Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog

I didn't get around to posting a tune yesterday - pesky "applying for jobs" thing got in the way. It means today I can hook you up with an amazingly fun little thing called "Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog."

From Wikipedia:

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a 43-minute musical film produced exclusively for Internet distribution. It tells the story of Dr. Horrible, the aspiring supervillain alter ego of Billy; Captain Hammer, his nemesis; and Penny, their mutual love interest. The movie was written by writer/director Joss Whedon, his brothers Zack Whedon (a television writer) and Jed Whedon (a composer), and Jed's fiancée, actress Maurissa Tancharoen. The writing team penned the musical during the WGA writers' strike. The idea was to create something small and inexpensive, yet professionally done, in a way that would circumvent the issues that were being protested during the strike.

Neil Patrick Harris is awesome in it and it just the perfect little quirky thing to entertain and delight you all. For 43 minutes anyway. You can see it here, but I'm going to post the fun song "Laundry Day" below for a little sample.




Have a quirky, fun, amazing, and awesome weekend everyone!

Really? I haven't mentioned this in the last 20 seconds?

In one week I will be in London-town napping off a long flight and preparing for boardage of a plane to Lebanon. This creates a massive to-do list for this week which includes fun things like "get reading material" and not fun things like "tell apt. office we have a wasps nest on our balcony." The list is long. I generally like to-do lists though. Keeps my brain focused. Otherwise I'm all "OOH SHINY."

Hi, in one week I will be in London-town. Did I mention that yet? Oh. Ok. Well, you can perceive my excitement. Excitement over travelling. In one week. To exciting places. Not that there hasn't been excitement around here. How many ways can it rain? I'm reminded of Forrest Gump quote, "One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath."

Friday's rain:
- Downpour in the early afternoon
- No interruption of my plans
- Tornado sirens going off in late afternoon, but no weather here at the apt. to warrant concern. I don't even think we had a drop when there were actual sirens going off.
- I still put laundry in in the basement in case I would have been cooped up down there. Might as well be productively safe?

Saturday's rain:
- sunburned by the pool in the morning
- in the immense humidity discover our central air is broken
- crazy fast moving storm.
- sirens go on, then off. then on. of- no, on. off? WHAT?
- listening to news on TV "at 124th report of funnel." Am reminded HELLO, I LIVE ON 124TH. have N tell me he thinks this is all "cool." I am decidedly anti-scary weather.
- Rains on and off the rest of the night.

Sunday's rain:
- Go out in the morning to a park. The park that is now a lake. Pretty darn freaky to see submerged playground equipment.
- Make eye appt. for N.
- 10 mins before appt skies break open and shower FURY upon the lands. The N still convincing me to head out with him. Um. No. Cancel appt.
- Storms on and off. Scary lightning. I hide out at computer to subside fears.
- Go to open window at night when rain stopped and have window completely break out of its sill. Add "fix window" on to-do list.

The greatest part of all of this were the TV weather reports. I'm not going to turn the seriousness of a tornado into a laughing matter, but c'mon, they were simply fantasticly crazy. ALL WEATHER ALL THE TIME. WE GOT EVERYONE IN THE STATION RIGHT NOW FOR YOU FOLKS. WE'RE GOING TO BE ON THIS FOR THE REST OF YOUR DAY. Lots of that. This was putting all their degrees to use(but things I could find out for myself on this thing called "the internet").

Other amusing highlights:
- They let people call in with what they are experiencing. "UHH Richard we have a car in the median and the people, the people look OK, but we have EMT on the scene. Wait, no one is moving really quickly. I think the people just have a broken-down car. We're not seeing any rain here at this point."
- The weather people kept being handed pieces of paper on-air with updates. It was all about how fast the weather person could read the paper, process it, and get the information out with out fumbling all over the words. It was like seeing a brain melt.
- I should have turned the live weather reports into a drinking game.
* phrase "super cell" = sip of beer
* phrase "take cover" = yell out "TO THE BATCAVE"
* funnel cloud spotted = take a shot & head to basement
* >50 mph wind = shake up a good martini
...etc


So besides weather antics, and a to-do list, I've only really had to keep my brain calm from the excitement of travelling. Because I'll be on a plane in a week... have I mentioned that?

It's Tuesday already. (Time to talk about Monday behind its back.....)

Monday, April 28th, 2008. I know my day was very uneventful here, but, hooo-eeee did it surprise my dear family (and most of northern Wisconsin).

