Look at the happy couple

My Angel boxset finally arrived, and just in case the shelf full of jossy goodness didn't already scream geek, check out who's protecting all my good stuff...

I was a little disappointed that Angel is so much shorter than Buffy (5 seasons versus seven) but I got over that as soon as I read the little letter from Joss. I can't wait to have him back on TV.

Hopefully the writer's strike will be fast & the writer's will get a good deal and I'll be sitting in my broken recliner watching Dollhouse before you know it.

There's no way I can watch reality TV every night. I might be forced to read or something. Guess it's a good time to re-enroll in school after all.

Went to dinner with Heather last night. Tiger Sushi at the Mall of America. It was fun and the food was good, but their vegetarian selection is pretty small. I'd go back but probably wouldn't make a trip out there just for that. The boys both got some new clothes too.

Today we really need to clean the house. Manda is coming to stay with us next week while her mom is out of town. And the guest room is current filled with everything we moved when we hung drywall. I need a big dumpster for all this crap.

Oh, and looky what I just found! Isn't he pretty?

Netflix review: Disturbia

I totally admit to renting this movie because of how hot little Shia LaBeouf is now. I know, I know. I'm a very dirty old lady, I've accepted that. I didn't expect much more than Shia Hotness, which is why I didn't see it when it first came out, but I really liked this movie. Shia is very funny and David Morse is so creepy, mostly when he's not trying to be, so it's way more than a teeny bopper horror movie. I'm going to say four stars. If Shia wasn't in it, more like three.

Best. Halloween. Ever.

* tried to post this last night but the exciting news kind of exploded my computer.


If you've seen the adorable photos in the previous three posts you already know that we had a really fun Halloween. But, hot damn, today is the best day, like, ever.

After years and years of lurking at my imaginary soulmate's site I finally got a membership...just in time to read this. And this. And this.

Joss has a new show!

I'm so excited that instead of peeing 15 minutes ago I've been bouncing in my chair reading all the news and trying to get a freaking link to work.


But now I really gotta go so I'll try again tomorrow. And I probably should get some sleep, it's after midnight here.

Yea! Joss Whedon back on my television set where he belongs. This must be what world peace feels like. Or a really good back rub.

Eliza Dushku and Joss

Can you spell Hammer Costume?

Jboy always waits until the very last minute to come up with a costume and this year was no exception. Two minutes before I'm leaving he says "Mom, I need a costume so I can go trick or treating with the guys."

Now, I bite my tongue about a 17 year old trick or treating because at least he's not getting drunk on Halloween like I was, but really? two minutes?

We walk through the shit hole that is his brother's bedroom and find at least ten costume ideas immediately, none of which Jboy likes. Pirate, Jedi, ski patrol, knight in shining armor, park ranger, Indiana Jones, even a leprechaun for Christ sakes. I tried to talk him into wearing my mom's old prom dress and going in drag. Can't you just picture the pigtails?

So I was almost impressed when he got home tonight, before curfew even. He was a last minute Ninja, complete with black headband (mine), sword (Macaroni's) and a dust mask that he taped up with black electrical tape. It's a ghetto Halloween in our hood.

I still think the leprechaun would have been cooler, but hey, he was happy.

Macaroni's Halloween

Ruby Jean, Sock Hop Queen

Oh my goodness. I just watched this again and noticed the look on Ruby's face in the photo of the two of us. She looks scared, cause hey, walking Halloween mask here...but she was actually mad because I wouldn't let her get any of Macaroni's candy. That face says scared but believe me, she was thinking "Bitch, I saw you hide that Peanut Butter Cup."

My best friend can beat up your best friend

Look what came in the mail today...

Package O'Happy

Shayne is the best best friend ever. I came home from a particularly crappy day at work to a fun Halloweeny box full of sugary goodness. I had just mentioned wanting to get Nikki Sixx's new book, The Heroin Dairies, when poof!, it appears on my doorstep in a box filled with my own personal heroin...Hot Tamales and Tootsie Rolls. Jboy and Macaroni got goodies too, but they had even less self control than me and munched away before I could get a photo.

Reading this book is a trip, so many flash backs to junior high and high school. One of these days I'll have to blog about the whole being a junkie in a previous life thing. I am a lucky, lucky girl.

But now it's time for me to go sleep off this sugar high.

I think I'm glad I couldn't get my scanner to work and ended up with this blurry photo of my photo album instead. Maybe Shayne won't kick my ass for posting it. And seems appropriate since those days are little blurry...

On our way to a Mötley Crüe concert back in the day. Look how much dead cow I was wearing.

And Shayne, look! It's the South Dakota photobooth pix!

