Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Mac on PBS...
okay, so it's Mac's alter-ego, the apparently nice, super-patriotic Gary Sinise. His band is doing Proud to be an American on the Memorial Day concert thingy---how cute is that!?!?!?!?! SEE??? Everybody should watch CSI:NY!!!!Wonder where Flack is this holiday weekend...does he want to come to a cookout???
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Hehehe...
I just got an e-mail from Bethel University, and because I was bored I decided to fill out their little "We'll send you a guidebook that essentially tells you not to blow off your senior year if you give us all of your personal information" thingy, and it asked me where I went to high school. So I put it down, and then it asked me what country I went to high school in. And they had like every country in the world listed. Seriously- they had everything from the U.K. to the Virgin Islands (British). I wonder how many students they really recruite from Uruguay every year???
Too Much Tuscan Sun
For anybody who knows me, it's a given that I love travelogues. I have just about every book Bill Bryson ever wrote, and an entire shelf dedicated to them in my room. I love reading about people who have gone to interesting places and done interesting things- for two main reasons. One, I want to get an idea of the sort of things that I would like to do if I ever get to those countries, and two, so that I won't be completely ignorant about the rest of the world if I don't. Either way, I love them. And I love Italy, so when I saw this particular book in Borders a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't pass it up. (Which may be why I'm broke...)
It's not actually a travelogue- it's the story of Britain-born Dario Castagno who returned to with his parents to their native Chianti when he was ten. After becoming something of a rebel and dropping out of school, he found himself in the dead-end job of a laboror at one of the local wineries. When he tired of this life, he decided to rely on his impeccable English and open a private touring company, where he would lead small groups of people on guided tours of the Chianti region, showing them a slightly more authentic Italy than the one presented in guidebooks.
Anyway, the whole thing is kind of the anti- Under the Tuscan Sun (hence the name.) By the way, no disrespect is meant to Frances Mayes, I read that book and loved it. In the introduction, Dario states that he figured it was time for a real Tuscan too tell their story, to counteract all the books out about Americans who come to Tuscany and refurbish an old farmhouse. The book alternates chapters- one is the story of a certain group or couple he led on a tour, and the next is simply about the region, or about his business.
Presumably because the book was marketed mainly in the United States, all of the customers that are profiled in the chapters are American (although he does include a nod to his Dutch customers as well as his first couple, a British Lord and Lady). The stories are primarily about the odd, awkward, ignorant (one woman wanted to know why the Circa family had so many great artists!), and sometimes downright rude requests and situations that these people put poor Dario through during their tours, but one or two are simply him recalling a good time had with a customer who quickly became a friend.
They are told in a bitingly funny narrative, which rings totally true without ever descending into petty meanness. At first glance, the grammar and sentence structure is not the best, but when you know that the first draft was written in Italian and later translated by an American, you quickly realize that this was done to leave some of the homespun charm in the words. His chapters about Siena, the Chianti region, and the Palio are charming and insightful, but it's really the stories about the people that make this book so memorable.
You can read more about the book and it's author at www.toomuchtuscansun.com. I highly suggest you read this book immediately- you will never think about Italy in the same way again. Or look at a bottle of Chianti Classico dismissively, either!
By the way- oenophile means "wine-lover"...I had to look that one up.. ;)
It's not actually a travelogue- it's the story of Britain-born Dario Castagno who returned to with his parents to their native Chianti when he was ten. After becoming something of a rebel and dropping out of school, he found himself in the dead-end job of a laboror at one of the local wineries. When he tired of this life, he decided to rely on his impeccable English and open a private touring company, where he would lead small groups of people on guided tours of the Chianti region, showing them a slightly more authentic Italy than the one presented in guidebooks.
Anyway, the whole thing is kind of the anti- Under the Tuscan Sun (hence the name.) By the way, no disrespect is meant to Frances Mayes, I read that book and loved it. In the introduction, Dario states that he figured it was time for a real Tuscan too tell their story, to counteract all the books out about Americans who come to Tuscany and refurbish an old farmhouse. The book alternates chapters- one is the story of a certain group or couple he led on a tour, and the next is simply about the region, or about his business.
