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

Tuesday, January 31, 2006
And I will hug him and squeeze him and call him George the Basketball Post...
For being a single sport, basketball has many incarnations.  NBA is different from college, college is different from high school, men's (or boys') is different from women's (or girls'), etc.  When we were in college (and still whenever we can manage it when we're back in Ames) we went to every ISU women's basketball game we could, and as such got very used to the look and feel of women's college basketball.

Since we moved to the Madison area, the $10 ticket prices have kept us away from going to UW women's games, so instead we've opted for the $3-and-30-minutes-closer Belleville girls' games.  We've gone to most of the home games and a couple of the closer away games, and I've come to appreciate for the first time some significant differences between college and high school ball (especially when that high school is a small town one where the talent level is... a bit different, we'll just say).

I'm not going to go into all of them here, because that would just result a very long and very boring entry that no one would want to read.  Instead, I'll highlight one positive and one negative.

The positive:  I love how when everything is done on such a smaller scale you're just right up in all the action, can actually get to know the players' faces as well as their names and numbers, and can do things like sit and watch a game with the school's volleyball coach, who knows most of the players personally and gives you all sorts of insight into who they are, both within the context of the different sports they play and outside of it.

The negative:  I really hate the lack of a shot clock.  Allow me to explain.  When the talent level is relatively low, having no deadline, if you will, by which to force something to actually happen very often results in... you guessed it, nothing happening.  For a long time.  Now, some might argue that when the talent level is relatively low, you need to give the team more time to find a situation of which they can take advantage.  But I've been to far too many games where the majority of the time the ball is simply passed around and around and around.  For ages.  This leads to games like one we went to the other week where the score after the first quarter was 2-1 and at the half was 6-6.  That's not fun for anybody to watch.  Granted, not every game is quite like that, and the occasional player will come in and actually try to create SOMETHING in a timely fashion -- with varied results, but that's at least a lot more entertaining -- but on the whole I think a shot clock of some sort would benefit the game.  It doesn't have to be exactly like college; make it 40 or 45 seconds if you must, just have something.  It would make the games more fun to watch and push the teams a bit, maybe even making them a little better.  Think about it.
2:10 PM    ||    I want to be a comment. Post me!

Thursday, January 26, 2006
Nice try, but...
I love "Lost." And I've been enjoying the Christian undertones and, more recently, overtones to the show. Except, of course, when they don't get it right, as in a line Eko -- a priest, so he should really know what he's talking about -- said last night: "It is said that when John the Baptist baptized Jesus, the skies opened up and a dove flew down from the sky." (So far, so good...) "This told John something. That he had cleansed this man of all his sins. That he had freed him." Um... Yeah, so if you're going to include biblical stories or imagery in the show, it might be helpful to actually read the Bible, m'kay? Because last I checked Jesus had no sin to be cleansed. That wasn't the point of his baptism. *Sigh*
1:09 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me!

Wednesday, January 25, 2006
I have got to quit promising things.
Ready...

Set...

GO!

In lieu of finishing our basement walls (at least for the time being, as it's a lot of work), I'm wanting to hang fabric over the concrete walls around the table (a la extra-long curtains), as well as some kind of curtain between the table area and the workbench/storage area you can sort of see in the first two photos. Because unlike a wall, a curtain doesn't impede a long pool cue. Unfortunately, unlike a wall, a curtain also can't house electrical outlets, of which we have, um, approximately none. Okay, that's sort of a lie, we have ONE outlet that's not used by the washer or dryer, but it's on the complete opposite side of the basement. So anything we need to plug in anywhere (power tools, dartboard, extra computer) will have to use extension cords and power strips. Such is life.
3:39 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me!

Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Anyone got a paper bag handy?
As my husband just pointed out in a comment, UPN and WB are merging into one gigantic supernetwork (haha).  Apparently.  Um.  This may not seem a huge deal (abstractly; literally it kind of is) to anyone who either doesn't watch much TV or doesn't watch much of the two mini-nets, but to someone like me, a deal like this has potentially huge consequences.  Especially for shows like (*shudder*) "Veronica Mars" and "Everwood," which are fan-freaking-tastic but lacking in the ratings department.  Here's just a few of the whys:

1)  The two networks can combine into one bigger one that will hopefully have more "oomph," but that doesn't magically make there be more hours in the week.  I realize that the networks currently only schedule two hours of primetime a day, which can be expanded, as can their programming to include all seven days of the week instead of just five or six.  And they say there will be 30 hours of programming per week -- but there's no way all of that will be primetime-type shows.  There just aren't enough primetime hours to go around, and a network isn't about to give a primetime budget to shows that aren't aired in primetime.  It's just not economically sound.  So we're going to have to say "adios" to somethings.

