lewis and clark had a journal. you, beth-annie, have a diary.

Tuesday, June 29, 2004
"Two points for honesty..."
Sometimes you learn things in life.  This week's lesson:  secular music festivals are different from Chrisitan music festivals.  I know, duh, right?  Of course, there are plenty of similarities (especially if you're talking about something as alternative as Cornerstone), like loud music, weirdo-looking people, moshing, high-priced concessions, and lots and lots of jewelry and clothing for sale, but there are three huge differences between, say, Summerfest and Cornerstone.

#1 - Booze.  Now, I drink (in moderation), so I'm not one of those people who is anti-any-and-all-drinking, either for religious or other reasons (though I know people who are), but Summerfest was, for me, one big commercial for why that may not be such a bad idea afterall.  As Ryan Miller, lead singer #A for Guster, put it, he didn't know if the crowd's... energy, we'll call it, had more to do with their love for the band or with the fact that within the 500 square yards around the stage he counted five beer tents.  From my perspective in the third "row," center, I know what my vote goes to.  And seeing as the concert we came for didn't start till 10pm, everyone had lots and lots of time to get very very drunk.  And most of them seemed to take full advantage.  The great thing is that after the show was done, we got to walk through massive crowds of drunks all leaving the grounds at the same time (why they can't stagger the times of the last concerts a bit to avoid that I don't know), ride the shuttle bus back to the park-and-ride lot with a bunch of drunks, and then get to our car and out of there as fast as humanly possible so we got ahead of all the drunk drivers.

#2 - Rudeness.  Not that I've never encountered rude people at Christian festivals... trust me, they're everywhere.  But one is FAR more likely to encounter people who are either completely oblivious or just don't care about anyone but themselves somewhere like Summerfest.  We parked ourselves at the stage FIVE hours before Guster went on so we could have good seats, and as the concert time approached, more and more people began invading our space, crowding us, standing over us, pushing us around (I'm sure this was made even worse by point #1), and even asking us to move down (farther from center) so a whole group of friends could sit together.  We had been sitting next to a very nice, quiet couple for hours, and by the time Guster went on a group of five -- count 'em, FIVE -- friends, who neither of us knew, had wormed and shoved their way in between us.  That is so wrong.  We did not get there five hours early only to have 600 other people show up five minutes before the concert and crowd us unbelievably and try to shove us out of our seats.  Uh-UH!  I'm a very polite person, but a couple times I swear I came real close to decking someone.

#3 - Offensive artists.  A guy named Bob Schneider went on before Guster, at 7:30 (aka within what is known on television as the "family hour," because it is held to stricter standards than the rest of primetime because kids are much more likely to be watching).  He started off pretty well, actually, the music wasn't bad.  Then things started to go downhill.  I'm not a total prude when it comes to language in song lyrics, I personally hardly ever swear, but I can take the occasional occurrence in the music I listen to, but there is a line, and Mr. Schneider went way beyond it.  Not only that, but more than one of his songs had sexually explicit lyrics, at times extremely so.  I'm talking way, way worse than something like "The Thong Song."  And the crowd was just eating it up.  Dancing, being rowdy, and singing along, and it seemed the more offensive the lyric, the louder they sang.  And ole Bob was revelling in the whole thing, taking pride in his level of vulgarity, even saying he hoped he had offended some people.  Yeah, buddy, good for you.  Mission accomplished.

Now, I'm sure that all three points fed off each other and made the whole greater than the sum of its parts, but I also know I have never seen anything even remotely like it at Cornerstone, or Lifest, or Agape, or Creation, etc.  I don't believe Christians should be completely sheltered from the world -- I don't think it's healthy, either from a general living life standpoint or from a faith standpoint.  But the fact remains that when it comes to some things, I'm much more likely to find people I can relate to, like, and that have the same values as I do, at least roughly, in a Christian atmosphere.  Christians aren't always "better" people, but the percentages are probably there.