Presumably because the book was marketed mainly in the United States, all of the customers that are profiled in the chapters are American (although he does include a nod to his Dutch customers as well as his first couple, a British Lord and Lady). The stories are primarily about the odd, awkward, ignorant (one woman wanted to know why the Circa family had so many great artists!), and sometimes downright rude requests and situations that these people put poor Dario through during their tours, but one or two are simply him recalling a good time had with a customer who quickly became a friend.
They are told in a bitingly funny narrative, which rings totally true without ever descending into petty meanness. At first glance, the grammar and sentence structure is not the best, but when you know that the first draft was written in Italian and later translated by an American, you quickly realize that this was done to leave some of the homespun charm in the words. His chapters about Siena, the Chianti region, and the Palio are charming and insightful, but it's really the stories about the people that make this book so memorable.
You can read more about the book and it's author at www.toomuchtuscansun.com. I highly suggest you read this book immediately- you will never think about Italy in the same way again. Or look at a bottle of Chianti Classico dismissively, either!
By the way- oenophile means "wine-lover"...I had to look that one up.. ;)
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Perplexing...
How do you twist your ankle while you're asleep? How does that happen? I woke up yesterday and it was really tender and kind of hurt. Now it really hurts- although horseback riding and posting for fifteen minutes on it probably wasn't the smartest thing, but it definately hurt before that. I'm still confused about this.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Damn right my aunt was this close!!!
Ah yes, Barry in Vegas---does it get any better??? See, stage ticktes really are the way to go... Lovin' the jacket, by the way. What the hell is that??? :)
Josh should start having stage tickets available...hmmm...no, scuffle with security would be embarrasing... ;)
Edit: As is my deplorable spelling- I meant embarrassing. :)
Friday, May 20, 2005
Box springs should have handles...
Okay, so I've been on this cleaning binge lately.
It started about two weeks ago when I decided to clean out my closet and drawers. I was feeling "Springy" and needed a place to put some new clothes...and the closet was seriously out of control. You couldn't see the floor. And the full-length mirror? Not so much when there's crap piled two feet up the mirror. And that little disaster area had spilled over to dresser drawers, which had spilled over (literally) onto my floors. I could hardly get into bed. It took me three hours and several CD rotations, but I finally finished it and ended up with organized drawers and baskets, a totally walk-in-able closet, and an actual place to hang my coat that didn't involve throwing it on the floor. And my personal favorite, the ability to get to my shoes without seriously damaging my rotator cuff. Oh, and enough discarded clothes to cover about ninety percent of the homeless in my city, but whatever.
So I lived with this for about a week, and then got to thinking. My closet was so clean, I really should clean my room. Like really clean- under things too. I thought about that for a few minutes. Hmmm. Sounded like hard work. Didn't like that idea. So I decided to be slightly less ambitious and just flip the mattress, because I had only done that like once in the three years I've had the thing. (It's supposed to be done every month. Uh-huh. Who really has time to flip their mattress every month?) So I hauled that sucker up, really hurting my back, and shoved it to the other side of the room. Well, then the box spring was just taunting me.
So I convinced myself that I was already half-way there, and it would be really easy to just move the box spring and vacuum under the bed, like I had thought originally. Ah-hah. Here was the problem. It is nearly impossible to move those darn things. They don't have cute little handles on the side like my mattress does. No. They just lie there not moving at all no matter how much you pull. And it's not like it was that heavy- I figured the mattress weighed twice as much as that thing. But it hated me. Really truely hated me. One time I pulled so hard I went flying back and hit the wall when my hand slipped. It hurt. A lot. All this time, Bon Jovi is wailing away in the background about it being my life. Which paused me to stop for a moment and consider, "Is this really my life? Moving box springs to vacuum? Is that it? Is this really living while I'm alive?" Whatever.
Anyhoo, after twenty minutes of cursing and yanking at that thing, I got it off the frame and kind of threw it to the other side of the room. And was faced with the entire contents of what was underneath there, actually illuminated for the first time in probably a year. *scary music*
It was terrifying. I know I'm not particularly tidy, but I really didn't think I could let something get that bad. I mean, there were boxes under there that housed stuff I bought like eighteen months ago. Shoes from last summer. A stiletto heel I thought I'd lost. And, perhaps scariest of all, a locker shelf from high school. Here's the scary thing- I left after freshman year. Which means that thing's been sitting there for upwards of two years. *shudder* Oh, and enough dust to account for ninety percent of my family's allergy problems. (FYI, I found the other ten percent under my dresser...)
