Titans Movie??!

How is it this is the first I've heard of a Titan's movie!?!?

"Mark Verheiden has been attached as writer of the live-action Teen Titans movie set up at Warner Bros. Akiva Goldsman and Kerry Foster are producing."

Iris Bounty

I got an email from Peter today with an article about irises, and asking if I happen to like irises.

Gee. Hm. Let me think.

I took the camera outside after getting home from work - you tell me - do I have enough? LOL

Too bad most of them are tucked in awkward places, or are between our driveway and the neighbor... The dark red one at the bottom really went gangbusters this year!!! I think I only planted these two years ago from a sampler pack? The black one didn't return this year... I'm tempted to take some before we move - hey, why should the people buying our place get ALL of them!? ;-)

Growies in the back...

Got a BUNCH of stuff potted up this weekend - decided to pot up a bunch of the veggies, herbs and flowers to take 'em to the new house, rather than plan on doing tons of driving back and forth between the new house and the rental garden plot. I MIGHT still use the garden plot (which they STILL haven't called me about), or I might just blow it off entirely, but then we won't have beans, extra tomatoes, extra squash, pumpkins, etc. I don't know what to do yet...but you can see what I'm doing during my indecision period!



This poor little guy (a summer squash) looks like much of what got planted this weekend - scrawny in a big pot, and lonely. But I'm hoping they'll all turn into big monster plants, with tons of productivity!


Considering how much the potted cherry tomato plants cranked out last summer, I decided to take a risk and put two different varieties in one pot this year... Plus each of the big tomato pots got a pepper plant and some herbs. I guess we'll see who wins!


Oh, and some of them got small flowering annuals - such as the super sweet smelling sweet alyssum here. I LOOOVE these little guys! Companion gardening helps draw in beneficiary insects to help polinate your veggies!


The herbs, all started from seed, are doing great!


Still got plenty of squash and pumpkins that are going to need to be planted SOMEWHERE!


Didn't intend to go quite so patriotic with this planting of annuals.


And don't forget the herbs! MMMM! We're having some of these on grilled chicken tonite.

Look who's a ferocious beast!

And other miscellaneous kitty pics...

Here you'll see what happens when you TRY to take one of Simon's toys away from him...


Yeah, it ain't gonna happen!



Moxie watches from the safety of a packing box...


Seems all the cats love packing for the move! Here Tucker's having some fun under a box.


Brett really didn't feel like having HIS picture taken...


Here's Moxie's "raptor claw" - she was pretty scarred- and scabbed-up when we found her on the side of the highway at just 6 wks old. Such a frail little thing too! The vet thought she had chemical burns on her feet, and to see if things were healing or just dead, they peeled off all the scabs (we felt SO awful for her!). The good news was things were pretty much ok, and weeks later she even started to grow the fur back. But it seems a small section of skin on the top of one toe - sort of the sheath for the nail - was damaged so much that it never healed/grew back. I swear this claw even looks different - bigger?! Probably just my imagination - but it sure looks evil, doesn't it!?


Doesn't bother her one bit!


And we DO think she appears to be porking out some. The girl loves her food! Most of the time she doesn't look all that big, but when she lays stretched out, it seems she has no bones and is all flab!


Oh well, she's cute and we still love her!


Check out that ass!



You have to admit, there's something really cute about kitty toes!

Lohan Arrested on Suspicion of DUI

Lindsay Lohan was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence Saturday after her convertible struck a curb, and investigators found what they believe is cocaine in the actress' car, police said. (click for more...)

Dumbass.

Now THAT'S a burger!

One of the perks of working from home occasionally are very non-standard lunches. Sharon and I have had time to go to House Gourmet for chinese/japanese lunches in awhile, but I'm getting by with some other fun stuff. Thursday I cooked up a monster hamburger, topping it with cheese, ketchup, mustard, tomato, avocado, romaine, and homemade bread and butter pickles. This thing was huge - started falling apart before I could finish eating it. Still tasted great though! Yum!

