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

Wednesday, August 31, 2005
The Jedi Council are Presbyterians?
In an attempt to dedepress myself from the constant news coverage of the past couple days (you people without the 24-hour cable news channels should perhaps count yourselves lucky that you probably haven't been able to become as completely absorbed in it as I have), I present some tidbits of... just other things.

Like this site which shows screen caps from Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith with English subtitles translated from the original English's Chinese translation.  If that makes any sense.  Not that it should make any sense, as evidenced by the title:  Episode III - The Backstroke of the West.  (Also where this entry title came from, as "the Jedi Council" is translated into "the Presbyterian Church.")

And the Most Literal Movie Title of the Year Award goes to this undoubtedly cinematic masterpiece, whose plotline according to IMDB is thus:  "On board a flight over the Pacific Ocean, an assassin, bent on killing a passenger who's a witness in protective custody, let loose a crate full of deadly snakes."

And, though not funny, this is related to funny.  Though it's from yesterday, so the one of you who cares has probably already heard about it.
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Monday, August 29, 2005
Okay, see, I think you misunderstood me when I made my hurricane comment a few posts ago. It was not a request. Geez.
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Thursday, August 25, 2005
Holy.  Crap.
If this turns out to be false, I WILL throw a fit the likes of which hasn't been seen since... since... sliced bread!  Ha!  However, if it turns out to be true, PAR-TAY AT BETH-ANNIE'S, AND YOU'RE ALL INVITED!  WOO HOO!
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Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a trailer.
It looks like it's really going to happen. Perhaps they're waiting until February so it doesn't get buried in the glut of small-movie Oscar-hopefuls? Fine by me as long as I get to see a Steve Taylor film in an actual theater.
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Friday, August 19, 2005
Maybe a basement without windows isn't such a bad thing afterall...
I have long had a love affair with severe weather.  Strong winds, pounding rain, brilliant lightning shows and crashing thunder, that wacked out phenomenon that is hail, even a tornado warning here and there.  It brings excitement and exhilaration to an ordinary, boring day, plus I've always been fascinated by weather from a scientific point of view, the extreme sorts especially (I'm glued to the Weather Channel whenever a hurricane hits the U.S.).

Last night that love affair was dimmed just a smidge.  That's what happens when a tornado (speculated to be at least an F3 or F4) destroys a neighborhood a mere fifteen miles from your house, killing one person (so far).  When you watch the local news' hours of severe weather coverage and see something like that happen so close to home, in an area you've driven through and even considered possibly buying a house near several months ago, yeah, it's bound to make you a little more nervous about severe weather -- or at least tornado watches and warnings, which happen often enough but usually nothing much comes of them (at least not right by you or in populated areas).

So, hmmmmm.  Supposed to get more severe weather tonight.  Let's just hope it doesn't include tornadoes this time...
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Wednesday, August 17, 2005
DAY TEN:  Fri. Dec. 3.

It's not just an air freshener anymore.
The fifth "day" of a five day/four night cruise basically consists of eating breakfast, sitting and waiting for your luggage tag color to be called, and leaving the ship.  We had heard horror stories of the waiting and waiting and waiting to be let off the ship, but before we even had a chance to go to breakfast, our color was called and we decided to just high-tail it (we'd heard the last morning's breakfast usually wasn't that great anyway) and were off the ship by 7:40am.  Our mistake was thinking we were home free at that point.  We figured it wouldn't take that long to get our luggage -- after all, it doesn't at the airport.  We watched hundreds and hundreds of bags, um, convey past us, with many false hopes that we had found maybe even ONE of our three bags.  No.  No bags for us.  At least not for sixty freaking minutes.  Yeah, if we'd known that we would have at least eaten breakfast, even if it was sub-par.