And then I moved my little DVD shelf thingy, and realized how many families in the entertainment industry I am solely supporting just from my DVD expenditure alone. Got to cut back on that.
Anyway, I just felt I had to publicly defame the box spring for being so MEAN to me!!!! :p
It started about two weeks ago when I decided to clean out my closet and drawers. I was feeling "Springy" and needed a place to put some new clothes...and the closet was seriously out of control. You couldn't see the floor. And the full-length mirror? Not so much when there's crap piled two feet up the mirror. And that little disaster area had spilled over to dresser drawers, which had spilled over (literally) onto my floors. I could hardly get into bed. It took me three hours and several CD rotations, but I finally finished it and ended up with organized drawers and baskets, a totally walk-in-able closet, and an actual place to hang my coat that didn't involve throwing it on the floor. And my personal favorite, the ability to get to my shoes without seriously damaging my rotator cuff. Oh, and enough discarded clothes to cover about ninety percent of the homeless in my city, but whatever.
So I lived with this for about a week, and then got to thinking. My closet was so clean, I really should clean my room. Like really clean- under things too. I thought about that for a few minutes. Hmmm. Sounded like hard work. Didn't like that idea. So I decided to be slightly less ambitious and just flip the mattress, because I had only done that like once in the three years I've had the thing. (It's supposed to be done every month. Uh-huh. Who really has time to flip their mattress every month?) So I hauled that sucker up, really hurting my back, and shoved it to the other side of the room. Well, then the box spring was just taunting me.
So I convinced myself that I was already half-way there, and it would be really easy to just move the box spring and vacuum under the bed, like I had thought originally. Ah-hah. Here was the problem. It is nearly impossible to move those darn things. They don't have cute little handles on the side like my mattress does. No. They just lie there not moving at all no matter how much you pull. And it's not like it was that heavy- I figured the mattress weighed twice as much as that thing. But it hated me. Really truely hated me. One time I pulled so hard I went flying back and hit the wall when my hand slipped. It hurt. A lot. All this time, Bon Jovi is wailing away in the background about it being my life. Which paused me to stop for a moment and consider, "Is this really my life? Moving box springs to vacuum? Is that it? Is this really living while I'm alive?" Whatever.
Anyhoo, after twenty minutes of cursing and yanking at that thing, I got it off the frame and kind of threw it to the other side of the room. And was faced with the entire contents of what was underneath there, actually illuminated for the first time in probably a year. *scary music*
It was terrifying. I know I'm not particularly tidy, but I really didn't think I could let something get that bad. I mean, there were boxes under there that housed stuff I bought like eighteen months ago. Shoes from last summer. A stiletto heel I thought I'd lost. And, perhaps scariest of all, a locker shelf from high school. Here's the scary thing- I left after freshman year. Which means that thing's been sitting there for upwards of two years. *shudder* Oh, and enough dust to account for ninety percent of my family's allergy problems. (FYI, I found the other ten percent under my dresser...)
And then I moved my little DVD shelf thingy, and realized how many families in the entertainment industry I am solely supporting just from my DVD expenditure alone. Got to cut back on that.
Anyway, I just felt I had to publicly defame the box spring for being so MEAN to me!!!! :p
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Um....
Horatio??? What about Ryan??? *shivers* Jealous, collie??? *evil grin*
Ooooh...your CSI: Miami Soul Mate is...Horatio
Caine! My, my, my you have good taste! ;) You
must like your men passionate and captivating!
And, according to these results, drop dead
sexy! :P
Who" is your CSI: Miami 'Soul Mate'? (For Girls)
brought to you by
Ooooh...your CSI: Miami Soul Mate is...Horatio
Caine! My, my, my you have good taste! ;) You
must like your men passionate and captivating!
And, according to these results, drop dead
sexy! :P
Who" is your CSI: Miami 'Soul Mate'? (For Girls)
brought to you by
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
You may now kiss my feet...