Of course, the good news in all this is that I got to see Guster (who Josh even likes, that's how good they are), and they're always rockingly awesome live.  The bad news is that I sometimes let myself get too disappointed after a concert if the setlist was lacking something(s) I really wanted to hear.  I have a real problem with that.  Though I think often the general idea behind my setlist griping is legitimate.  But that's a rant for another day.  Maybe tomorrow.
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Monday, June 28, 2004
Yup.  That's what it was, alright.
Way cool.  Those who know me well know I've always been fascinated by earthquakes, and living in the Midwest we're not supposed to really get to experience them, so I feel very lucky to have had the chance, no matter how small it was (I also feel lucky I was still awake at 1:12am... hooray for the drive-in movie theater and its double features that run so late).  Josh got up right after to see if he could find anything on the internet, which he couldn't because it was too soon.  He came back to bed and we couldn't help talking about it for a while (he only heard the rattle, he didn't notice any shaking, but he may have been a bit closer to sleep than I was).  After a little more time had passed, we decided we wanted to check the internet again, and started finding seismographs with activity at the right time, from places like Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama, and Virginia.  So we knew something had happened, that I hadn't just imagined it, but we didn't know exactly where it was, if it was a tiny quake right near us (which there were no seismographs online for, since we don't live in an active area --  that's why the closest readings we could get that quickly were from the New Madrid fault area south of here), or a really big quake somewhere farther away and more prone to them.  I guess we gave up on getting any more info not long before the preliminary report was posted, which Kaly so nicely found for us.  :-)

Now Kaly and I are going to do some research to try to find out why and how this happened where it did.  On to the fault maps...!
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So it's 1-something in the morning, and I think I felt an earthquake about a half hour ago. I was lying in bed, not asleep yet, and I heard the window rattle at the same time as it felt like the bed was vibrating a little bit. My first thought was an earthquake, though I'm not sure why since we don't have earthquakes here and I've never felt one before, but that's the only thng I can think of since there was no wind or anything else that could have possibly rattled the window. It was very strange... We'll have to wait till tomorrow (today) I guess to hopefully find out what the deal is, if there is a deal. I'm going back to bed now.
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Thursday, June 24, 2004
Things That Annoy Me.
Dreamweaver. When we bought this (it's a web page editing program), it was supposed to be SOOOO much better than Microsoft FrontPage. Now, I despise Microsoft as much as the next guy, but I have to say that it was actually easier to make new pages, edit my blog templates, etc. with FP than with Dreamweaver. The latter may be "better," according to a lot of people, but it is certainly not as user-friendly, images don't show up, and it always seems to mess something up royally. Please tell me, HOW is that "better?"
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Wednesday, June 23, 2004
"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."
We had some outdoor plumbing issues we've been needing to take care of for a while, and we finally decided to tackle it this weekend. Specifically, the pipe running from the front of our house to the street to carry our sump pump water to the gutter was in such bad shape that it was essentially useless. It was mostly disconnected where it joins the house, and the rest of the pipe running under the flowerbed was cracked, resulting in the flooding of some of said flowerbed whenever the sump pump ran (before we realized this and, um, diverted the water elsewhere until we could get it fixed, something which we apparently are "not really supposed to do." Ish.) So in the process of digging up some of the flowerbed to see just how much of the pipe needed to be replaced, we discovered the likely reason for the damage to the pipe: a big ole bush (we assume) stump buried under the dirt, that had been pushing against the pipe for who-knows-how-long. Lovely. So after a couple of hours of digging and prying and sweating and almost-swearing, we managed to get it out and successfully replace a portion of the pipe (that thankfully didn't reach any farther than the flowerbed so we didn't have to worry about digging up any of our lawn). Yeah, that whole thing kinda sucked. But it's done now. Whew. Now we just have to figure out how to replace the beyond-leaking outdoor water spigot, that leaks even when the water is turned off. What fun.
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Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Um... oops?
We suck.  Or maybe just Josh sucks.  Because he was the one who wrote the Raleigh Ringers concert down on the wrong date on the calendar, thus causing us to miss it this past weekend.  "Oooh, fiddlesticks."