After then finally leaving the Port of Miami parking garage around 9:30 (and you don't want to know how much we had to pay.  It was $12 a day.  Pffft.), we drove around a lot.  Did some brief shopping in Coconut Grove and found Jon Stewart's America:  The Book  for cheap, grabbed a real estate flyer in a residential neighborhood just for the heck of it (one house was an amazingly affordable $568K 3-BR, another was $2.3 million), and did a driving tour of Coral Gables from a guidebook that was part interesting (pretty neighborhoods, the Biltmore Hotel), part, well, boring (after a while yet another pretty neighborhood just doesn't do it anymore).

Lots more driving (traffic was annoying, the suburbs became lower rent -- i.e. not nearly as pretty to look at -- and we were both getting tired) and we were Thrilled to arrive at Evergaldes National Park.  Luckily it was the dry season, which meant cooler temperatures, fewer mosquitoes, and, best of all, more -- or at least more visible -- wildlife (and even with bug spray the muskytodes ett us anyway, so I understand why the literature says they can be "unbearable" during the rainy season).  Since it got dark deceptively early for such warm weather (we are midwesterners, afterall), we only had a few hours to explore the park, which was just long enough to take a few short boardwalk trails and drive about three-quarters of the way down the main park road and then back again (there's no "out" on the other side, you have to turn around and go back the way you came at some point).  The trails and the drive allowed us to see several of the different sort of mini-ecosystems within the Everglades, including the most-thought-of "river of grass" wetlands, subtropical pine forest, and mangrove forest where the fresh and saltwater start to mix.  Did we see any alligators?  If so, we would most certainly have taken a photo of it and put it on the photo page.

[Purty floating plant things.]

As it was going to be getting dark soon, we left Everglades NP around 5 and drove to our hotel in Naples where we proceeded to order a pizza and gawk at our room that was roughly 72 times the size of our cruise cabin (okay, so it was really only about four times the size. Details, details...). And the greatest thing? We could each have our own queen-size bed! Yay! Tomorrow I will lose my Pasadena golf disc. Boo!

[Is there anything cooler than a panther crossing sign? Nope. There's not.]
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Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Two completely unrelated things.
1.  We got quite a workout on Saturday hiking about eight miles through the Mississippi River valley near Prairie du Chien with Kaly and her fiance Paul.  Lovely views, nasty uphill climbs, and... interesting when we would go off the trail, as Paul has a penchant for doing.  Also almost lost one of my favorite shirts (key word "almost," thankfully), and Josh and I found camping in the Rendezvous definitely more comfortable with the addition of an air mattress.  Maybe I'll post a few pictures later this week.

2.  If tonight's and Thursday's "Big Brother"s go down the way I think they're gonna, I may soon quit watching altogether. Over five years of "BB" I have never quit watching before the season was over.  But this time...   Unless a miracle occurs, I'd rather not spend three nights a week hurling into a paper bag.
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Thursday, August 11, 2005
Because TV is not everything in life.  Seriously.
Per Matthew's suggestion, here are the three churches we might go to.  All are Lutheran ELCA.  Some of the attributes listed may seem superficial, but can affect the "feel" of a church nonetheless.  For instance, I greatly prefer a pipe organ to an electronic one or none at all.  Not a deal-breaker, necessarily, but still a preference.

Church A:  Smallish.  Traditional, old building.  Roughly 10 minutes away.  Bell choir.  Pipe organ existence to be determined.

Church B:  Biggish.  Building neither particularly old or new, nice brick architecture sanctuary.  Roughly 20 minutes away.  Bell choir(s) as well as fairly ambitious music program in general.  Big, beautiful pipe organ.  Most similar to our previous church.

Church C:  Smallish.  New, contemporary building (with video screens in sanctuary, though relatively unobtrusive and not relied upon heavily).  Just over 20 minutes away.  No bell choir, but does have chimes and might have enough people for a chime choir if we were to join.  No organ, only piano.  Already know a couple our age who are very involved members (one even on staff and youth director).