I finished the Ryan and the baby episode of CSI: Miami (that's actually back in April sometime because I started it awhile ago), and did last week's episode of CSI:NY and Monday's episode of CSI: Miami on TV Watch (conveniently linked on the sidebar...) Am I good or what??? And there's three new episodes of my shows on tonight, so there will be even more up tomorrow!!! I'm wonderful, right???
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Stolen from Imladris...
1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 4. Write down what it says.
...synthetic cells capture solar energy and store it in nutrient molecules that later... (not terribly interesting)
2.Stretch your left arm out as far as you can what will you touch?
My little brother's GeoSafari game thing.
3: What is the last thing you watched on TV?
MTV Cribs
4: WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what the time is:
3:30
Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
3:36---pretty good!
6: With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
My brother watching Nickelodean...or something kid-ish.
7: When did you last step outside?
And hour ago.
8: Where did your last car ride go to?
Home from picking up my brother.
9: What are you wearing?
Jeans, pink shirt, painful sandals.
10: Did you dream last night?
Yeah. I knew what it was, too, but I forgot. I hate it when that happens. That usually happens, but then I'll be like brushing my teeth or something and I'll see something that will remind me about it. That happened last summer with an Alan dream. I took such crap for that. ;)
11: When did you last laugh?
Talking to my friend on the phone ten minutes ago.
12: What is on the walls of the room you are in?
Various degrees earned by the smarter members of my family. Why can't I be smart? Oh, maybe because I'm supposed to be studying biology now instead of doing this...
13: Seen anything weird lately?
My professor giving one of the guys in class a razor because he's been bugging him all semester to shave, and the guy would reply that he didn't want to pay for a razor. So the prof brought him one for our last class. Kind of funny.
14: What do you think of this quiz?
Fun.
15: What is the last film you saw?
Complete movie? Probably the Interpreter. I was watching parts of 'An Awfully Big Adventure' earlier this weekend, though. And I saw ten minutes of 'Life is Beautiful' while I was eating today. The dubbed version, though, so it wasn't as good.
16: If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?
A house for somebody.
17: Tell me something about you that I don't know:
I cried a little right after I was confirmed because I was so happy and moved. And I hardly ever cry.
18: If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
I'd get rid of abortion and the death penalty. And world peace! (said with a Miss Congeniality-esque smile)
19: Would you like to dance?
Not now, because my feet are killing me. Try wearing high heels all blessed weekend. I even broke dwon and wore flat shoes to school yesterday. And I never do that.
20: George Bush:
I think he's done a great job. And why does everybody say he's so stupid? How were your grades at Yale? Hmmm?
21: Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Bethany Marie or Carolyn Susan
22: Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
John Joseph. Of course if I marry Johnny Depp, he already has a little boy named John, so we'll have to adjust that...
23: Would you ever consider living abroad?
Right now, totally. But I don't know how I'd feel after I bought the plane ticket and realized I'd be living across the ocean from my family. I've always wanted to spend a year in London, though.
Oooh, this was fun!! :)
...synthetic cells capture solar energy and store it in nutrient molecules that later... (not terribly interesting)
2.Stretch your left arm out as far as you can what will you touch?
My little brother's GeoSafari game thing.
3: What is the last thing you watched on TV?
MTV Cribs
4: WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what the time is:
3:30
Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
3:36---pretty good!
6: With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
My brother watching Nickelodean...or something kid-ish.
7: When did you last step outside?
And hour ago.
8: Where did your last car ride go to?
Home from picking up my brother.
9: What are you wearing?
Jeans, pink shirt, painful sandals.
10: Did you dream last night?
Yeah. I knew what it was, too, but I forgot. I hate it when that happens. That usually happens, but then I'll be like brushing my teeth or something and I'll see something that will remind me about it. That happened last summer with an Alan dream. I took such crap for that. ;)
11: When did you last laugh?
Talking to my friend on the phone ten minutes ago.
12: What is on the walls of the room you are in?
Various degrees earned by the smarter members of my family. Why can't I be smart? Oh, maybe because I'm supposed to be studying biology now instead of doing this...
13: Seen anything weird lately?
My professor giving one of the guys in class a razor because he's been bugging him all semester to shave, and the guy would reply that he didn't want to pay for a razor. So the prof brought him one for our last class. Kind of funny.
14: What do you think of this quiz?
