Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Awesome article

in April's Outside magazine: a first-person account by Aron Ralston of his quest to climb all 59 of the 14,000+ ft. peaks in Colorado. Alone. In winter.

FYI, Ralston is the guy who cut off his own hand to free himself from an 800-pound boulder in 2002.

Monday, March 27, 2006

Pam and Shelby are probably the only people who know this guy...

But nevertheless happy birthday to the scrumtrellescent Nathan Fillion, Mal of Serenity/Firefly fame.

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Funny how you won't do for yourself what you will do for other people



I just ran my first 5K!! Many thanks to Erin D. for the invitation to participate (and for the ride home after the race). E is a cham-peen runner so she dusted me early in the process but Dave and D were also there and Dave made for a great running buddy. He dummed down to my sloooooow pace, chatted with me, and also provided someone I was ashamed to stop in front of, so I ran the whole thing, finishing with a personal best time.

I was telling Erin on the walk to the car: so many times I've been driving on a weekend morning and see people with race numbers who have obviously just finished some sponsored walk/run, and how great and glowing they look, and how blobby it always makes me feel. But today? TODAY I was one of the glowees!!

Tomorrow I'm sure to be sore and/or complaining but for now, feelin' fit feelin' fine. Woo!!

Belated...

CONGRATULATIONS to Erin D. and Brian who got engaged last weekend in Florida. Great couple, great story, great times ahead.

So that's three couples in 3 months. Is there something in the water???

Friday, March 24, 2006

Pet peeve

When people on TV shows never actually *eat* the food in front of them. They're supposed to be hungry/terribly interested in the meal/drowning sorrows in dessert, whatever and yet routinely the actors just fork up the meagerest little crumblet and gum it between pinched lips.

Really. Of all the people who NEED TO EAT. Emaciated entertainment types...shovel it in already!

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Harrisonburg...not just for Mennonites anymore

From IMDB:

Actor Richard Dreyfuss married Russian-born Svetlana Erokhin in Harrisonburg, Virginia, on Thursday - while in town for a speaking engagement at a university. The Mr. Holland's Opus star, who spoke at James Madison University, appeared unannounced at the Rockingham County Courthouse, took out a marriage license and wed in the magistrate's office.

That would be the same courthouse where I got my first passport, and had my hearing impressing upon me and all the other new-drivers-license-holders the solemnity of that honor. It's a place where momentous things occur, to be sure.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

It's all a blur...

Since the concert: work, dinner at Suzi's, work, date, work, trip to Virginia Beach, Transamerica, home from Virginia Beach, dinner for Tom and Suzi, dog-sitting, doctor, work. Then starting tomorrow: work, sister in town, dog-sitting, work, doctor, work. Seriously...I had to down a venti coffee this morning just to keep up.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Happy Birthday Kathy!!!

My wonderful, unstoppable, rockingest Queen-fan superstar sister adds another year to her belt today. As a wise woman once said, it's better than the alternative. ;-)

Friday, March 10, 2006

Arguably the best arena rockers of all time

It's a kind of magic

What an amazing day. As I type this all my windows are open, there's a good breeze blowing and it's SEVENTY-SIX degrees outside. Sunny, warm....spring! I just demolished a belgian waffle and corned beef hash at Metro 29 with the family and am now settling in for an afternoon of food coma and napping. And to top it all off...


THE QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS SHOW FUCKING ROCKED. Hence why the family (sister Kathy, bro-in-law Billy, nieces Shelby and Samantha) was in town. We went to the insert-telecom-giant-name-here Center last night for a 3-hour extravaganza. They mixed up the line-up: a little Queen, a little Bad Company--and while it was nowhere near what it would have been with Freddie Mercury it was still a great show. Brian May? Is a GOD. Seriously. The man is old and a little rickety (and at one point he misjudged the stage and FELL INTO the hole in the floor through which Paul Rodgers was rising to the stage avec grand piano) but his playing is still so nimble and I have never heard anyone bring his particular brand of sound out of a guitar. He did a solo thing at one point, singing Freddie's Love of My Life, playing a twelve-string guitar and it just...was transcendent. It reminded me quite a bit of Bill Frisell and was astonishingly beautiful.