Congratulations Bobby and Marie

Wow, it finally happened. My little baby brother proposed to his longtime girlfriend Marie. I know she's been hinting and threatening for a while so he broke down and bought the ring for her birthday, which was the day after his.

I have mixed feelings about marriage but I do love me a wedding. Should be fun.

And now the fun begins

So I closed on the loan today. Both mortgages, the line of credit and all of my credit card debt has been rolled into one mortgage. And I still have close to $100k in equity. I feel so much better.

Although now I have to get started on the remodeling plans. Uggh.

It's almost time to get up

I knew Fate could be a bitch but damn, she so did not want me to get tickets to Othello. First off, I'm a math moron and had my time zones all confused. Woke up at 2:30 AM instead of 3:30 AM, tickets went on sale at 4 AM. Now that might be my Rougeavelt Edumacation showing, or it might be me knowing myself so well and preparing for the ever loving snooze fest. Either way, I got up at 2:30, checked the website and went back to bed.

My alarm went off again at 3:30 AM, not that I'd slept a wink during that hour, and I got back on the computer. Read some email, checked up on Joss, got 2 questions right on this little test. In other words, killed time.

3:58 rolls around and I go back to the Donmar site. Two terribly long minutes and then boom, the whole computer freezes up. And I hadn't even tried to pull up tickets. Not a good sign. When I get back on the site at 4:02 AM it's slow as shit. The painful, I-ate-way-too-much-cheese kind of shit. The oh-holy-crap-I'm-never-going-to-see-Ewan-on-stage-ever-again kind of shit. Yes, I can be very melodramatic in the wee hours.

So, thinking it may be easier to get tickets by phone, I go to find Jboy's international calling card, only to discover why he hasn't talked to Shiomi in so long. There's no freaking money on the card. So I recharge the card, which is a seemingly endless maze of "for English, press one" and "if this is correct, press two", all the while refreshing the website.

After adding $25 to the calling card I had a very nice, very long conversation with Karen, Indian Tellemarketer Extrodinare, about why the credit isn't showing up and how long is it going to take, it's 4:22 AM in MN and I've got a very important call to make. Finally, Karen was nice enough to suggest that I get off the cell phone and call from a landline. And nice enough not to tell me to get a fucking life.

So now I'm refreshing the website, backing out of error pages, swearing like a sailor and redialing the 26 digits over and over like a crazy person. And occassionally forgeting to drop the city code (I think it was the city code) and getting the annoying "If you'd like to make a call please hang up and try again." Moron!

It only took an hour and I only almost screamed about a hundred times...may have sold my soul to the devil somewhere along the line too...but hey, worth it. After speaking to a delightful British boy...is there any other kind?...we've got tickets for the February 12th and 14th performances. Take that, Fate. Really sweet tickets on the 14th too. That's right kids, Sunshine is going to see Ewan on Valentine's Day! Close enough to see him sweat!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkk!

Netflixiness

Figured I'd do some reviews since the most exciting thing in my life is uploading new music and photos to my iP0d. Is it possible to be more boring than me?

Spent way too much of yesterday in a car...went to a "picnic" in Milaca at my Uncle Sonny's house. My dad's side of the family is always interesting and yesterday was not a letdown. I hate cars though and am still recovering.


Jboy had friends over last night. Not too late, but I did sleep until noon today so I obviously didn't get my usual three hours almost uninterrupted of beauty sleep.


Tickets go on sale tomorrow London time, 3 AM here. Wish me luck.




Netflix reviews:


Following Sean Four stars. Very interesting documentary that follows up with this kid 30 years after the first documentary about growing up in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district during the 60's.


Alone with Her Four stars. This whole movie was made with surveillance cameras, very cool idea. Not the greatest writing/acting ever but definitely a cool premise. Creepiest part, the stalker is played by Tom Hank's kid.


The Darwin Awards Five stars. So cute I can't even begin to describe it. Loved the quirk factor. Love Joseph Fiennes. Had to dig out Heathers after watching Winona Ryder.


MythBusters: Collection 1: Disc 4 Eleventy kabillion stars. Keeps Macaroni happy without annoying video games and that's always good enough for me.


Tristan & Isolde Three and a half stars. I am a sucker for the star crossed lovers thing and how much do I love the costumes? Still, wouldn't need to see it again.


The Descent Four and a half stars. Way better than I expected. Scared the crap out of me in several places, but wasn't just gross blood and guts. So don't like the US theater ending. And oh my goodness, were the special features hilarious.


Miami Ink: Season 1: Disc 2 Three stars. What I wouldn't give for tattoo show that's actually about tattoos. Does feed my Garver crush though, although Ami ocassionally make me vomit in my mouth and turn it off. He's just so gross sometimes.