Techs us holed um.
I watched one episode from the first season of Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown."  I was less than impressed.  But a few episodes into the second season we saw that Lauren Graham (Lorelai on "Gilmore Girls," for those not in "the know") was going to be on the show and decided to watch it again just for that reason.  Compared to the first episode we saw, the entertainment level jumped about 3000-precent.  Unfunny host Kevin Pollack was replaced with the very funny Dave Foley, they had a professional poker champ analyzing the game along with him -- I learned enough about Texas Hold'Em on this one show that I think I could actually decently play it now --, and the players' (Lauren Graham, Matthew Perry, Sara Rue, Sean Astin, and Chris Masterson) interaction with each other was actually loads of fun to watch.  You put that many naturally funny people together and throw in a little competition and it's sure to be entertaining to watch.  So much so, in fact, that I even watched part of the episode a second time during a rerun.  Of course, I'm also jazzed that Lauren won the game and so will also be competing in the championship game, along with the ridiculously funny Michael Ian Black (Phil on "Ed," for those not in "the know").  I'm hoping they'll rerun the game he won before the championship so I can see that, too.  And you can also be sure I'll be watching this week's final first-round game with Jon Favreau and Andy Richter.  The key:  funny.  If you be funny, they will watch.
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Thursday, June 17, 2004
Answer:  So not cool.
Question:  What is getting a $14 parking ticket for having your car parked in front of your house overnight (specifically between 2am and 6am), when you've done it tons of times before, your neighbors are always doing it, and there are no signs anywhere saying anything about no parking between 2 and 6am?
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Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Blogging by proxy.
For any of you out there who also know Patty (of the "Patty's Blog" link to the right), and thus also know that she is now at her Navy boot camp, you might be interested to know that she has sent me the first of her entries since she got there, which I have now posted on her blog.
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"Great, now there are gonna be cats everywhere..."
Please watch the following two commercials:

1.  Discovery Channel ad.

2.  Yahoo ad with Ben Stein and Al Franken.

These are the two best commercials I have seen this year*.  Enjoy them.

*This includes the Super Bowl.
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Tuesday, June 15, 2004
"Neo-classical-Michael-Graves-inspired nightmare of a stucco library."
-OR-
Non-Update Update of the Week.
So I finally got called for an interview for a library aide position last week -- you know, from that qualifying exam I took way back last NOVEMBER.  So I finally get called, and the first thing I ask is the hours.  Thursday nights.  Every Saturday.  Rotating Sundays.  Aargh.  Thanks, but no thanks.  And there are no biology jobs.  At least not in any of the job listings I've looked at.  And if there ever is one, it isn't one I'm even remotely qualified for.  So we're back to watching and waiting.  Blah, blah, blah...
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Monday, June 14, 2004
I want to live in Madison.  Seriously.
Madison is like Ames.   Except four times as big.  And with lakes.  And with practically every business you could ever want, including a Maid-Rite (!) and a TimberLodge Steakhouse, the greatest of all chain steakhouses.  And it's a college town, which are the greatest of all towns.  And it's about an hour-and-a-half closer to our family in Iowa than where we live now.  And still close enough to be able to do the occasional thing in Milwaukee, or even Chicago, as well as sginificantly closer to the Twin Cities than we are now.  And the time we've spent there, including driving around on Saturday looking for my golf shoes, has left a very positive impression on both of us.  Aesthetically it has it all over a city like Racine, which I've always felt left a lot to be desired in that area.  Lots of trees.  And did I mention the lakes?  Yeah, I could definitely do this...

Anyway, the good news is that after a day of going to golf and sporting goods stores all around Milwaukee and Madison, I actually found my shoes (see previous entry) at the last store we went to, fifteen minutes before they closed.  The bad news is two-fold:  1) they didn't have them in my size, and  2) they were $99.99, more than twice the price I could get them for online.  I was able to find out about what size I would need, though, and thought about getting them online, but I couldn't have gotten the color I wanted for the cheap price, so I passed.  Luckily I found and bought another pair that were on sale, comfortable, and I may even like better than the mythical and elusive "Pin High" shoes.  So it's all good.