2)  The current heads of their respective networks (or heads of programming, or heads of entertainment, or whoever happens to make those life or death decisions) have been the ones sticking with shows like "Veronica" and "Everwood" to this point.  Now you bring in additional execs from the other network (it's been said that the new network would be run by current UPN and WB execs both), and all of a sudden you may have people who see things differently and want to make a different decision than those previously working alone.  Uh oh....

3)  Since UPN alone is a worse off network than the WB alone, on UPN "Veronica" was one of the network's few shining stars, making them much less likely to drop it.  On the new merged network, the show would automatically be demoted to a position behind many of the WB's more glamorous, higher-profile (and higher-rated) shows.  UPN needs the show for credibility and buzz -- the new network would not.

4)  In the same vein, if it were actually picked up for a third season, on the new network it would likely have to significantly increase its ratings from where they are now to be able to stay on the air.  It would no longer have simply beating the WB as a benchmark.

So, so scared, guys...  :-(
1:07 PM    ||    I want to be a comment. Post me!

Monday, January 23, 2006
I've died and gone to heaven.
Because, seriously?
5:07 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me!

Friday, January 20, 2006
Yesterday was a very good day.
Though admittedly in ways most of you won't give a lick about, but I sure do.

The several happy things:

1)  I FINALLY received the three copies of the "Nowhere Man" complete series DVD set that I ordered for myself and a couple family members for Christmas (it was released Dec. 27 but didn't ship until Jan. 16, grrrrr).  It is one of the greatest shows ever, despite lasting only one season and being on UPN one of the first years the network even existed.  It's the kind of show that I knew would never ever be released, let alone as a 9-disc (that's right -- I said NINE) set jam-packed with special features.  The fact that the people who made this show, including the star Bruce Greenwood who has since gone on to bigger and better things in the film world, would come back at this point to do multiple commentaries and interviews is proof that this is something that meant a lot to them and that they still have great affection for.  I haven't really been able to see it in years, and I'm superexcited.  Guess what we'll be doing this weekend.  :)

2)  I acquired much (officially-) unreleased Guster music, including several songs that didn't make the cut on both their last (2003) album and their upcoming (this spring) album and a seriously kicking live performance of "Dear Valentine" -- my favorite-that-I've-heard upcoming-album song -- that they did with the Boston Pops (yes, you read that right, too).  This band is so supergood to their fans.  :)

3)  And finally, we got something that we've been wanting for a long time, something that we had to rent a truck from Home Depot to get home and that took over an hour for the two of us to get into the house and down the basement stairs, both because it was so heavy and so big.  So very very big.  So big that we honestly didn't know if we'd be able to get it in, especially with the layout of our house in the required area.  It was, to say the least, extremely tight, but by golly we did it.  And we didn't even have to knock out any walls (yes, there was question about that at one point), only remove the basement stairs railing.  It was quite the adventure.  Now we just have to put it together, which also isn't likely to be superfun.  So guess what else we'll be doing this weekend?  I'll post a picture when it's all done so you can see the pretty.  Because it is oh so pretty.

And, yes, my new favorite thing is apparently adding a "super" prefix to any word I can.
1:17 PM    ||    I want to be a comment. Post me!

Tuesday, January 17, 2006
We just welcomed a new addition to our family:

1:23 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me!

Friday, January 13, 2006
Because I like being a news source to the two other people who care.
The four remaining episodes of "Arrested Development" that have yet to air since Fox pulled the show from its Monday night lineup -- causing fans to speculate that they may in fact never air outside of a DVD release -- have actually been scheduled by the network!  All four will air back-to-back on Friday, February 10 (why they're airing a show they consider a dud during sweeps I have no idea).  And it's being billed as -- wait for it -- a two-hour season  finale.  Aargh.  Kind of.  I hate not knowing whether to wish for cancellation or not at this point.  I'm so confused.

But hooray for actually getting to see the rest of the episodes.  And for not having to wait until May or June to do it.
12:47 PM    ||    I want to be a comment. Post me!