Fun.
15: What is the last film you saw?
Complete movie? Probably the Interpreter. I was watching parts of 'An Awfully Big Adventure' earlier this weekend, though. And I saw ten minutes of 'Life is Beautiful' while I was eating today. The dubbed version, though, so it wasn't as good.
16: If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?
A house for somebody.
17: Tell me something about you that I don't know:
I cried a little right after I was confirmed because I was so happy and moved. And I hardly ever cry.
18: If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
I'd get rid of abortion and the death penalty. And world peace! (said with a Miss Congeniality-esque smile)
19: Would you like to dance?
Not now, because my feet are killing me. Try wearing high heels all blessed weekend. I even broke dwon and wore flat shoes to school yesterday. And I never do that.
20: George Bush:
I think he's done a great job. And why does everybody say he's so stupid? How were your grades at Yale? Hmmm?
21: Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Bethany Marie or Carolyn Susan
22: Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
John Joseph. Of course if I marry Johnny Depp, he already has a little boy named John, so we'll have to adjust that...
23: Would you ever consider living abroad?
Right now, totally. But I don't know how I'd feel after I bought the plane ticket and realized I'd be living across the ocean from my family. I've always wanted to spend a year in London, though.
Oooh, this was fun!! :)
Monday, May 09, 2005
Too Much Stuff to Do!!!!
Argh!!! I don't do well with responsiblity, and I do even worse with it when it's boring responsibility. I'm posting because I desperately am trying to avoid writing my history paper that's due on Wednesday. I've got the introduction done, which I'm making really long and verbose so that my examples can be pretty short and sweet- mainly because I don't have that much information about them. Grrr. I had my first exam this morning, not that it was incredibly stressful, because we could use our books and notes, but it was still and exam and those freak me out psychologically. I'm weird. I have to finish the history paper (thank God it's only four-five pages double spaced), type up the entire page of biology terms I need, write down the definitions of said terms, take the practice quiz over and over again (and it's a long one too- like sixty-five questions), and study my notes. Then I can write thank you notes to everybody who was so generous with me this weekend, and ride my horse, because the vet told us she's losing muscle from being underused. Has the vet ever had to worry about how her hair looks and thus finds it difficult to get messy with the horse frequently? I highly doubt it- she's a vet, her hand is halfway up a horse's you-know-what half the the time. And I have to go to the library and return all of my communism books that are this close to being overdue. UGH.
I guess it's not so bad. I'll have the history paper finished in about an hour, and I've got till Wednesday to do the biology...and I'm kind of beyond caring at this point. And I guess I have to wash my hair tonight anyways, so I'll ride when I get home this evening. *sighs* Whew, okay, got that taken care of. See, sometimes you just have to vent a little bit, and everything seems better!!
P.S. I'll update with stuff about the weekend later on for anybody who cares, k?
I guess it's not so bad. I'll have the history paper finished in about an hour, and I've got till Wednesday to do the biology...and I'm kind of beyond caring at this point. And I guess I have to wash my hair tonight anyways, so I'll ride when I get home this evening. *sighs* Whew, okay, got that taken care of. See, sometimes you just have to vent a little bit, and everything seems better!!
P.S. I'll update with stuff about the weekend later on for anybody who cares, k?
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Just for you, Imladris!!!
I updated with CSI:NY stuff from last week. And it's definately up there- I just saw it. Not my best work, I'll give you, but it's something, right???? And I think there will be a CSI:Miami one from the baby episode later because I think we're having poly sci class up here today, so I won't actually have to do any work. Happiness!!! So check it out--- this time the link on the sidebar actually does work!!!
Monday, May 02, 2005
Is Russia...
...part of the EU???? I need to know...it would really make my paper better if they were, but I don't want to say that if it isn't true...I think I'd get marked down for that...
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Links finally work!!
I just spent thirty-five minutes trying to figure out how to get my links to work, and they finally do! Or at least for me. Try them and let me know, okay??? I just put up my other blog, and a couple of my better entries. Happiness- I accomplished something technological!!! On with the Boleshevik theory...
Lenin Sucks.
As a totally unbiased non- Russian, I feel I can confidently say that he sucks. Especially when certain people are forced to spend their Sunday afternoons writing about him. Grrr.
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