Miscellaneous Cat Pics

We had a bit of an early-season heatwave this past week, with temps getting way up into the high 80s... I worked from home a couple days this week, and for the most part on those days sat out on the patio at the table with the umbrella overhead and my sunblock on while wrestling with some code issues for work. It seemed too early to cave in to turning on the AC, so I let the cats suffer in their fur coats inside, while I sweated up a storm outside. Finally, sometime Thursday afternoon, I caved and came indoors to finish my work - it was just too hot outside. You can see the cats weren't loving the heat too much - just lying around looking miserable:


"Daddy it's hot!"

Tucker doesn't usually lounge around quite so close to the kittens - I think they piled up in front of the patio door for the breeze once the sun was passing by.


Tucker: "Turn on the $*#&@*#$$(%(% air conditioning!!!"


And maybe it was crankiness from all the heat that made Simon start getting a little feisty:


Ok...a lot feisty:


Tucker tried defending himself:


But as you can see from these next photos, Simon wasn't playing fair - looks like we have a winner!



Later that evening, after a shower, a game of racquetball with Carolyn, a work out with Carolyn, another shower, and cooking dinner for Sharon, it was time to start packing some boxes for the move. Tucker wanted to help:


And the kittens are LOVING preparations for the move (not sure how much they'll love it once we move them!!). Here's Moxie, quick of the still-small pile of boxes behind the sofa in the living room (it's quite a bit bigger now!)


And Prince Simon, resting on his red leather chair...

Today's Pickin's

Went out between rainstorms today and picked some greens from the pots on the back patio...


Here's a combination of vari-colored swiss chard and bok choy, plus that stray purple leaf near the top is from a lettuce seed that got in the wrong pot.


And here's some of the spinach - they're REAL tender, and because I just tossed a handful of seeds in the pot, really close together. I think they're getting a bit leggy because they're so cramped and because we had a bit of a heatwave this week. The bok choy's also getting a little leggy - like maybe they started to bolt already?

Still, I'm hoping to make a good salad with some of these tomorrow!

While the parents are away...

...the kids had one of those parties you always see happen in movies!

We went out for a night of fun with the guys, meeting up with Dave and Jay for Winking Lizard (hot wings, burgers, etc) in Macedonia for dinner at 6:30, and then killed some time before meeting Randy, Larry, and Larry's boys Kyle and Tyler to see Pirates of the Caribbean III at 9:00.

We had plenty of time to kill before the guys showed up at the theater since dinner went faster than expect. Not a problem.

Everyone was seated, the lights dimmed, more advertisements, more trailers, and finally the movie started... I'd guess it was less than 10 minutes into the movie, and the movie stopped and all the emergency lights came on. Turns out power was out for the entire shopping area and surrounding neighborhood. (Randy and Larry saw a transformer was on fire on their drive home!)

Everyone got passes to come back for a movie some other time. Traffic wasn't too bad with police directing. We were home by 10:15. As we were getting close to home I joked with Brett that the cats would be surprised we were home so early - that they were probably having a party!

Brett let me out of the car before pulling into the garage, and as I passed by the shelf coming in the back door I grabbed a spare pack of stray beers leftover from our last parties here. So Brett came in and saw this:


(Ignore the mess - we're emptying closets, unloading bookshelves, packing etc - all in preparation for the move!)

Brett freaked out, thinking someone broke in while we were gone! LOL Ummm...weren't we JUST joking about the cats having a party!? And check out Tucker, with his eyes all aglow from the flash:


This next one looks like he's drunk, but he was actually just starting to shake his head as I took the pic....good shot! LOL



(I think he just can't handle his beer!)

Bom Chicka Wah Wah

ROFL We are LOVING the new Axe commercials!

Flash (aaaah aaah!) Savior of the Universe!

(Please tell me you know that song!)

First the Bionic Woman, and now Flash Gordon. What's next - Buck Rogers?

SCI FI'S FLASH GORDON

Sci Fi has provided The Continuum with a first image from its upcoming Flash Gordon series.