Finally

We close on the Refinance Loan from Hell™ on Tuesday. Woo hoo!

i LOVE this show

Pushing Daisies

Humiliation

I got ditched at the college fair last night. Jboy ran into a girl who used to go to his school and took off. Asshat.

We decided we were too tired to try to run to the play so we skipped it and went home to veg in front of the tv. And we were both too lazy to get up to put in 300 so we flipped around and watched really bad television. Like a train wreck, it was hard to look away. Why can't Joss get a new show?

Nothing new going on...I think my new favorite show is on tonight. Lee Pace is delicious. Loved him in Wonderfalls. Jboy and I both loved the first episode and is it any wonder why?

From this article: "Rumor has it that "Pushing Daisies" was originally conceived as something of a companion piece to "Dead Like Me". Considering that Bryan Fuller was instrumental in both productions, that's not hard to believe. And this does feel and sound like something that fell out of the same idea machine. It's as if Tim Burton and Joss Whedon had a love child."

Not too lazy to link

Sheesh, I've been a lazy blogger. I'm blaming Shayne's broken laptop, since she's just about the only person who ever looks here. Really though, I'm just lazy. Shush, don't tell anyone.

We got the drywall hung, did the mudding and had the appraiser out again. Hopefully we'll close on this loan soon or I may start shooting herion into my eyeballs. I'm still trying to recover from all the drywall dust that has accumulated in my lungs. Not to mention trying to convince my poor aching muscles that I will never get that much exercise again. Ever.

I had a very busy post-birthday weekend. Thursday night I went to a Chanel makeover with Mary and two of her friends. Yes, I sat in the middle of the stinky makeup department at Macy's and allowed a very sweet but very, very dumb girl to put makeup on my face. I don't think I've worn foundation since high school. It felt like the drywall mud and she practically used a trowel. And, because the fumes must have gotten to me, I went out for drinks afterwards looking like an old, scary drag queen! It was not fun, but the girl time was.

Friday afternoon Macaroni and I went to see Transformers at the Riverview (3rd time for him, 2nd for me. How cute is Shia LaBeouf??? I'm like a dirty old lady watching him) and then at almost midnight Mary and her friend Al took me and Macaroni to see Serenity, also at the Riv. Yes, they showed Serenity again...let's pretend that it's their birthday present to me and not just the anniversary of the original release. They show it every year for Joss's birthday and mine. See, we are like soulmates. Sad, sad birthday party soulmates.

Then Saturday Mary and Kata took me out for dinner. PF Chang's again this year. I made a total pig of myself and made fun of all the drunk teenagers on their way to Homecoming. Here's what I ate: Chang's Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps, Harvest Spring Rolls, Steamed Vegetable Dumplings, Shanghai Cucumbers and Sichuan-style Asparagus. And a yummy rum-something martini. See? Pig.

I'm in a slight depression over the fact (possibility? rumor?) that Othello is almost sold out...and tickets don't go on sale to the general public until Monday. I might not get to see my imaginary boyfriend this winter. Can you feel the gravity pulling on my lower lip? And I was all excited about my new tattoo in Scotland. Poo. But it also means I might not be spending money on a trip to Europe, so I might go skydiving in Vegas instead, just to cheer myself up a little bit. And hopefully drag baby K and her mama to Disneyworld.

Tonight Jboy and I are going to the National College Fair and then to see The Seagull at the new Guthrie. He didn't sign up soon enough to go to the fair with school so I'm sure he'll be pouting that he's there with his mom. The shame! Hopefully we won't see anyone we know. We seriously need to get him going on the entire "my-life-after-high-school" thing. He waits until the last minute for everything. (Shut up! He could have inherited that from his dad!) I just paid a late fee for him to take the SATs in two weeks. Hopefully we'll get him a nice timeline going after tonight, before it's too late to apply anywhere!

And the play...it's not getting great reviews and Ian McKellan isn't performing tonight (which explains the tickets I scored for $2 a piece)...but I'm looking forward to it. We're in the balcony, my favorite. (Unless I'm seeing Ewan. I enjoyed being within spitting/sweating distance of him.) Would have preferred to see Chiwetel Ejiofor in this performance, but hey, maybe I'll see him in London yet.

Not much else going on. Counting down the days until the cruise (52!) and watching Angel so I can sell my DVDs. Damn, Alexis is hot in Season 4. Watched a bunch of Netflix movies that I should review but, remember, I'm lazy.

Oh, and I got my birthday wish. Safe and sound.

All I want for my birthday...

...is for Ewan to come home safe. He's in Iraq right now visiting the British troops.

Okay, I also want to win the lottery, have a magic elf hang the rest of the drywall at my house, have KK sing Happy Birthday Auntie Sunshine on my voicemail and, um, world peace. Not necessarily in that order. But I'll settle for my boy getting home with all his pretty pieces.