Wednesday, January 11, 2006
So there was this wedding...
...and perhaps I should actually tell you a bit about it.

We went to Ames Thursday night in time to go to the Iowa State women's basketball game, where we met up with Kaly and Paul and a few members of their entourage.  We won.  Yay.

Friday morning Josh and I picked up Patty (the Navy chick who flew in from Florida -- and who decided it would be a hoot to call the bride and pretend that no one had, in fact, picked her up) at the airport, then a whole gaggle of us decorated the church, went to lunch -- try saying "table for sixteen, please," it's quite fun -- and decorated the reception hall.  We all had just enough time to go to our respective homebases and change for the rehearsal; little did we know that the bride and groom were changing into the "His" and "Hers" wifebeaters they received as gifts at the "trailer trash" wedding shower  the folks Kaly works with had thrown them (for those not in the know, Paul -- and now Kaly -- lives in a trailer park by the university's Vet Med School since he's, you know, going to the university's Vet Med School and that's what students going to the university's Vet Med School do).  As reported in the photo gallery, they did change out of them right after.  :-P

The rehearsal was... rehearsally ("walk SLOWWWWWW"), and the rehearsal dinner was, likewise, quite dinnery.  The taco salad my grandmother ordered came about twice the size of her head.  Yes, I'm as disappointed as you that I didn't think to snap a picture of it.  Also, did you know carrots come in yellow now?  Me neither.  Orange is so last year.

After a night in which I hardly slept, the next morning I did my hair, which consisted of taking out my overnight curlers, piling the curls on the top-back of my head and securing them with about 671 bobby pins, and then (as I called it) shellacking it with a good amount of spray gel -- afterall, it had to last a good thirteen hours or so from that point.  I liked it for something I didn't have to shell out 40 bucks for (though I like it less in the pictures than I did that morning... not sure if that's because it deteriorated over time or if it just didn't translate to film well).

At noon some of us had lunch at The Cafe, where Paul couldn't stop grinning like a fool at Kaly, who I have to admit did look exceedingly pretty having just come from the salon where she (and a couple others) had had her hair and makeup done, veil and all.  Then the wedding party women took off for the church, where first thing Kaly discovered that the main lights in the sanctuary wouldn't turn on.  We tried everything we could think of, including flipping breakers in the fuse box, but to no avail.  To her credit Kaly was laughing about it more than freaking out, and in the end she did the only thing left she could and called our dad, who of course fixed it as soon as he got to the church (who knew there was more than one breaker box?).

We bridesmaids ended up with not nearly as much time as we needed to get both ourselves and the bride ready for pictures at 3:00, especially since her dress needed to have the entire back laced up -- very neatly, tightly, and evenly.  The bride's room was absolute chaos with makeup, hairpins and jewelry being thrown everywhere as the deadline approached (and, er, slightly passed, oops).

All told, pictures took -- no joke -- two-and-a-half hours.  How they took quite so long I still can't figure out, but during that time ISU managed to lose their bowl game (Josh started out the afternoon watching it at Paul's trailer -- the only place with cable -- coming to the church early in the second half to participate in a few pictures, and from then on the two of us intermittently listened to the game through headphones on the radio.  We were behind, we tied it up, then we were behind again, just this time when the clock happened to run out, boo).

I actually felt weirder participating in my little sister's wedding than in my own, probably because it wasn't my own wedding.  Heh.  And by that I mean, I was far enough removed from it that I could look at it a little more objectively than my own, but at the same time the person getting married was the person I'm closest to in the world other than my husband.  Plus, when it was my own, I was just so happy to be marrying Josh that I didn't really think about anything else (gee, Kaly, can you relate to that at all? ;-)), whereas with this one I actually had time to consider the weirdness of it all -- both of participating in the ceremony itself and of my wittle bitty sister actually getting MARRIED.  Gah.  At least it couldn't be to a greater guy.  :)  (Gee, I should really get around to adding a "Paul" link on my blog, don'tcha think? :-P)

So, yeah, the ceremony happened.  Only a few minutes before, the whole wedding party was waiting in the lounge and all three bridesmaids were doing last-minute -- literally -- necklace-switching/making (don't ask).  We didn't walk too fast (I don't think).  Sarah (the eldest Weitzel sister and bridesmaid) sang a lovely solo -- Bebo Norman's "A Page Is Turned" -- to my dad's guitar accompaniment, and I managed to only well up with tears and not actually cry,  which was a good thing since my mascara wasn't waterproof.  And near as I could tell, Paul "I'm an emotional guy" Hester didn't even really cry.  Or maybe he was just stealth enough about it.  :-)