And the trip to Madison wasn't a complete bust as I got to eat Maid-Rite and we bought nine CDs at two very good (and one very huge) used CD stores.  We're talking selection like I have never seen before.  Blue Rodeo, Joe Henry, Lizzie West, Sam Phillips... CDs you would have a hard time finding at Best Buy.  I can't tell you how many times I came across something and thought to myself how I wish I had done more research to know whether or not I wanted it.  Another great thing about college towns: you can find used CDs that you just won't be able to find anywhere else.  You know, actual good music.  Yeah, I could definitely do this...
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Thursday, June 10, 2004
"It'd be a little like looking for an Irish Johnny Cash in a haystack."
I get frustrated with things.  You see, I'll be in the market for something, and I'll find one particular something of that something and fall in love with it.  Then I get very determined to find that one exact something, and if I can't I get a little... agitated.  Such is the state I'm in right now (not exactly as I write this, but in general).

At this point into our golfing endeavor, I have most everything:  a set of clubs, headcovers, towel, balls, tees, a glove... the one thing I don't have (besides a desired skill level) is a pair of golf shoes.  It's not like you need them, although they are required attire for some golf courses, just not any we've played on.  But they can certainly improve your game, much in the way shoes with cleats will help a football or baseball player.  Since I can use all the help I can get, I've been looking for a relatively cheap pair.  And I found one.  They're inexpensive, of very good quality, look much more comfortable than most golf shoes, and are nice and stylish to boot, something that for a young, hot chick like me is important. ;)  The problem:  I found them online.  Actually, I've found them pretty much everywhere online.  But for the life of me I CANNOT FIND THEM in a PHYSICALLY EXISTING STORE that I can WALK INTO and TRY THEM ON.  And I am not about to buy a pair of shoes, any pair of shoes, if I can't try them on to  A) make sure they're comfortable, and  B) find out which size I need (I've mentioned previously that I own shoes anywhere from size 7 to size 10).

I'm very frustrated, because if I can't find them in an actual store, I can't buy them.  And I want to buy them.  I want to buy them very badly.  A store doesn't even need to have my exact size or color; if they have one close enough, I can make a good enough educated guess as to what size I need and then order it online.  But I need to see that physical pair first.  This is where the internet starts to seem more like a curse than a blessing.  All the internet does for me in this case is tell me what stores I can go into and not find the shoes I'm looking for.  After all, they don't need to have them actually IN STOCK anymore, because you can just buy them online!  Yeah, right.  And this is all made worse by the fact that I'm a woman.  It was much more difficult to find women's gloves and women's clubs, and a golf store that carries fifty different styles of men's shoes will have maybe six women's styles.  Because we all know women don't play golf.

And someone needs to explain this to me:
Go to Dick's Sporting Goods.
Now go to the LPGA Pro Shop.
Now go to Sportmart.
Now go to Pro Golf.
Now go to Dunham's Sports.
I could go on and on.  Seriously, what's going on here?  Even if you were willing to buy blindly online, it sure doesn't help you find the size and/or color you want if every "website" is exactly the same except for the name at the top.  Exact same price, exact same stock, even on the sites for stores you can actually walk into.  What's the point?  With the exception of the "store locator," the sites really have absolutely no connection to the stores themselves.  How utterly useless.  Utterly, utterly useless.

Aargh.
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Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Beth-Annie's hint of the day for anyone who might be needing an idea for nothing in particular.
I like Pier 1.
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Monday, June 07, 2004
Prepare to be shocked.
Josh and I went to the LPGA Kellogg-Keebeler Classic on Saturday.  I know, you never would have guessed.  24 holes, about five miles of brisk walking, a not-painless-but-at-least-quite-small sunburn, six free Callaway (read: real (read: expensive)) golfballs, two free golf visors, and about fifteen free mini-snacks later, and we'd had a nice, full (and more than a little tiring) day.  And, of course, I, along with a few thousand other people, got to see my girl Annika play another 18 holes up close, which I will jump at any chance I get since she's likely going to quit playing professionally in the not-too-distant future and has already limited her schedule significantly.  She shot a 6-under 66, including four birdies in a row.  We also managed to follow Heather Bowie* for one hole (on her way to being cut), and Angela Stanford** for five (on her way to a tie for 5th place -- yay, Angie!).  And Annika ended up tied for 2nd.  Good stuff.  Hopefully we can make it to the State Farm Classic in Springfield this September, too.