Oooh, I just figured out how to get the videos I tried to load last week to finally show up. Just had to hit "publish" again, go figure. See them below.

Overachiever

I'm going to make an attempt at uploading some videos too.

The quality on almost all of these is Extremely Crappy. Annoying little clicking sounds going on. They're all from the little video deal on my cheap camera, which I usually don't even realize is on. Explains the 14 two-second videos I just erased. These were all too cute or funny or something to delete though. Now if I could only figure out how to rotate them.

I've two others that still haven't worked. One is from Jboy's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", he played Mustard Seed and actually danced! The other is from Christmas Eve about four or five years ago. Macaroni and his cousins Malcolm and Jack did their own little rendition of Lord of the Rings, or Lord of the Dorks more accurately. Wish I could get them to load.

Photos, links & Netflix reviews. Oh My!

Finally got some photos uploaded. Lots of Ruby and some from the first day of school. We've got an awesome spider living in our front yard, but I haven't gotten a very good photo of it yet.

Going for a walk with Auntie Sunshine

"Enough photos, let's go!"

"Move it!"

Happy now.

Macaroni, Grandma & Ruby

I love the drawing in the background, it's Macaroni and Paul Wellstone.

My little chef

The oven is shocked...it's not a frozen pizza!

Macaroni was very proud of his Tofu Fish Sticks from

the Vegan Lunchbox & his cool new lunchbox

4th grade

He's a senior?!?!?

That blob is our spider. We need a name for her.

Not much else going on. Freaking out about the loan because we need to hang a shit load of drywall before we can close, and although I subscribe to This Old House and have a mad crush on Norm Abram, I don't know how to fix anything.

I'm reading The Killer Angels and really loving it. Counting down the days until the cruise and kind of half assed planning the trip to Europe. It doesn't sound like Heather (and maybe her friend Angie) can make it for Hogmanay but maybe we can hit Up Helly Aa instead. Although that's more than twice what I wanted to spend on a tour it sure looks like a blast. It all depends on when we get tickets to Othello. I may end up going all alone.

Netflix reviews:

Origin: Spirits of the Past

It was pretty good, 3 stars. We really like Japanese anime but this one had a sort of dumb ending.

Sudden Manhattan

I loved the late Adrienne Shelly in Waitress so I rented this one, which she also wrote, directed and starred in. Very cute, quirky movie...four and a half stars...and this dude looks a lot like Nathan. Who I really want to see in a beard now.

Mystery Train

Five stars, loved this one. Jboy loved all the Japanese and you can never go wrong with Buscemi. Favorite quote: "You got any more of those Japanese plums? Or other exotic fruits from around the world?"

Hope it sticks!

I quit drinking soda to help my imaginary boyfriend stop smoking, by osmosis or something. Very cute little interview of him here talking about how he quit.

Finished watching Buffy...took 42 days to watch 144 episodes. Actually 146 because I had to watch OMWF and Tabula Rasa twice.

On to Angel now. I have no life.

Happy Birthday Mandy!

Sweet Seventeen this year. Crappy photo from her scavenger hunt party last year.

TIME agrees

100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME

Deja Voodoo

It just hit me that Jboy is a senior at my old high school. I've been well aware of the fact that he's a senior and that I'm freaking old, but I just realized that he's sitting in the same building, eating in the same lunchroom, might even have the same locker. Too. F'ing. Weird.

He was super excited when he got home yesterday. Four AP classes! Physics! Piano! Piano because they cut Japanese, which sucks, but yea!piano!

He also found out that there will be a Quiz Bowl team again this year. Man, things have changed. I'm sure I was not only NOT excited about my classes but I probably spent the evening of my first day as a senior either nursing a hangover or working one up. I love my nerdy kid.



Okay...Macaroni had a good, although much less "woo hoo" first day of school. He's very easy, teachers dream. He was excited to make Tofu Fish Sticks for his lunch when he got home from his dad's house. I took a bunch of photos, will have to post them later.

I also took photos of the spider in our garden. Ha, I called it a garden. Anyway, the spider has been working up a little nest of some sort, basically covered the top of a dead lily with thick, white webbing. He's been there for awhile and you can usually see him sitting in there. Well, his very artistic girlfriend showed up last night and spun a huge, gorgeous Spidey-style web in between two dead lilies, about two feet apart. Insane. She's at least the size of a quarter, maybe bigger. Macaroni is sure she's poisonous because he watches the Discovery Channel and if you watch Mythbusters then obviously you know everything there is to know about spiders. I ran in the house to grab my camera and ended up leaving my keys in the front door. It reminded me of this photo from another blog I read.

I'll be in my bunk

My imaginary boyfriend at the Venice Film Festival. He's so pretty! More here.