This is what they woke up to:

My poor husband didn't even believe my mom's email! (Until I pointed out in another picture the "SPRING" flag my mum has hanging outside the house. covered in snow.)

Isn't it pretty? All the trees outlined in white and so crisp and clea....Wait, isn't it just caps-lock CRAZY?!?!?! It is 3 days before May! I literally sun-burned my face fishing the day before. We all know Wisconsin sometimes gets these April snow showers, but I've never seen one that is a certifiable STORM with snow sticking to the ground in certifiable inches.

It didn't snow or rain here at all yesterday...If it had I would have channeled my little sister's dramatics, grabbed my hair dryer, melted the snow right off our porch, and spend the next 6 years in denial.

So on to weekend recappage and other odds n ends.

Bubs and I spent the weekend in po-dunk hometown at my parent's house. I had one task in mind: fishing. The bubs had two tasks in mind: shooting pesky varmins and fishing. Wisconsin has turned the bubs into quite an outdoorsman. Me? I just really like fishing.

Saturday was really horrible weather. Super windy and cold. Decided to take the more comfortable car even though it is twice as costly. If we had taken the "Less Comfort, 1/2 Off Gas!" Saturn, we would have spent the whole drive yelling to each other and not being able to make phone calls to the in-laws. I do have to lament that gas is making trips costly. I know almost everyone is having the same lament as me, but it really does suck...I never really gave going home a second thought like I do now.

So we get to Clintonville and first have to get our fishing license. Actually, I got the fishing license and the bubs got a "sportsman" license. The man has developed a need to hunt/fish multiple things in this fine state. The funny thing about going to Fleet Farm in Clintonville is that I still know most of the people working there. You see, I used to work there in high school. Which is now almost 10 years ago that I worked there. Are you putting this together? People work at that Fleet Farm forrrrrrrrever.

Next we have to go pick up the bub's deer sausage from an even littler po-dunkier place called Pella. Great. We become the proud owners of 10 two-foot long venison garlic summer sausage sticks. The summer sausage is delicious, but I have no idea how to incorporate summer sausage into any recipes. I know it makes a mean sammich....hmmm... Any suggestions? It would also make a mean weapon... you try to mess with me and you might get a mean sausage slam to the head!

Next we have to go pick up the ever adorable Jonahbebe. I decided to kidnap him and had glorious visions of fishing with the little bugger. Too bad the wind up and blew the little tike away. The End.

....errr...I mean I just had to come up with indoor activities for the day. (but the wind was REALLY strong. I had to hold on to Jonah tight to wrestle him into the car) We decided to go see the sturgeon on the Wolf river. Usually they would be right on the Embarrass river next to our house, but this year is just wacky and they won't be on the Embarrass for another week or so. Seeing the sturgeon is a very cool experience. For one, they are HUGE and CREEPY. Another is that they are always close to the shore rocks. The males are trying to push the females up on the rocks so the females will deposit their zillions of eggs. A gross, but fascinating, time. It was really windy, but we did get to see them:



Jonah yells "SHARKS!!!!!!!!" ...then later backtracked and proclaimed them "a wittle wike sharks." If you are ever on the Embarrass or Wolf river in April, be sure to check at places for the sturgeon.

Saturday we spent the rest of the day indoors. The final highlight was my sister n law bringing Caleb peanut when she came to pick up Jonah. He's smiling now (at 2 months old!) and the crazy hair is still crazy adorable:

(I'll wait for your collective "awwww")

Sunday we started out with church. The parish administrator lady talked about her experience at Yankee stadium seeing the Pope's mass. She described it in great detail and talked about how it was "just like heaven." We promptly decided that a bagillion screaming people at Yankee stadium was not our idea of heaven. Just because they were holding doves, had practiced coordinated movements for a few months, and had jazz hands just wouldn't cut it for me. Pretty bitchin? Probably. (I would like to see the Pope) We sang "Shall We Gather At The River" and my inside-brain was going, "Yes, Lord, to go fishing!" My inside-brain is mischevious like that.
(OH BETH, sidenote: last time I was at church in C-ville we sang the "Alien Band" song and I had to stifle my inside-brain laughs. It was very difficult.)

We then got home and wasted no time getting fishing stuff ready. We decided to fish the Embarrass river. BOOM, Zach gets a HUGE sucker fish right off the bat (haha, ok, not that big but just as ugly). Then, nothing. A lot of fishing is nothing-ness, but the anticipation is the exciting part. I just think it wasn't a good time for fishing suckers yet as they tend to be right with the sturgeon and the sturgeon weren't even there yet. It's just too bad because we were fishing suckers last year in March.