The image shows Eric Johnson as Flash Gordon and Gina Holden as Dale Arden.

Johnson is probably best known to comics fans from his two seasons as Whitney on Smallville.

John Ralston plays Ming in the series, which premieres on August 10.

Here's how the network describes the series:

"Sci Fi's contemporized version of Flash Gordon follows the all-new adventures of Flash and his companions, Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov. Ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances, they find themselves as Earth's last line of defense against the forces of the merciless dictator Ming."

Inspecting Kelly

Here's the web album of pics from yesterday's inspection of the Kelly house. Some problems to be dealt with (yes, even with a new house!), hopefully most of which are covered with warranty. Oh, and radon inspection shows we'll need to have radon mitigation installed - that's about $800-900 according to Tony, our inspector. Yay. Well, part of life and home ownership I guess, right?

5034 Kelly Ave Round 2 - The Inspection

Coming down off my high...

We're getting closer to wrapping up the whole sale-of-condo, purchase-of-house thing...and while Brett's been a bit frazzled the last two weeks, I've been giddy, planning what trees, shrubs etc should go in the yard, working with Brett on lists of things we need to do and get, fantasizing about the yard/garden and how to arrange the house, etc.
Monday our condo was appraised.

Yesterday our condo was inspected.

Today we go to the house inspection.

So far everything seems fine.

Planning other stuff for this week and next:

• I've got a mountain of boxes in the office at home to start packing things into (so far the two and a half that are packed really don't count). Sharon's going to come over Thursday evening for the payment of dinner and entertainment and help me strip out stuff that I probably don't need anymore.
• Working from home again tomorrow, and the weather's supposed to be great, so that'll be nice. But I'll need to drive in to Kent for 330pm racquetball with Carolyn - our second game this week, our third game in over a year! And that's all before Sharon comes over that evening - and I need to make sure there's something super good and fast and healthy for dinner.
• Need to wrap up the freelance work for Rick's exciting new project
• Sometime this weekend we're doing Pirates of the Carribean with the guys...
• I need to start talking to lawn professionals to price getting a lawn put in (and most likely some top soil)
• I need to start thinking about scheduling movers - but that's gotta wait til Leslie (our realtor) gets back from Denmark late this week.
• There's plenty more...that's why I have a list!

And last nite I had a hard time sleeping - making mental lists (NOT good to do in bed!), running downstairs sometime after midnight to grab the combinations to get into the house with the inspector (figuring I'd forget them this morning), making sure the camera was charged, getting phone numbers, etc....

I think I maxxed out my "ooh this'll be fun" high and just hit exhaustion. I'm soooo tired today. Oh well - I keep thinking about getting to go back and look at the house again!

Glorious Soup

"There's never anything good to eat around here!"

You know how the saying goes. And when you're the primary cook in the house, you're entitled to say it as well. Sometimes nothing already made sounds good, you don't really want to cook a big meal, but you're too lazy to go out and get something (or are trying not to spend the money).

Well, I lucked out here - threw some chicken broth in a pot with garlic and ginger, added some rice noodles I bought awhile back and meant to try, added some frozen edamame and fresh broccoli, then some soy sauce, sesame oil, fish sauce, oyster sauce and a little rice vinegar. Plunk in some frozen cocktail shrimp. And finally snip on some freshly picked baby bok choy, baby spinach and baby swiss chard.

GOOD STUFF!

Midnight Kitten

Now you see her...

Now you don't!

Growies

Some shots of the growies on the patio the other day, before I had to move them all under the patio table and cover it in a sheet because we had a frost warning (false alarm!)

Here in the first photo is just SOME of the tomatoes and peppers, freshly repotted, and still looking quite wimpy!

Close up of my squash (summer and winter) and pumpkin seedlings, just starting to sprout (still need to get cucumbers started soon!)

A selection of stuff, all crowded together until they go to their new home... Herbs, flowers, baby lettuce, baby swiss chard, baby bok choy, and more!