Immune to public humiliation

So I just re-read my post from the beginning of August. The one in which I thought stating my goals out loud would help me follow through with them. The only thing on the list that I've actually been doing is watching Buffy. Like a heroin addict. And I'm not exercising while I watch either, because that stupid glider is so squeaky I can't hear all of the hilarious dialog.

Jboy is a little worried about me. It hasn't even been a month and I've watched 108 episodes. Watched 14 of them on Saturday. Buffy is like crack, especially when your arthritis hurts and you're crabby and don't want to look at another human being. Except James Marsters.

I have done everything I can for the loan, just waiting for the underwriter now.

Besides hanging out in Sunnydale, I spent the weekend with Mandy and Jboy. We went to the dreaded Mall on Saturday night to see Superbad and were all so tired when we got home that we just crashed. No girlie sleep over stuff. Mandy worked Sunday and then yesterday the three of us went back to the Mall for a little last minute school shopping. Jboy got a couple of cute shirts/sweaters. He's very into stripes this year. Mandy tried on lots of jeans, shirts, shoes and bras and we ended up spending an obscene amount of money on a pair of jeans, which is both her back to school and birthday present. And still obscene.

Last night I got a very special delivery that is now on it's way to my bestest friend. And then I watched more Buffies.

Netflix review: Macaroni would have to write the reviews because all we've been Netflixing lately is Mythbusters. I love that he loves this show. Nerds are hot.

Superbad was very funny and completely inappropriate for me to be watching with Mandy and Jboy. Nobody should have to watch this movie with their parents. Starts out with a conversation about porn and never slows down. It kind of reminded me of watching Weird Science with Shayne and Shannon and Lisa after stumbling home from a party in high school, but in a really dirty Colin Ferrell kind of way. There's a whole peni$ montage that almost had me crying I was laughing so hard. I think my opinion of the movie may have been way different if the kids weren't with but I loved it. Mandy and Jboy did too. And how freaking cute are these kids?

Wardrobe malfunctions

I was so crabby yesterday. All day, super crabby. If there were awards for crabbiness, I would have won hands down. I thought maybe it was because we were swamped at work and I was running out to see client's all day. Or the fact that I haven't had more than five hours of uninterrupted sleep in months. Or that Laverne is in town and she's such a pain in the ass lately. Nope, wasn't any of those things.

When I got home from work I discovered that I'd had my underwear on backwards all day. Easy way to make you the Crabby Queen.

Today I'm only mildly crabby, due to an uncomfortable sports bra and a dumb pair of pants that keep falling down. Almost makes me wish it was winter so I could just tromp around in a big fleece snowsuit. Uggh.

I'm going to blame some of the crabbies on the lack of baby K updates too.

Nothing too exciting going on. Might make it to the fair tomorrow with Heath and E and the kids. Taking Jboy and Mandy to see Superbad tomorrow night and then having a sleep over with Mandy. Which will hopefully involve lots of ice cream and pizza and toenail polish and gossip. All the girlie stuff. Oh, and Jboy is supposed to finally buy his laptop this weekend with the help of his Aunt Jenny.

And then school starts. We'll have a house full of crabbies.

Jboy has a new little brother

Cole Alexander was born on Sunday. He was tiny, under seven pounds, but thankfully all healthy.

Princess party, Nolan and more

Mandy's birthday party was last weekend. Princess theme and then some. She rented one of those huge bounce houses and a snocone machine. Very fun and look!, my boys were good sports and dressed up. Well, we all wore crowns, guess you can't really see Macaroni's. Davey and Hol in the second photo.

Bonus photos of Nolan and Ruby cause they're just so freaking cute!

Husband of the Century!

I babysat the adorable Nolan last night and was chatting with Heath and E when they dropped him off. And, much to MasterCard's delight, E actually talked Heath into going to Europe with me this winter. I take back everything I've ever said about husbands. Although E (and my other "H" friend's husband Lannie) never really fell into the "why on Earth would anyone want a husband" category. He rocks.



So now, two years after the first trip, we're planning another impulsive trip to see my imaginary boyfriend Ewan McGregor!



Now if we can just get KK's mom to join us...

Look how hot Joss is.

I think this is my all time favorite photo of him. He's on the far right, but just in the photo. Equality Now Annual Report.

10 days in

So I'm ten days into my little financial diet/self improvement experiment, aka "let's try to shrink Sunny's ulcer!", aka "another excuse to rewatch Buffy", and so far all I've managed to do is keep to my one tea from Starbucks pledge and watch all of BtVS Season One.

But I've also preordered this



because it'll look so pretty next to this

on my shelf, and invited everyone I know to go see Waitress with me this week at the Riv and I've ordered groceries, twice. Absolutely no self control.