The weekend concluded with a trip to Culvers. I got chicken tenders and ate them with honey. Am I the only one who likes chicken with honey?

The bubs was happy he got to shoot varmins (and I think a certain hawk was kept happy too as the "graveyard" was robbed several times throughout the weekend from its inhabitants...) and I was happy I got to see my family and see at least one fish get caught.

Oh, if you are keeping track:
- Friday I melted, had to have all windows open, contemplated busting out fans, and had clown hair from the heat and humidity
- Saturday I froze. Snuggled up in blankets, contemplated turning the heat back on, dressed in layers, almost blew over from the wind, and had no hairstyle (kept it under a kerchief from the wind)
- Sunday I was in-between everything. Cold in the morning, warmed up to mid 50s, sunburned my face, and overall had a fabulous hair day.
- Monday was a snowstorm for my parents and cold here. The bubs caved and turned the heat back on. I hate you Monday.

Wisconsin rulez. lol.

W to the EEKend

Friday

Friday I managed to secure a very plain black and grey tote bag for my travels this summer and for other occasions where totage is needed. It has all the components I was looking for: not too bulky, outside pocket, fits over my shoulder, and also has a smaller inside pocket. This find set me back.... (drum roll)....$7.84. I think I'm going to sew on a cool patch (because it is really plain) or just attach my FABULOUS hello kitty luggage tag to the bag instead. (omg omg omg having a hello kitty freak out moment. it happens.)

Friday evening entailed a comedy show at Milwaukee's comedy cafe. That was fun because I had never been there. Their whole schtick is to have really really cheap tickets, but force everyone to have a 2 drink minimum PER PERSON. They do have nice drinks, but, dang! Get everyone liquored up and they'll laugh. Well, I guess the shows were funny. The final comic of the evening managed to throw in local references and use audience members outbursts into his skit. I like it when comedians do this. Although, when a guy yelled out that Hilary couldn't get elected because it was "mathematically impossible", the comedian didn't have a hard time working "mathematically impossible" into his routine at various points. hilarious.

Saturday

Saturday the bubs had to work almost all day. This day at work put him in a FOUL mood. I nervously paced the apartment trying to think of ways to summon charm, happiness, rainbows, and smiles for when bubs was done with work. Luckily, I convinced him to head to an Indian restaurant when he was done with work (late afternoon). I don't have much to say about our experience there. We couldn't really decide if we liked it or not. The prices were right, the lamb curry was delicious, but there were some off points. How can naan be screwed up?!?


Sunday (today)

Today was SUNNNNNNNNNN GLORIOUS SUNSHINE AND SUN AND SUNSHINEYNESS AND SUN AND MORE SUN AND GLORIOUSNESS OF THE SUN AND SHINING AND BEAMS AND RAYS OF SUNSHINE AND PURE UNFILTERED SUUUUUUUN. ahem. pretty much amazing. 65 degrees and glorious amazing. God done shined up our day. I fell in love with the outside today.

This morning went for a nice long walk capped by breakfast. During breakfast we decided on THE PROJECT FOR THE DAY.....

...The project was fixing up "the bikes." I put "the bikes" in quotations like that because I have had a love-hate relationship with these two bikes. One day, the bubs decided to buy two bikes at a rummage sale out of the blue. wtf said me. I think he paid too much for them, but still cheaper than two new bikes from any store. I'm thinking we're ahead on this deal. Then, I actually see the bikes. Ugh. I thought we flushed those dollas down the toilet fo shure. The bubs was convinced otherwise. I try to put the bikes out of my head.

Then a horrid tragic thing called WISCONSIN WINTER 2007-2008 happened and the bikes were caged up. I was also still not convinced that they were legit riding machines (ok, weird, I almost typed "edible" here instead of legit).

Today we managed to resurrect both bikes and they are actually usable (NOT edible). hooray!

So that's about all. I can't emphasize enough how really cool sunshine is after the winter we just had. I hope it can stick around for at least tomorrow.

Have a great week everyone!

__________

ps: Oh, almost forgot something called "The best part about this weekend."

A certain bubs sorely realizes he cannot jump bikes up curbs anymore. "Well, I used to do it all the time!" Um, sorry, you're not 12 anymore m'luv.
/still laughing