See a lovely photo of us at the event here.  And, conveniently, you may also order a print of it for $8.95 to $12.95.  You're welcome.

Other happenings this weekend:  Two performances of Robert Ray's Gospel Mass (how ready am I for a break from musical performances for a while?), the end-of-the-year choir party, and a lovely nasty gash on my right thumb from a carrot-grating incident gone horribly wrong (including grating off part of my thumbnail.  Yup.  That's a new experience.  And one I will be quite happy to never repeat).

*my third-favorite LPGA player
**my second-favorite LPGA player
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Friday, June 04, 2004
"Right in the sky, there's fifty umbrellas, reasonably priced, tell all the
fellas."
Best full album I've bought so far this year*:
Muse, Absolution.  Shades of Fleming & John.  Shades of Queen.  Shades of Howie Day.  Shades of Radiohead.  Actually, more full-on colors of Radiohead.  (But don't let that discourage you, you Radiohead snobs... and I know you're out there.  This is a seriously good album.)  "Butterflies and Hurricanes" is one of the greatest rock songs I've heard in a long time, complete with a classical piano interlude.  Just ask if you'd like to hear the complete thing, for that song or for any of them, and I can oblige.

Best weirdo-awesome music Matt would like (and probably Alex, too):
The Detholz.  Shades of Danielson Famile, except good.  Shades of early Steve Taylor.  Shades of Star Trek.  Self-described as "the Beach Boys meet Marilyn Manson."  I'm serious about this one.  If you only listen to one thing I say, let it be this.  (Stupid flash site so I can't link directly for you, but go to their mp3 page and listen.)  "The Detholz! are currently attempting to APPROXIMATE the style of music that will be popular AFTER what becomes popular NEXT, therefore staying ahead of schedule and arriving in plenty of TIME."

Best promising-but-not-quite-there-yet band:
Eisley.  Definitely a talented bunch, and obviously quite good at music writing and song arrangement... wonderful use of harmony and multiple vocalists.  Just need to learn how to write more lyrics and let their still-young voices mature a bit more.

Best uncharacteristically good song by an otherwise freaky/scary/screaming-vocals band (you know the type):
"My Heartstrings Come Undone," Demon Hunter.  It's hard to wrap my brain around the fact that Aaron Sprinkle produced both this and Eisley's latest EP.

Worst uncharacteristically bad single by a group that should be able to release better stuff than that:
"Roses," OutKast.

Best artists who are really good when they let themselves rock out but for some reason still stick to mostly sleep-inducing music on their albums:
Josh Rouse and Duncan Sheik.

Best unbelievably brilliant songs on an otherwise too-much-for-me album:
"Inertiatic ESP" and "Televators," The Mars Volta.

*Not counting Thoroughly Modern Millie, which was unfairly influenced by my memories of seeing the show.
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Thursday, June 03, 2004
Oops.
And Happpy Anniversary to Matthew and Kimberly.
And Happy Birthday to moM.
Whew. Dodged that one. Mostly.
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An entry for the complainers.
I once read this thing in a magazine where a reader wrote in asking why there don't seem to be very many women superheroes in the world. And the professional magazine answerer answered by providing examples such as Madeline Albright. That annoyed me.

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Here are some pictures from Kaly's graduation weekend:

The barefoot graduate.

A lovely all-arms-must-be-hanging-straight-down-at-the-sides family shot. Apparently.

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Here are some pictures from our Memorial Day weekend in Iowa:

Chicago Cubs phenom Mark Prior pitching in his final minor league rehab stint, for the Iowa Cubs. Yay.

One of the many storms we passed by on our drive home. For the whole 6+ hour drive we had storms surrounding us on one to three sides, but never got more than a few drops of rain on our windshield. Not sure how that happened. (Oh, and in that second pic, that's just torrential rain, not the gargantuan tornado it sort of looks like.)

Yeah, and we also played 72 holes of disc golf in 36 hours.
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