I also took Jboy and Mandy back to school shopping yesterday. We sponsor kids every year, filling backpacks with school supplies. We managed to keep the spending in check, with the exception of a $68 hoodie that Jboy couldn't live without. Even though he has about 15 hoodies already. And I think we've eaten out almost every other day since the first. I so need a personal assistant to run my life.

Worst of all, I'm pretty sure that for every 10 calories I've burned on that stupid @$%$# exercise machine I've eaten 50 calories of chocolate pudding. Usually immediately after getting off the little torture device.

Wish me luck.

My doppleganger

Is it still a doppleganger if it's just the same name? Anyhoo...

I'd like to think I'd be this brave too, but she's amazing. All of the rescue workers are amazing. Wish my tax dollars would have been spent to repair bridges instead of going to pay for a billionaire's new stadium. Uggh.

Photos from the site.

The bestest day ever!

Happy Birthday KK!

Can't believe it's been two years

Another reason it's a bestest day ever...Mary was not on the bridge! She was up in Benson with her niece and nephew. Poor girl is going to come home to a dozen voicemail messages.

I'll do it tomorrow

So I’ve heard that when you really want to commit to a goal you’re supposed to put it in writing or tell another person. So here it is. I’m going on a diet.

Now I know what some of you are thinking. “It’s about damn time, Sunshine.” But really, it’s not that kind of diet. Although Lord knows I should lose weight too, this is a financial diet. I was pre-approved for the loan that I’ve been yapping about since I started this blog and may finally get going on the whole home improvement thing. Which scares me more than…well, something really, really scary. Like Christopher Walken scary.

So, because I really don't want to get a second job, it’s time to list shit on eBay and start painting jackets to sell. And most importantly, stop spending so much money. No more new comic book subscriptions. No more daily Starbucks. No more movies, at least until they hit the Riv.

(Thank goodness we saw The Simpson’s Movie last week! Ooh, and I've already paid for my Serenity Collector's Edition, the Office Season 3 and Veronica Mars Season 3. See, it pays to be a big enough geek to preorder everything.)

No more than two tattoos a year. And no more vacations. Except the two already on my list…and Disneyworld anytime Shayne and KK are ready. Cause I’m already saving for all of those. Gah, I’m not a budget kind of girl. But I really have to do this. This time.

So, August first is the dreaded day. And just to torture myself, I’m going to try to exercise everyday until my cruise. And by exercise I mean riding that silly glider while watching episodes of Buffy. There are 144 episodes of Buffy and 122 days until the cruise. Many, many episodes of Buffy cannot be watched alone (crossovers with Angel, part 1 & 2’s and “oh my holy crap I just can’t turn this off”) and then there’s always watching an episode over with commentary, so I'm gonna aim for 2 episodes a day.

Crap. Okay, see how quickly I ran away from the financial part of the financial diet? That I’d rather exercise than follow a budget? I’m obviously ill. Are there meds for this sort of thing?

The awesome thing is that this refinancing will pay off everything. One big fat loan instead of a mortgage; a second mortgage; a line of credit and credit card bills. The unawesome thing is that a zero balance on my credit cards is probably going to make that last minute trip to Europe or Japan or Colorado that much harder to resist. I have no spine.

So, here are my goals/things I need to accomplish in the next couple of weeks:
1. Finish the loan application
2. Get bids (I’ve already found two companies on angieslist and think one more should probably be enough)
3. Set up an appointment with the Remodeling Advisor I found out about at a local home improvement fair. It’s a program through our neighborhood association. They do an informational visit and help with the collection and evaluation of bids. So what I need, and way better than a husband.
4. Finally upload photos from Shayne and KK’s visit and new ones of Ruby. Not that this has anything to do with anything, I just haven’t been able to do it at home because we’ve got another worm or virus or some such on our computer.
5. Get the computer fixed.

Excuses

So I could claim that I've been too busy to blog, but that would be a lie. I have been busy tracking the bids at Dinner with Joss. I was outbid the first day. Actually within the first twenty minutes or so. The auction ends tonight, I'm excited to see what the final bids are. I think he's already raised over $50,000 for Equality Now.

Speaking of EN, the Can't Stop the Serenity screenings raised over $100,000! So awesome, Joss is amazing.

I've also been busy tracking my other boyfriend's charitable work, here. Ewan and Charley appear to be having an amazing trip through Africa and it's so much fun to read the updates and see photos and videos from the road this time.

Other than that I've also attended the final wedding of the summer (I hope!); made an appointment for my next tattoo; had a Veronica Mars party with Mary and had a house full of teenagers, amps, guitars and saxophones. Oh, and Macaroni and I went to see Ratatouille. Very cute.

