The Child Inside

One of my favorite songs of all time, "The Child Inside" by Qkumba Zoo - why oh why didn't they crank out more wonderful music with a feel similar to this song!?

Dad's birthday in Rochester

Dad's birthday was this past Saturday, and we hadn't seen my folks since Christmas, so we decided to head up for a visit. It was going to be a surprise, but mom figured she should let dad in on it so he wouldn't plan any golfing for the weekend. Turns out the weather was crap the whole weekend (up until Sunday afternoon, our return) - no risk of getting outside for some fun!

I'm just going to fly through with some BRIEF captions for allllll these pics I just uploaded!

Here's a pic Brett took of me as we were driving up. I didn't know he was taking a picture, or I would've tried to be more photogenic. We have a video that starts off looking like this - it sort of pays tribute to the late, departed "Drive" tv series. That'll come later - YouTube's REALLY slow with the uploads tonite!


Mom picked up two desserts from Wegman's for dad's birthday (rather than make a cake, which he really didn't want this year). The first was a fruit tart, which was REALLY REALLY good!! MMM! And you can pretend it's healthy with all that fruit. Here she's torching the candle on top.


Dad posing with what they call the "fruit jewelry" from Wegman's.


And blowing out the candle.


Brett partaking of his version of birthday dessert since he doesn't eat anything with fruit on it.


And the next day was actually Dad's birthday, so he got the other dessert - the chocolate dome from Wegman's. We shared this with mom and dad's young and very cool friends, Andy and Kelly. They have a LOT of interests in common with us (computers, gardening, chickens, bee keeping, biology, cooking, tv gadgets, Battlestar Galactica, home canning, etc). Andy also likes to hunt - something we're not so into. Anyhow - good to have them there to share the dome with - VERY rich stuff!


While roaming the back yard, dad showed me the duck nest - there's 10 eggs in there. The mom duck flew off, but came back later.


Backyard view of the house.


Andy sold dad his smoker so he can get a new one. Here's dad trying his first meat-smoking, and mom, um, supervising?


Dad checking out his weinies.


I guess when you smoke meat, you smoke A LOT at once (since you have all that space and it's sort of an all day affair. There was beef (with bacon on top), a variety of weinies (including Zweigels - a very popular brand in Rochester), and pork loin. All good stuff, and I know dad'll continue to refine his meat smoking techniques!


Brett enjoying a Zweigel's red hot...


Mmmmm, good hot dog!


Lounging around Saturday...


The girls - Ming in the background, and her mother Murphy in the foreground. Murphy's turning 19 this year, and Ming's a year and a half (?) younger...


Mom reaching out to Ming...


Murphy up close....poor old kitty!


Brett up close....poor old boyfriend.


Cute kitty!


Old paws.


Old, but still very fluffy!


Dad making waffles this morning, and mom fixing her plate...


Mmmm cantelope!


The girl's lounging around in front of the fire - AGAIN!


Mom let us have their old red leather chair - she and Brett have been in negotiations for years on this. We brought it back this visit (yes, more stuff as we should be decluttering for condo showings), and Simon really took a liking to it!

Tucker Loves Sharon

This past Thursday, my semi-usual "work from home" day, Sharon and I went out to House Gourmet for sushi/Chinese lunch (something we often do). Afterwards we went our separate ways - and since I'd taken the afternoon off, I changed a brake light in my car, and was just starting to fill some pots with dirt to start my first lettuce seed mix, spinach, bok choi and swiss chard for the year (a bit late, yes). The phone rang. It was Sharon. She was at the mechanic and what she'd hoped was going to be a short visit turned into a "we're going to have to replace your brakes or you're going to have a wreck" type visit.

Could I come pick her up while they worked on her car for several hours?

SURE! It was less than 10 min away - and she just wanted somewhere to do her homework. So I drove on out, got her, came back and she got situated. I did some other stuff needing to get done like started some bread dough to take to my folks' the next day and planted my seeds. We chatted while she did her homework and I did my stuff.