Some violas I bought awhile back and STILL haven't planted - I guess they're going to the new home with us!

It's Cookie Time!

I made the Chinese Restaurant Cookie recipe from the King Arthur Cookie Book again recently. Mmmmm these are so good. I don't recommend making their version of the chocolate icing to dip them in, as you see here - we weren't too fond of it. Much better? Just use a tub of premade frosting - SOOOO good for dipping!

PS If you see breasts in some of these pictures, it's your own filthy mind. Get outta the gutter! ;-)

My White Trash Boyfriend!

First off, let me start by saying I had PERMISSION to take these pictures!!

Brett was goofing around with a tshirt-turned-rag (perhaps from a Halloween costume?) that had just come out of the clean laundry...and decided if we're going to live in Rootstown, Ohio, he wanted to look the part. Hard to convince him that this is actually sort of a hot look for him...anyone wanna chime in?

More Growies

Some close ups of the growies on the patio, just waiting to get potted up and/or go to their new home. Normally I'd have way more than this, but I've got to dial it back some this year...

I LOVE lobelia (the bluish purple) and sweet alyssum (the white) together - beautiful colors, and sweet alyssum has such an intoxicating smell!


Also a big fan of the golden lemon thyme - this stuff is heaven! I hope to have a place where it can spread out and just grow to it's heart's content - and hopefully it'll survive the winters here?!

I bought apple balsam mint. I don't know why. I have what I call "Raida", this "heirloom" mint a lebanese friend gave me (I point out her ethnicity because I figure "her people" know their mint!!!)...and it really doesn't have to worry about competition for taste. I'm taking some with me when we move! But this stuff looked so pretty and smelled good at the garden center. Not sure if it'll find it's way into any dishes?!

The spinach patch - sadly, is no bigger than this pot this year. Oh well - Brett doesn't eat it (if he can find it in a dish!), and I just don't have to share this year. A couple years ago I was giving grocery sacks of the stuff to Dave, and I hope to again in future years...but I'm afraid that won't happen this spring. Hopefully I get enough harvested before it gets too warm and bolts!

Lettuce mix - I don't recall which prepackaged mix this is... I have plenty of other varieties of individually packaged lettuce seeds I'm eager to start, but like the spinach, they don't like the heat we'll be having before too long!

The swiss chard (left side) below can handle the heat...the bok choy (right side) can't... We'll see how this pot does.

It all looks so yummy, hunh!?

Volume 2

Sad.

Heroes is over for this season. I was telling Brett early into the episode that I wished they would've had a 2-hour finale, but wow, they sure pack a lot into just one hour, bringing everyone together nicely, including some fun adventure, some revelations, and more! GREAT STUFF!

I really, reeeeeally hope this show can keep it going in the second season! We've had just a teaser...wonder where it'll go from there?

My guess is Peter will still be alive. Not sure I'm holding much hope for Nathan, but who knows. I can easily see there being a Peter Quest (heh heh - that sounds dirty!), where word gets around that someone matching Peter's description, but without his memory, has been found in some distant land.

Good to see Nikki finally gained some confidence (most likely the protective mother kicking in) and got Jessica's strength. Would've liked to see Sylar go at her at least once, but they can save that for next season!

Not sure the little "tracking system" girl, Molly, is the best actress...but she's still young.

I really hope Matt doesn't die!

Whatever happened to the Haitian?

I'm LOVING Nathan and Peter's mom being evil bad guy-lady! She could rock! We're wondering what others in her organization are like. We know that there's the black guy Peter was taking care of who died (does he have powers from beyond the grave? is Peter being manipulated by someone else?), and Peter & Nathan's mom, Linderman (dead for good? Hello - healing powers of some sort!) and Sulu. Anyone else? Is it possible the bad guy who can see Molly when she tracks him is also a member of the organization?

And we finally learn Horn Rimmed Glasses/Mr Bennett's name - Noah!

Great episode! Really looking forward to next season, with EXTRA episodes! YAY!