And today KK and Shayne get here! Which is why I'm not at work. Can't wait to see them.

Randy's first Father's Day

Rachel's wedding

Out of this world (or something equally cheesey)

Check out what real, live astronauts are watching on the International Space Station. Firefly and Serenity! How cool is that?

I wish I knew how to...

... do lots of things, but right now I wish I knew how to upload a voicemail from my cell phone to this site.

Jboy called me at work while I was interviewing a client. The Wii came. His voicemail is hilarious. I can't stop laughing.

"HelllllllooooooooOOOOO! Okay it's me. The package got here. The box was not in very nice shape, cheapo on the shipping it would appear. Um, I think I'm gonna open it though, uh, or, actually, I don't know if I should open it. I don't really see any reason why I shouldn't open it but I'm not gonna open it until you call me and tell me it's okay to open it, okay, so hurry the crap up and call me and tell me it's okay to open it please. Because I'm dying with ANTICIPATION. Okay, enough Strong Bads. Byyyye."

Happy Belated Birthday to Joss

My imaginary soul mate is so cool that people all over the globe got together to celebrate his birthday last Saturday.

Something like 46 parties in all. And because he's so cool, all the money raised is going to Equality Now, which is very cool. My mommy (who is also super cool) went with me to the Minneapolis screening. We didn't stay for the whole movie but I still left with the coolest prize of all. I won the auction for a lithograph of the Buffy cover signed by uber talented artist Jo Chen. Looks like this, just not blurry.



But that's not all. Joss is so cool that he's auctioning off dinner with him at SDCC to raise even more money for EN. Check out the photos of him at that first link. Fully poseable! It hurts my head to think of how much those winning bidders will pay to eat a meal with his salty goodness. Wish I had that kind of money. *Must remember to buy lottery ticket* He talks about the dinner here. I could listen to him talk forever.

Not much else going on. Happy hour on Friday was very tame. The boys are both gone tonight, so although I should go home and clean I'll probably just sleep. Unless we have a good Netflix. Oh yeah, I almost forgot what I did last night....

Movie Review (in a real theater and everything): Oceans Thirteen
Macaroni loves these movies beyond reason. Don't get me wrong, I'll watch George and Brad and Matt and Don and OMG!-how-cute-was-Casey-in-this-one? any day, but it was a little long. Four stars, points deducted for a sore butt and no naked/make out scene for George & Brad.

Oops! I left the lens cap on

Okay, I haven't had a lens cap since I got rid of the SLR-that-was-smarter-than-me, but I did forget to put a memory card in my camera last night. Moron. I only have about five or six photos from Randy and Shannon's wedding reception and would have to tear apart my entire house to find my firewire in order to upload them here. Crap. I do have a cute one of Rubylicious passed out on her grandpa's lap. You'll have to take my word for it.

The reception was really fun. My new niece-in-law Mariah even got me out on the dance floor...where my niece Katie totally kicked Randy's ass in an air guitar competition to some old school Van Halen. So funny.

It was fun seeing all the guys my brother's graduated with, they had a tight little group of really great friends. Of course I haven't seen them in almost ten years and barely recognized anyone. My cousin Jon showed up unexpectedly so it was fun to catch up with him, still sailing. We've got another family wedding in two weeks, outside at the Renaissance Festival grounds. Hopefully it won't be quite so hot. Port-a-Potties and 90° heat don't mix. Especially when you're wearing silk.

Glad to be done with all the party favor making and running around, I'm a little too unorganized for event planning. It was all worth it though, such a fun party and everyone had a good time.



Netflix reviews:
Ma Mere
Netflix gives you recommendations based on how you review movies you've rented and returned. I'm so not sure how this ended up on my list, it was very weird. Practically porn. It wasn't horrible but I can't think of anyone I'd recommend it to. Well, maybe one person... 2 1/2 or 3 stars?
Home from boarding school, moody 17-year-old Pierre (Louis Garrel) finds himself drawn into the sordid yet arousing world of his newly widowed and sexually adventurous mother, Hélène (Isabelle Huppert). As the attraction between mother and son deepens, Hélène abruptly departs, leaving Pierre in the care of another seductive woman. When his mother returns, the teen must face troubling decisions about his sexuality -- and his forbidden desire.

Diary of a Mad Black Woman
I thought this movie was going to be an Eddie Murphy/Martin Lawrence type comedy based on what a women I worked with said. And it was funny, but there was a lot more to it. Unfortunately I watched it while doing a million things for the wedding and while gossiping with my friend Holly on the phone, so I probably didn't get as much out of it as I could have. Cute though. 3 stars.
Helen McCarter (Kimberly Elise) is happy and completely satisfied with her life: She has a doting husband, Charles (Steve Harris), an impressive home in their native Atlanta complete with a swimming pool and tennis courts, and anything else money can buy. But the night before her 18th anniversary, Charles kicks her out of their home and replaces her with his mistress, calling into question what Helen had long considered a solid marriage.