And Tucker felt she needed some lovin'...

Here's Tucker's expression while being ignored by a very studious Sharon - does he look put out or what!?


Two things are going on in this next picture:

1. I realized something odd was happening in the other pictures - they weren't turning out very well. Turns out there was a fine cloud of flour in the air while I was making bread dough, and the flash was lighting up all those flour particles. So, no, there's no smoke in the air - it's just flour floating around.
2. And the other thing - Tucker kept trying to get Sharon's attention, and did whatever it took - including cleaning himself ON the table in front of her!!
   

I'm uploading a video to YouTube right now of Tucker giving Sharon some real loving, but it's taking FOREVER....so I'll post that another nite...

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Ginger Tabby!!!! (Yes, a little bird told me)

No More Drive

Whaaaaat!? This is ridiculous! We really loved the show! And those of you who've commented on it here really seemed to like it as well. Do you know anyone who didn't like it?? Hm...this sucks. I feel bad for the main guy - name escapes me right now - the guy from Firefly. He's probably feeling like the kiss of death!

Short 'Drive': Show yanked after two episodes

Story Highlights

• Fox's "Drive" pulled after two episodes
• Show had high-profile debut, big publicity push
• Ratings dismal; show may have even hurt "24," which airs after

LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- It's been a short "Drive" for Fox's midseason drama, which has been pulled off the schedule after two weeks on the air.

For the time being, the serialized drama chronicling an underground cross-country race will be replaced by "House" repeats in the Monday 8 p.m. slot.

"Drive" received a strong promotional push on Fox's juggernaut "American Idol" and was launched with a two-night premiere, a strategy regularly used for the network's hit serialized drama "24."

But "Drive" never clicked with viewers, and its two low-rated airings on Monday seemed to hurt its leadout, "24," which posted its lowest adults 18-49 rating for an original episode in more than three years.

It is not clear when and on what platform the remaining nine episodes of "Drive" will air. Streaming the episodes on Fox.com or offering them as downloads through iTunes are among the possibilities under consideration.

A night chock full of TV!

Warning - there be spoilers below!

We finally got to watch last week's Ugly Betty - good episode, but not one of the usual "non-stop laughter" and "oh no s/he didn't!" type episodes. Still...pretty darn good!

And we watched tonite's new "Drive" - that show still keeps up the speed! The car crash with (and I'm trying to remember names here) Susan and Leigh?....whoa - intense!! I still think it was a racial thing (two black ladies driving around down south?), but Brett wondered if it was people in charge of the game smashing them with their pickup. Eh, he's probably right on this one.

And "Heroes"? WHOOOOOOOOOA! GOOD ONE! I don't know what it is about that show, but they can really make you feel like you're getting two hours worth of show in just 60 minutes! Great episode. Claire seems to be shifting gears real well after having left her family, but she DOES have her goals. Pretty much foresaw what happened with Peter. Didn't expect Isaac to go down like that. Was surprised Jessica did that with her son....and then "doh!" Oh. But I guess that should've put some more pieces of the puzzle together since she was there with Linderman?

Whatever happened to the girl who could hack computers/email? She was on so briefly!

I'm liking nuclear dude every time I see him. And it was fun having Mr Bennett direct the guys...

Hiro of the future looks SO different!

GREAT episode!

Game Night!

We've had another game night in the works for a few weeks now - it's hard to make these things happen with everyone's busy schedules sometimes. But finally the day was here, and I had to get busy prepping some food! Turns out we had two short notice condo showings that same day - one in the morning, and one the hour before we were due at Michele & John's - so I had to get with it as soon as all the cleaning was done!