Movin', movin', movin'....

Things have been REAL hectic lately...we've had a lot of stress and frustration with showing our condo repeatedly in the hopes of finding a buyer in this sluggish housing market, and trying to find a new home that we both love - one that matches so many of our criteria with as little sacrifice as possible.

Annnnnnnd....it looks like we've both our buyers AND a new home - all within the last week!! A couple are going to buy our condo for their daughter (presumably college age daughter), plus a couple of her friends will be staying here. And the house we found is one I drooled over from across the street while looking at a different spec home last fall...only it was sale pending and way out of our budget!

And now it turns out the sale fell through some time back, and the builder's going out of business (too many spec homes in a bad market), and the price has come down a couple times. We're getting a great deal on an 1860 sq ft, .318 acre, 3 bedroom, 2.5 baths, 2-story home with a lot of character - and it's had NO ONE LIVING IN IT! WOO HOO! Sure, we'll have to put in a lawn, a deck/patio, a stove/oven, a fridge, and a garage door opener, but it's gonna be all ours in just over a month (assuming all goes as planned). We've already got friends offering to help with moving, and deck building, and stocking flower beds with splits off've their plants...

That's what I really like about a house for us - it's a place to call a home we welcome others into (although we haven't had much time for that lately)...and it in turn reflects the friendships we have, pictures of friends, memories of times spent with our friends, etc... This new house will be coming to us as a blank slate, but before long we'll have it filled with new memories... (And most of those times will probably fed something cheap like Ramen at first - this is gonna be a bit of a financial jump from what we've got now!)

Check out the first pictures we've taken of the place. We'll be back out there next Wednesday for the inspection, and hopefully we'll remember to take the camera to get better photos!

New Home

Bring on the fembots!!!

I have a baaaad feeling about this. It could be a major take off like the remake of Battlestar Galactica, which I admit I was skeptical about when they first mentioned it... But hm...I dunno - we haven't seen much success with recent shows similar to this (Jake 2.0, and that show starring the kid with no belly button).

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

NBC on Monday announced a new Bionic Woman series to air on the network this fall, as well as on Sci Fi at a yet-to-be-announced date.

The series, which will air on Wednesdays at 9 p.m., stars Michelle Ryan from EastEnders as Jaime Sommers.

Here's how NBC describes the show:

"Struggling as a bartender and surrogate mom to her teenage sister, Jaime Sommers didn't think life could get much harder. But when a devastating car accident leaves her at death's door, Jaime's only hope for survival is a cutting-edge, top-secret technology that comes at a hefty price. With a whole new existence and a debt to re-pay, Jaime must figure out how to use her extraordinary abilities for good, while weighing the personal sacrifices she will have to make. Ultimately, it's Jaime's journey of self-discovery and inner strength that will help her embrace her new life as the Bionic Woman."

Will Yun Lee, who starred in Wtichblade and the Elektra movie, plays Jae, a specialized operations leader.

The cast also includes: Mae Whitman as Becca, Jaime's younger sister; Miguel Ferrer as Jonas, the man who employs Jaime's boyfriend; Chris Bowers as Will, Jaime's boyfriend, who performs the operation; and Molly Price, as Ruth, Jonas' second-in-command.

Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff plays Sara in the pilot episode.

Bionic Woman is produced by NBC Universal Television Studio and executive-produced by David Eick, Glen Morgan, Michael Dinner (who also directed the pilot) and Jason Smilovic.

How To Stop An Exploding Man

(technically, that's the title for next week's episode, but I really like it, so I'm hijacking it a week early!) ;-)

And as for tonite's episode? Wow, I wouldn't want to be Linderman - that is NOT a way to go!! Granted, knowing his powers, maybe...just maybe...it's not his end!? Just because we've only seen him heal others, does that mean he can't also heal himself? And who knows, perhaps he fooled around with Nathan and Peter's mom at some point, got into their gene pool (that'd make him Nathan's dad), and then could be Claire's grandfather? I dunno - just speculating!

