pain and agony and misery. To avoid that, I'll never knowingly allow another granule of potato to cross my lips.

I like rice. I'll stick with rice when I need that sort of thing. I don't mind pasta, although it usually isn't my favorite thing.

SUSHI! I can have all the sushi I want. Yay!!

Sorry about the stream-of-consciousness... it's really late and I just stayed up watching the first two episodes of HBO's True Blood series that Rick rented for me. Dang... don't let your kids NEAR that show, but it's cool.

Good-night. Exciting stuff is on schedule for tomorrow... I'll post about it when it's done. Wheee!!

I can't wait for this fall!!

Kimbell director on "cloud nine" over Michelangelo painting

FORT WORTH - Michelangelo is famous for painting the ornate, delicate ceilings of the Sistine Chapel in Italy. There are only four stand-alone paintings by Michelangelo in the entire world; one of them has just landed at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

In international art circles, it’s a major coup.

Michelangelo paintings and sculptures just aren't sold. The last one may have changed hands back in the 18th century. That was the case until the Kimbell bought the "Torment of Saint Anthony" from an art dealer last week.

"You could not find a rarer object than a painting by Michelangelo," said Dr. Eric McCauley Lee, the artistic director for the Kimbell Art Museum. "It has a powerful aura."

It was painted in 1487 by Michelangelo at the age of 12 or 13.

"I would probably say it started his career," Dr. Lee said.

You BET I'm going to go see this one when it's put on display this fall. It's going to go visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC first for its big debut (dang, sure do wish I could go see it there).

Also on the schedule for fall is the next installment of Fringe. I watched the season finale last night and was hugely enthused to see Leonard Nimoy as William Bell. Also, the hints that Peter might actually have been brought over from an alternate reality... and the ultra-kewl shot at the very end implying that William Bell's office was in the World Trade Center towers in the alternate reality where they had not been destroyed... nicely done, Abrams.

But you're going to make me CRAZY waiting. That's probably the point.

I. Hate. American. Idol.

Okay, I don't really keep up with American Idol a whole lot... just doesn't light my fire, I guess. But their show comes on right before Fringe on Tuesday nights, and lately they have been pre-empting the first five minutes or so.

Which then means that either the DVR cuts Fringe off five minutes from the end -- something you DO NOT DO to Fringe because that's when you find out what the HECK has been going on during the episode -- or the nine o'clock news comes on and just totally steps on the last five minutes. Either way, you get the raw end of the deal if you divver the show.

Thank God for Hulu, but it makes me mad that I even have to resort to it.

Growl.

Oh, sheesh... like I didn't see this one coming...

My son has become a serious Trekkie. He and his dad watch an episode of Enterprise every morning before we leave for school, and any time Next Gen is on, we have to watch it. I shouldn't be surprised, really, considering the stock he comes from. Now he's wondering when and where the nearest Trek convention's going to be, because he wants to attend it. If I were a really good mom, I'd make him a little Ferengi costume or something.

Eight more days...

'Til Fringe comes back.



[dusting off my conspiracy theories]


Have I mentioned that I love Fringe?

Hacking. Again.

I am so tired of coughing.


Wikipedia: The cough reflex consists of three phases: an inhalation, a forced exhalation against a closed glottis (the complex of the vocal folds), and a violent release of air from the lungs following opening of the glottis, usually accompanied by a distinctive sound.

That distinctive sound? For me, it's this wheezing bark that sounds like tuberculosis.

And nowadays it also triggers a monster headache every single time I do it.

It also means that it's going to be a while before I finally get to see my mom and dad again, since they're both immuno-compromised individuals.

Do you KNOW how tired I am of this winter? I think I've been sick the entire time.

Grrr.

3AM UPDATE: I knew there was a good reason I was hoarding the Vicodin from my surgery and my weird non-root-canal incident... it totally made me quit coughing and get some sleep. Of course, I also woke up the moment it wore off, but I can take another one and go back to sleep here in a minute when it kicks in. If you're concerned, I don't seem to have a problem becoming addicted to it. In fact, I rarely take all of it when it's prescribed to me (obviously, or I wouldn't be hoarding it). And it comes in handy occasionally when I need it, like tonight.

I'm glad I got up, actually. I had forgotten to make a new pitcher of green tea last night because I was pretty absorbed in watching Fringe. I heart Fringe.

Always look on the bright side of life [whistle]

Python tune top 'alternative' funeral song

A British survey has named the Monty Python tune Always Look on the Bright Side of Life as the country's top alternative funeral song.

The survey of 764 people, commissioned by the Children's Society, found the song from Monty Python's Life of Brian was the top choice among respondents, with one fifth of those polled saying they would like the ditty played at their funerals, The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.

Personally, I want the theme song to "Red Dwarf" played at MY memorial service:

It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere,
I'm all alone, more or less,
Let me fly, far away from here,
Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun.


I want to lie shipwrecked and comatose,
Drinking fresh mango juice,
Goldfish shoals nibbling at my toes,
Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun
Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun.

And when my shell gets cremated, I want it to be divided in two equal parts. The first part is to be transported to Fiji and scattered on a beach there somewhere by my best friend, who will be required to then spend an inordinate amount of time vacationing there.

The other part of my ashes is to be used during the next ice storm to "grit the path." Any true Red Dwarf fan will know exactly what that means.

Maybe my new favorite TV show

I still love-love-love The Closer, and I'm really looking forward to the season premiere THIS MONDAY AT 8PM CENTRAL... but I will admit to a new drama crush (having already confessed my comedy crush a while back)...


Fringe.

I've been catching up on episodes over at Hulu and I think I've found the program which will fill the empty niche in my soul that The X-Files used to occupy.

I.
Love.
This.
Show.

HEY YOU GUUUUUUYYYYYYYS!!!!

PBS is going to start showing an updated Electric Company program!!!

The Sesame Workshop, the company behind PBS’ “Sesame Street,” is bringing back its 1970s staple “The Electric Company.” The series, targeted for children ages 6-9, promotes literacy and aims to interest viewers in the joy of reading.

...

“Our goal with ‘The Electric Company’ is to reach the kids who are struggling, and who might think that reading isn’t cool or isn’t useful,” said Scott Cameron, director of education and research for Sesame Workshop. “We hope to do that by creating compelling and high-quality television, Web and outreach materials.”

COOL! I absolutely ADORED that show... especially Rita Moreno and Morgan Freeman. I was a good reader already, but I was the perfect age when that show was on, and it reinforced everything I had learned from my mom and from school.

I hear tell that DVDs of the original series are available. I'm going to have to invest in THAT. I think Alice would really benefit from watching that show. Martha would, too, but she wouldn't watch it.

Dalek the halls!

This household is obviously harboring a Doctor Who fan...


h/t BlogDog, who sent this delightful X(terminate!)mas tree photo to me.

She's dead, Jim

Majel Barrett Roddenberry dies

Nurse Chapel in the Star Trek: Original Series, Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Majel Barrett Roddenberry was an incredibly memorable character on her husband's show. I was grieved today to hear of her passing.

I actually MET her once, back in 1992... yes, I actually went to a Trek Convention once. That was in my Pre-Parenthood years, of course, although if another big Trek convention were to be held nearby, I'd probably still go. At any rate, she and Marina Sirtis (who portrayed her daughter Deanna Troi on ST:TNG) were there signing autographs. They were both lovely and gracious ladies with just as much elegance in person as on the show.

I still love Star Trek in all its iterations. Perhaps it's because I was born in 1966, the year that it first emerged onto the scene, and perhaps because I grew up watching the re-runs with my dad.

Rest in peace, Majel. Make it so.