Sharon was whipping up a super yummy batch of Sloppy Joe's from scratch. And homemade Sloppy Joe's need homemade buns (well, if you ask me they do!). And thanks to Joe turning me on to the King Arthur beautiful buns recipe awhile back, I was all set! Brett and I love these buns, and wanted to show them off! We needed enough to make sure all six folks would be well fed, so I decided to experiment and try converting one of the two recipes to wheat buns. I replaced 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour with wheat flour - I don't know if this is why the buns didn't rise as much, or if they just needed a little more time (I think I baked them in the wrong order). I DO wish they'd had more of that yummy "honey whole wheat" flavor storebought buns have - more sugar perhaps? As you can see, I dabbled with adding sesame seeds to some...



And since we had a pineapple at the peak of ripeness, I sliced it up the way dad does - which is always a HUGE hit!! Also took sliced bananas and strawberries, plus some chocolate fruit dip. YUMMMM!



Like last time, game night was a ton of fun! Here's Andy giving Sharon that "damn you're hot" look!


Michele doing the pass-off - "Do you know what to do with one of these things??" (Turns out Andy's got like a bajillion nieces and nephews?)


Sharon: "Oh, ok Andy - you're right, baby's ARE cute and I'd LOVE to have one after all!!"


I think it's a staring contest? Is Aidan winning!??


Brett probably won't love this picture, but people from around here DO love his shirt (Rolling Acres is a trashy/divey shopping mall) with a very bad rep.


Surprisingly, Michele let me take some pics of her - they turned out great!



Sharon looking plenty psycho here! When we were doing teams, it was me, Sharon and John vs Brett, Michele and Andy - and we were ROCKIN'! Seriously, we totally kicked their asses. It really helped that Sharon's a whizz at all games, and that John and I seemed to get this telepathic vibe going that was really surprising everyone else. We had a slow start, but once John and I got in synch, there was no stopping us!


Andy: "Beeeyotch, no one warned me you were this crazy before we started dating!!"


All in all a great night! Especially since I was on the winning team, and in the solo game I beat everyone else! ;-) And thanks to Leslie, our realtor, for loaning us all the fun games!

Growies

I was way past due thinning out the tomato and pepper seedlings, so I took a little time yesterday to give them a haircut. Before:


After:


And here's too many pics of the basil and parsley...




These are BIG - but based on the leaf shape (and being lazy and not getting up to check), I think they're the lemon or lime basil? If I remember right, those were a bit more pointy on the tip, and not as shiny and luscious green. Ok, after saying that, I had to check. Yup, they're lime. Not a favorite, so I didn't plant a ton of them....but they are a nice change once in awhile, and no where near as offensive as some of the purple basils. Blech!


Some of them are still tiny and cute!


And just to put things in perspective!

No more gay Zack

Aw, this is really disappointing - I liked Zack, and liked the parallel between Zack and Claire each coming out...

Heroes Producer Speaks Out on Axing of Gay Character Zach

http://www.towleroad.com/2007/04/heroes_producer.html

Last December, after a series of marketing efforts that appeared to hype Zach (played by Thomas Dekker), one of the characters on the hit show Heroes, as gay, NBC suddenly appeared to pull the plug on it.

Now, Heroes executive producer Bryan Fuller tells website popgurls the story behind the controversy and reveals that Dekker's manager said she would pull him from the show because he was up for a role on FOX and she was afraid that his playing a gay character would affect the network's decision to hire him.

Says Fuller: "[Making Zach gay was] absolutely was a path that we were going to take. In the first meetings when we were sitting down and talking about the show, one of the things about the show that Tim said that he wanted all these characters to represent different people in the world and we had an Asian guy and an Indian guy and… a whole bunch of white people. He just wanted it to be a united Benetton cast. I said that's fantastic, but if we have this many people, then we need to have a gay character. If you want to represent the world, that's certainly a demographic that we need to hit. [Tim completely agreed and] was thinking Claire's best friend might be a good person – and I couldn't agree more. So we were definitely going down a route of making [Zach] the gay character and having him have a big role in her life and sort of teaching her to come out about her ability and embrace herself and actually using the coming out metaphor and the gay metaphor in that instance as a fun piece of storytelling."