The Cat Returns
I knew I'd love this one before I even opened the envelope. Besides being a Studio Ghibli production this one featured Kristen Bell (aka Veronica Mars) and Kristine Sutherland (aka Joyce Summers, aka Buffy's mom) in a couple of smaller roles. Super cute, 5 stars.
Young Haru rescues a cat from being run over, but soon finds it's no ordinary feline; it happens to be the Prince of the Cats. And in recognition of Haru for saving his life, the cat brings her to the Kingdom of Cats … to be his bride! But Haru's feline friends Muta and the Baron hatch a plan to rescue her from this unusual fate. Think Alice in Wonderland … with kitty litter. Hiroyuki Morita directs this anime follow-up to Whisper of the Heart.

My brain has its own pulse

Cooking up a little migraine here, which is always fun. Trying to get out of work so that I can make that Target run. They haven't gotten enough of my money yet and I'd hate to hear they couldn't make payroll.

Nothing going on. NOTHING. Happy hour tomorrow, which apparently will involve photos of me from St. Patrick's Day. Of which I have absolutely no memory. And we quit drinking before dinner time. There's one of me licking a wall??? Nice.

Running errands for the wedding. I so need to find a pair of shoes. Flip flops were perfect for the beach, and I just might end up wearing them during the dance, but I'd like to have a pair of decent shoes for at least the first fifteen, maybe twenty minutes of the reception. This is the dress I'm wearing.

Shows off all the tattoos.

Netflix review: National Treasure

I really wanted to hate this movie because, hello! Nicholas Cage, but I actually liked it. Not the best movie ever and you can totally see every single thing coming, but it was good. Macaroni was jumping around all nervous for most of the movie and then out of nowhere said "I can never eat after seeing movies like this." As if we were about to sit down to dinner at 8:45.

So maybe 3 and 1/2 stars. Apparently there's a sequel in the making.

Holy beautiful hero

So I think I might have mentioned a few (thousand) times how much I love Nathan Fillion but oh holy crap! do I really love him in a not-quite-so-dirty-way now. Check out this amazing site.

Nate teased all of us who read his myspace page by mentioning a "super secret thingy" he was working on in Europe, and then refusing to say anything else. Well, this is it. I could only listen to a little bit because I'm supposed to be working (and hey, I really am working, our computers are just so freaking slow that I have time to do this too.) but my, oh my. He is truly beautiful. And not just his gorgeous face and bootieful backside either. He's all yummy goodness on the inside. I got chills when the word "hero" popped up.

I'm really interested in finding out more about the artist he worked with. Awesome public art!

My weekend

Okay, the Buffy Sing Along at the Riv was so much fun! And I don't sing in public. Or private.

Mary and Macaroni and I got there super early, which was kind of a mistake, and there was one moron who tried to ruin it by acting like an idiot. They had cute little goodie bags (vampire teeth, bubbles, kazoos and poppers for Tara's orgasm) and told us when to use everything. Macaroni really loved yelling "shut up Dawn!" every time Michelle Tranchenberg (sp?) appeared on screen. He got up and danced at one point, until he noticed that Mary and I were still sitting.

They did it all over again on Saturday night, which we originally thought we'd go to. Macaroni had whined about having to go at all, so I had a babysitter for him on Saturday. Turns out that Mary and I are too old to stay out until 2 AM two nights in a row, so we decided to skip the second show. Macaroni just about cried! He wanted to go so bad. I love the little geek in him.

Saturday afternoon my sister-in-law and I wandered around Michael's looking for stuff for the wedding reception. We've got little bottles ordered for favors. We're going to fill them with sand and seashells from our trip to Florida. I love how laid back she is about everything, even though the reception is in less than two weeks. I also got a little Rubytime, which is always good.

Instead of more Buffy, Mary and I had dinner Saturday night with Kata and her sister Kelly at PF Chang's. YUM! I love their tofu lettuce thingies. After dinner we were going to see Waitress but it was SOLD OUT! I couldn't believe it. I was mad at myself for not thinking to buy tickets in advance...I was walking around Southdale for over an hour waiting for everyone else to show up. It never occurred to me that it would sell out. But YEA! for Nathan's little movie. It's so good, we're going to try again.

And the best part of the weekend...I stayed in my pj's all day on Sunday. Laid around watching Buffy Season Sex, I mean Six. Nope, I meant Sex.

Busy today otherwise I'd do a few (dozen) Netflix reviews.

Guess what I'm doing tonight

This.