So.  I don't know.  The problem is we haven't really been able to go to these churches not during the summer, so it's hard to really know what they're like most of the year when all the activities are actually going on.  We probably won't make a final decision until this fall when we've had a chance to do that.

The end.
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Wednesday, August 10, 2005
I am a poopyhead.
Have I been shirking my posting duties lately? Yup. Do I have an excuse? Nope. Could I always write up another Trip-o-Logue entry? Sure, but who wants to go to all that effort? Not me. Okay, let's get serious here. If you'll ~~watch "Veronica Mars"~~ give me ideas for things to write about, in the meantime I'll actually start work on another pretty-picture-plentiful entry about our Florida trip (from EIGHT months ago now). Deal?
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Monday, August 08, 2005
Peter Jennings.
He was my favorite.
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Thursday, August 04, 2005
Summer TV.
Sucks.  For the most part.  But, because I need to write something, here's what I've been watching this summer.  (I've really cut down on the crapful reality shows this summer -- especially considering how many of them are out there.  Be proud of me.)

already done:
"Into the West" (tnt) -- interesting but ultimately depressing 10-hour miniseries spanning much of the 1800s.  Watching that many indian massacres will bring anyone down.

"Beauty and the Geek" (wb) -- not sleazy or mean, but after about the first two episodes seemed to lose something.  I wouldn't watch the next incarnation.

"Summerland" (wb) -- why, you ask?  Um... um... guilty pleasure.  That's the best I can do.

currently:
"Stella" (comedy central) -- new show based on Michael Ian Black and Co.'s comedic stage show.  Can be hit or miss, but it's hit enough for me to keep watching.  Downright strange at times; you definitely have to have a weird sense of humor to appreciate some of this stuff.  I can't even describe it.

"Entourage" (hbo) -- I kind of hate myself for liking this show, seeing as the characters (or at least large facets of them) are pretty hard to like, but it's definitely funny and well-written.  Jeremy Piven as a self-absorbed Hollywood agent makes the show.

"The Comeback" (hbo) -- blast that new customer digital cable deal for giving us HBO.  Lisa Kudrow is downright painful to watch (not as in bad) as a has-been former sitcom star trying to become "make it" again.  So why do I keep watching?  Because I can't look away.

"Big Brother" (cbs) -- it's "Big Brother."  Like I'm not gonna watch it.  Where else can you hear such gems as, "Boom!  All of a sudden my rope turns into the biggest knot since the Grand Canyon."  Come on, you can't write this stuff, people.  (Incidentally, if Kaysar is evicted tonight I will throw a fit.  And not just because he's so pretty.)

"Situation: Comedy" (bravo) -- like a sitcom version of "Project Greenlight."  Um, which is to say it follows the choosing and production of a sitcom pilot (well, two, actually, that are competing for a possible spot on NBC's schedule).  Early verdict (there've only been two episodes so far):  interesting but not engrossing.  Yet.

"Firefly" (sci fi) -- the sci fi channel is thankfully rerunning all 13 episodes (some of which never aired) of this critically acclaimed and prematurely canceled FOX show from a few seasons ago.  I never watched it when it originally aired (probably a good thing as it saved me from the massive disappointment so many felt upon its cancellation), but I'm sure as heck not making that mistake this time.  Especially with the "Firefly" movie Serenity being released in September.  How that ever got made I have no idea, but I'm looking forward to it.

Reruns of "Veronica Mars," "Lost," and "Gilmore Girls."  Everything else either isn't worth watching again or isn't being rerun (FOX, I'm looking at you -- or at least I was until you finally started rerunning "Arrested Development" last week.  How dare you wait so long and then bury it on Fridays.  Not cool.)
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Monday, August 01, 2005
I believe I promised you a quiz.
And I'm not one to go back on my word, so here it is. It's very simple, really: if you saw either or both of the episodes, just tell me what you liked or didn't like about them specifically or the show in general, and whether you liked it enough to watch again next week without me threatening you. ;-) That's it. (I'll also answer any questions if needed.)
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