I was disappointed we didn't see Sylar's eyes do that little nuclear glow at the end as they showed in the previews...maybe it'll happen next week.

Brett had a neat idea - we think Candace is really an overweight or perhaps unattractive girl, and uses her illusion powers to compensate, hence her comment about "I am fat", and the constant snacking, and being such a hottie... (Although I think it'd be funny if she was obese, and we saw things move away as she got really close, but not quite touching them...since the illusion of her is really skinny but perhaps her real body is considerably bigger?!)

Based on the preview pic for next week, I'm glad to see DL isn't dead yet. Isn't that the second bullet he's taken!? And why didn't he just phase himself and Nikki!? (PS, glad to see Nikki back!)

I hope Ando doesn't die - I think he's cute!

Sad to see Ted dead...I kinda liked him! Oh well, this takes it back to my early speculation that Sylar would get Ted's powers, rather than Peter being the one who (possibly) blows up in NYC. NOT that that's been hard to guess for awhile now.

I was telling Brett I wondered if NY doesn't REALLY blow up, but instead perhaps Candace uses her illusion power to make it LOOK like it blows up (temporarily of course).

I'm gonna be bummed when this season ends next week!

So - who saw it? What'd you think!?!?

More Heroes Next Season

Sorry I haven't had much time to post good stuff lately....hopefully I'll resolve this soon. Just taking a quick web-browsing break at lunch time and saw this little tidbit. Looks like next season we're gonna have more Heroes than we can shake a stick at!!

NBC on Monday announced Heroes: Origins, a spin-off series to air next season on the network.

Heroes: Origins will fill in for Heroes during breaks in the season. Six episodes are planned.

Each episode the spin-off will introduce a new character -- one of whom will be chosen by viewers through the Heroes website on NBC.com to become a cast regular the following season.

NBC is planning 30 combined episodes of Heroes and Heroes: Origins.

Heroes is returning to its Monday at 9 p.m. time period for next season.

Cool, hunh!?!?

Spidey, Fatnastic Four and Iron Man

We saw Spider-man 3 this weekend - for the most part, it was great! Sure, it was a bit hyper at times (hard to follow the action when there's THAT much going on!), and we were distracted when a kid started choking in the back of the theater and everyone's running up offering CPR (try the Heimlich Maneuver instead!) right at the point where Mary Jane gets kidnapped (yes, again) by the bad guys in the set up for the final fight... But yes, the kid was ok, and yes, the movie was really good overall!

They showed a new trailer for the upcoming Fantastic Four movie - and I can't WAIT to see it! I know most folks apparently didn't care for the first one, but I really had a lot of fun with it. Looks like there's gonna be some great special effects in this one...and hopefully Johnny Storm will burn off all his clothes again! ;-) (yes, I'm a bad, bad boy!)

And finally - thanks to my boyfriend for reminding me I wanted to post pics from the upcoming Iron Man movie, starring Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark - the alcoholic millionaire hi-tech superhero. Let's hope this is a good one! From what I understand, they do have a physical set of armor for the movie, but that a lot of his armor scenes are also likely to be CGI. Hmmm.... At least it's not an organic being they're trying to do with CGI....maybe it'll look more realistic?

Dangerous Muse

Check out Dangerous Muse - their music seems really cool (granted, I've only heard one song so far)... VERY reminiscent of Depeche Mode. And the video you can watch on their site seems like it could easily be the story of many high school kids these days, not knowing who's sporting which sexuality, and always seeming to want the ones who don't want you back. I don't know if it was the flavor of the music (as I said, similar to "my era's" Depeche Mode, or the feeling invoked by the video that instantly had me flashing back to high school.

And as a bonus, the lead singer (tall guy) is super cute - I'd KILL to have hair like him! LOL Plus I love the imagery in their ads - very cool!

Beware the homosexual...

...or is it just guys with creepy mustaches? Sorry, but if you get in the car with a guy who has a mustache like that, you've got something lecherous coming your way!