Kaly left the church in a gorgeous cape made by Paul's grandmother -- incidentally, if anyone has any pictures of her in that cape, I'd love them;  I never got one.  Among other firsts for me that weekend, I rode in a limo (way cool) -- where Paul played with every button and control he could get his hands on (I won't say anything about where else his hands might have been during that ride to the reception -- I tried not to look :-P).

At the reception I also did a few things I'm not usually wont to do, like dance a lot -- and to some fast songs no less.  I had, well, a bit to drink, and that probably lowered my inhibitions a bit as far as things like that go, but it was also just the mostest funnest wedding reception I've ever been to, probably because of how well I knew the couple and the presence of some good friends.  And I got the DJ (Kaly's ex-boyfriend, weirdly enough) to play Over the Rhine's "Fool," so that in and of itself made the whole evening a success.  Though I have to say, my favorite song of the evening was probably actually Phil Vassar's "Carlene."  Because it doesn't matter how the name's spelled when it's sung in a song.  And Karleen and Paul just looked so adorably happy dancing to it.  :-)

Quite a few (though not a ton of) people stuck around till midnight to ring in 2006, including the bride and groom, who I never thought would make it till midnight (if you know what I mean.  And you do.).  Not that they stuck around much after.  By 12:30 those of us left were boxing up decorations and leftover cake, and my feet were in so much pain from the shoes I had stood and danced -- hard -- in for most of the day and night (incidentally the same shoes I wore for my own wedding, which have not-exactly-low heels) that if I were at all the kind of person to incorrectly use the word "literally," I would probably say my feet were literally screaming in pain.  But I won't.  Because they weren't.  Feet can't scream.  M'kay?  Suffice it say they hurt like they've never hurt before.  And that  I mean quite literally.

We all (and I say that because Patty was staying with us) finally went to bed sometime after 2am, and unlike the previous night I had no trouble whatsoever getting to sleep.

The next day we spent collecting Kaly's and our things from the bride's room at church, exposing Patty to the wonder that is Hickory Park, wrapping Kaly and Paul's gifts (in Josh's beloved ISAAC MIZRAHI wrapping paper from Target), and watching Kaly and Paul open their gifts.

Then we drived home, cuz we was dun.

:-P
5:49 PM    ||    I want to be a comment. Post me!

Monday, January 09, 2006
The Cubs are dead to me.
I could take their sucking and even their blowing, but this, this...

They traded Corey.  MY  Corey.

How dare they.

I know he had a disappointing season last year, but COME ON!  This is what I hate about professional sports.  Your favorite player can be dropped from your favorite team at any moment, and that's just too bad for you.  No more getting to see him play in person.  Very few chances to see him play on TV.  He can no longer help your favorite team win.  And that jersey of yours?  Invalidated.

No.  Fair.

Even less fair?  They traded him for two minor-leaguers.  Way to make a crappy deal in about thirteen different ways, Cubbies.  You're gonna have to WIN me back, now.  And I mean that quite literally.  Although if you have another bad season, at least I can blame it on you trading him away.  Nyah nyah.

So go Orioles.  Scratch that, I don't care about the Orioles.  Just go Corey.  Kick this season's you-know-what and show the Cubs what a ginormous mistake they made.
6:15 PM    ||    I want to be a comment. Post me!

Friday, January 06, 2006
Click beer.

5:09 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me!

Thursday, January 05, 2006
While you wait...
Please enjoy the greatest thing "Saturday Night Live" has thrown our way in a long time. Because there's nothing funnier than white guys rapping. Unless it's white guys rapping about The Chronicles of Narnia and cupcakes.
3:13 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me!

Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Nothing much happened this weekend.
But for anything that did, I would probably be working on getting our pictures online for everyone. Because there are so many, I'm installing an actual gallery program to do it, something I've been meaning to do for a long time anyway. Until that, as well is what is sure to be a long blog entry, is done, here are a few photos to tide y'all over.

There are also some Steve- and Patty-centric photos here.

Full entry and all photos to come tomorrow, hopefully.
4:13 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me!