He adds: "There was an unfortunate miscommunication and when the script arrived that had the line in it, 'I would take you to homecoming but you have to know that I don't like girls that way.' The actor [Thomas Dekker]'s, manager threatened to pull him from the show because he was up for the John Carter role in The Sarah Connor Chronicles and she didn't want him playing a gay character because it might affect FOX's interest in hiring him. It got really ugly...

...It's unfortunate and really – we only took one line out of the script. In really, in all of our minds, the character was still gay but we couldn't say it explicitly. I was very upset by it – I was not happy about it at all. There were times I had to avoid talking about it because we didn't want to have a negative reflection on the show. The show's been such a positive experience for so many people, we didn't want to get hung up on the fact that one actor's management felt that it was a career killer for him to play a homosexual which, as a gay man, I found incredibly insulting. We had episodes planned for him to be in, and she pulled him from the show altogether. So that's why he sort of disappeared."

-------------

I gotta say - the smart/interesting thing here is listing the info about the manager who yanked him because of the gay spin on the character. You KNOW she's gonna be receiving some serious hate mail!!!

Thanks to Roger for passing this along!

This one's for Alison...

(and her husband!)

So we ALL remember the Super Friends from when we were growing up, right?? Check out the picture below of the classic Hall of Justice, where this team of super powered do-gooders (how evil do I sound!?) meet to hone their skills, swap casserole recipes (hey, it was the 70's), joke about Aquaman's powers, discuss whether Zan & Jayna were cooler than Wendy & Marvin, check each other out in the locker rooms after practice super-fighting, and basically wait for something nefarious to happen.

Can you name the silhouettes below?


And just a few weeks ago we were introduced to the JLA's NEW headquarters - golly, this Hall of Justice has a mighty familiar profile!!


And in case you worry about it being a little too easily accessible for all the bad guys, figuring they could just drop a nuke on it while the super fri....gang are all meeting to show off their crocheting skills - fear not! Sure, they may appear to go in the front door of the Hall of Justice, but once through those doors they don't necessarily stay rooted on Mother Earth the whole time. While they haven't been REAL clear what's going on yet, at some point while they're in the Hall of Justice, they get teleported up into the sky. To be more specific (and say it with me now!), 22,300 miles up - that's a geosynchronous position above the Earth - where they'll be in the new JLA satellite. Now this is what I miss! And check out that design - seems to be based on the Watchtower from the Justice League cartoon from a couple years back. NEATO!


Just got the new JLA comic in the mail today... I couldn't resist reading this one first since it's the first part of The Lightning Saga (have we done away with the word "Crisis" during these big get togethers? "Crisis" HAS been overplayed the last few years!)...and on the cover are Batman (JLA), Mr Terrific (JSA) and, yowza, Karate Kid (Legion of Super-Heroes!) Neato!

Some fun revelations in this issue as the teams start gathering, including acknowledgment that there sure have been a lot of LSH flight rings making their way back to the present, including Booster Gold, Vril Dox of L.E.G.I.O.N., Superman, and Supergirl (who's presently spending time in TWO comics, one of which is Legion of Super-Heroes). Oh, actually, Clark's got two flight rings. Hm. Didn't Bart/Impulse/Kid Flash (and now The Flash - blech) have one for a long time? Maybe they took it back from him.

Anyhow - I've babbled on plenty long... Just to get my fellow comic geeks a little more excited, check out this last page of JLA - which makes me all nostalgic for the best comics when I was growing up (I LOOOOOVED me some cross overs!), plus pointing out that both JLA and JSA are being lead by women right now (Black Canary and Power Girl, respectively). Interesting - that hadn't quite clicked. Plus, heck, you know those straight guy pencillers just LOVE drawing the big hooters ta-tas jugs boobies mams breasticles rack on Power Girl! LOL (Hope no one took offense to my trying to find the right word but, hello! - look at those things!)