They managed a really deft mix of remembering Freddie without being too maudlin. During "The Show Must Go On" (sung by Roger Taylor) they showed footage of the group at a tea ceremony in Japan in the 70s and I won't lie: there were tears. Bohemian Rhapsody brought the house down...they darkened the arena and started the song and you KNEW immediately that it was Freddie--they were showing footage of him from an old live show--and when the crowd realized it was him they stopped singing along...literally hushed themselves to hear him...and then got back into it a few measures in. I was just emailing Kristin that I don't usually get too worked up about entertainers (barring the occasional crush) but whenever I hear Queen, or think of Freddie, I genuinely miss him. All the music he could have made, and the power of his voice and performing presence. Still, 15 years later, such a loss.

As an aside: is anyone else freaked out at how steep the upper concourse is at MCI/Verizon? A man in our section fell sidelong down several rows last night. No kidding. That cant plus beer? Dangerous.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Aim high in the Air Force

Not quite as funny as the light-saber A/V guy, but still an excellent use of hidden camera. It doesn't get rilly rilly good until around 1:11 but it's worth it--boy got some moovz!

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Real-time TAR blogging...3 days late

I stand by what I said. Those Staten Island boob floats are painful oxygen-wasting plastic orange idiot wenches. Don't be pissed when you're treated like turbo pink bimbos, because that's what you're putting out there. You made that skanky bed; lie in it.

I love the Manhattan, KS couple. They're geeks in love.

Lake and Michelle? Reinforcing every bad Southern stereotype. "That black girl is gonna beat you!"??? I hope she does...BEAT YOUR ASS YOU CRACKER.

I'm guessing Kristin loves the flamboyant San Fran guys. Why? 'Cause they're skinny. The brown-haired one reminds me of a young Steven Speilberg.

Looking at all those backpacks makes worry about how heavy mine will be in Montana. And how dirty I will be. Not the fun porn dirty; greasy yak dirty.

I love how the gay guys *whisper* so that the cab driver, who doesn't speak English, won't hear that they're talking about him.

HELICOPTER!!!!!!!!!!!! I think you know which I would choose for the detour.

In my head it's Eric and Germy.

Wow...I would make fun of the old couple but as we all know I'm mole rat-blind.

Did Joseph just call Lake Scott Peterson? Wrong, but hilarious.

Does anyone else think it's Atrium Five and *not* Atrium Vee?

Wanda and Desiree are the Latina Gilmore Girls.

OK, Brazil = Portugese. Thank you = obrigado, not gracias. Just sayin'. Also, no "amigo" "por favor" or "rapido."

"Grab a big load of terds." A-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

At first those "Life takes" Visa ads tickled me, but now pretty much I just think Life takes a big dose of SHUT THE HELL UP.

I bet Des is big-time grooving on the soccer stuff. But it'd be even cooler if the guy at the pit stop was Pele.

Wand-er. That's "Wanda" in Phil-ese.

The look on Phil's face says "Lake, I know Jonathan, I've met Jonathan, and you're an ass, but you're no Jonathan."

That's too bad about the guys eliminated. But since I don't even know their names, it's probably for the best.

A snippet from the DC metro anagram map that D sent me. She's right...whoever did this is clever and/or unemployed.




Click on the map for the full shebang.

Did anyone else notice that it's supposed to be 76 degrees on Friday? I know, it will most likely change between then and now, but....WTF, mate?

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Well, as of today I've lived in my apartment, on my own, for 2 years. I can still remember what it felt like the first night I slept in the "new" place. How cozy and promising everything was, but also how scary...a new neighborhood, new routines, new solitude. Like so much else these days it feels like yesterday but a lifetime ago, too.

I bellyache about it here--I don't own it, it's rilly, RILLY small, it's old and a bit broke-ass, I have no balcony/porch/yard where I can grill or let my perfect dog (that I can't have) run around. But then I had a nightmare the other night that the owner of my complex sold the buildings and that I had to move. From my perfectly-situated little haven that is reasonably priced in an area where that concept is almost nonexistent, a mere 3 miles from DC.

So I'm lucky that I found it, and lucky to be here, still. Happy Anniversary 7th Street.

Well, TAR finally did it...

It took 9 seasons, but we've finally found a cast where NOT ONE DUO appeals to me. I've only seen the intros, so of course things will change as we see more of these people, but from their mini-bios and interviews, I find something distasteful about all of them. Top of the OH HELL NO list: the hippies from SF, the 2 girls from Staten Island, and the dentist/assistant husband/wife.

I guess I should just accept the fact that I will never love anyone on this show until Tu Hue and Robin compete.