PQ Update, Shadowbox Podcast!

PQ's surgery went well... and was a good deal cheaper then they originally estimated. When they got in there, the vet was able to confirm that it was just a stopped-up oil gland cyst. They still removed it just to be safe, and drained another he had on his leg that we didn't know about. But they're nothing to worry about, and other than being kind of dopey and needing to get his stitches out in a couple weeks, he'll be fine. It's basically the same thing I had removed from my back a couple years ago - PQ just wanted to be more like Daddy. The other funny thing is that because of where his stitches are, the vet recommended putting him in a child's t-shirt to keep him from fussing with it (rather than a cone-head). I'm not normally a fan of clothing for pets, but vet's orders and all.. Evie gave big brother PQ one of her onesies (with the bottom cut off) - here's Evie helping PQ recuperate:


In other news, Shadowbox now has a (video) podcast! Ownage.

PQ's Surgery

Pasquale's getting surgery today (at this very moment, I'd imagine) to get a lump on his side removed. It's been there for about a year (maybe even a bit longer?) and doesn't seem to be too serious, but it has gotten a decent amount larger in that time, and they're going to remove it and send it off to the labs for analysis just to be safe. I feel so bad for the little guy! Think good thoughts.

Been kind of a crazy busy week for us - Amy at home especially. Amy's already summed up most of it on Evie's page , but to summarize the highlights of the past and coming week, starting from last Friday:

• Hit La Chatelaine for lunch b/c I was craving a Croque Monsieur. Well, they ran out JUST before I got to order - "sorry, we're out - no more for 45 minutes! You should try this instead, it's very tasty!" Person2: "Or this, try this, you'll like it" Person1: "Yes, you try this!" Me: "Go f-yourself, I wanted a damn Croque Monsieur, I don't want this other shit!" ... Ok, well of course I didn't actually say that -- but I was pretty grumpy to the lunch crowd (including Amy & Evie!), since that was the only reason I'd suggested the place at all...
  
• Saturday Nana & Grandpa babysat while Amy & I saw The Da Vinci Code. It was a pretty decent movie. Still not a huge fan of Tom Hanks in the role, but all the major cast did a good job, and it was a solid adaptation. A few logical changes (for timing, etc), a few very odd changes (maybe to make it "easier to follow"? -- oddly enough they seem to make it more controversial), but still, worth seeing, especially for fans of the book.
  
• Sunday was church, errands, and brunch at La Chatelaine so I finally got my Croque Monsieur.
• Monday was the holiday - cookout & hanging out @ my parents house. Evie slept almost all day, which was very odd...
  
• Yesterday we had our new freezer delivered, the driveway sealed, and finished collecting up and hauled out all our collected basement crap to the curb.
• Today is PQ's surgery, the freezer guy returning to check out a dent, bulk pickup comes to GET all that crap.
• Tomorrow is Crazy From The Heat at Shadowbox.
• Saturday we're doing Dream Dinners.
  
• Also this weekend is the Columbus Arts Festival and the Troy Strawberry Festival. I hope to do at LEAST one of those, and I guess it's remotely possible we'll end up doing both...

Pesky Bill of Rights

It just seems to get in the way doesn't it?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

And that's just the First Amendment. There's also the Fourth, with it's pesky laws about unlawful search and seizure, and the Fifth, with it's silly due process.

Is it 2009 yet? Or will we just get more of the same? I don't exactly have high hopes for things to turn-around. In fact, in Ohio I'm pretty sure that this asshole will be our next governor. After all, he's used to "helping" close elections [pdf].

Lost Rules, No more TV...

The Lost season finale was definitely worth it. Even in the first 30 minutes it was MUCH improved over last season's anti-climactic finaly, and they had a good mix of revelations while still progressing things AND setting up a couple (maybe three even?) great cliffhangers for next season. I already can't wait, and it's not until SEPTEMBER. In the meantime, you can brush up on all the little crazy details, secrets, revelations, etc, at the VERY awesome Lostpedia. (Warning: If you haven't seen any of this season's episodes -- the site is VERY spoiler-heavy). You can also fill up the off-season following the Lost Experience ARG (alternate reality game).

Speaking of nothing to do until September, Lost was the pretty much the last of them -- all our shows are now over for the season. Doctor Who still has a few episodes, and I think The Sopranos and Big Love might as well, but all the standard network fare is over. I guess we'll have a lot less TV to watch and a lot more time to play with and stare at Evie instead. I'm also keeping my eye out for good off-season shows - for example, season 3 of The 4400 starts up in a couple weeks -- so if you see anything else good, let me know.

Mothers Day, TV

So this past weekend was Amy's first Mother's Day. As we've done the past few years, we hit up brunch at the Blackwell. It's kind of pricy, but they go all-out with one heck of an awesome spread, and we had a great time. I only wish I'd been able to eat even more - there were so many great options that I just couldn't fit it all in.

I've been following the various fall TV season announcements the networks have been making. So far I've seen at least bits & pieces of NBC, ABC, and CBS. It's hard to find a really comprehensive compilation of all the news about it out there so far -- times like this I really do miss the Entertainment Weekly subscription. Anyway, from what I've gathered, the following shows on my DVR are returning for next Fall:

• LOST
• CSI
• House
• NCIS (without Mark Harmon? This may get dropped)
  
• Cold Case
• Without A Trace
• Numb3rs
• Ghost Whisperer (this too may get dropped...)
• My Name Is Earl
• Doctor Who (assuming Sci-Fi picks up the 2nd BBC season which is already airing)
  

...yeah. Just looking at that is pretty scary. I watch WAY WAY too much television. 9.5 hours per week there. 24, I understand, HAS been renewed for three more years, but I assume as usual won't be coming back until January or so so that it can run uninterrupted. I haven't seen anything from FOX yet, so I'm only guessing about House, but how could it NOT be back? On top of those, I'm interested in the following new shows:

• NBC: Heroes
• NBC: Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
• ABC: Six Degrees
• ABC: Day Break (mid-season mix with LOST)
• ABC: The Nine
  

Should be interesting. I'm guessing that I'll have to find things in both lists to trim out as Evie takes up more and more of our time, and I'm sure some things in there will crap out anyway, so it should all even out. Besides, who needs that much TV anyway?

Friday Fun

Well, I've almost made it through my third day back at work. It hasn't been as bad as I expected getting back into the swing of things here - though Wednesday itself was pretty tough.

Luckily, to keep me going through the brain-drain, the Intarwub (primarily YouTube) has provided entertainment:

• Heat Vision and Jack -- this is a pilot for a TV show with Jack Black, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson that was DOA. This is one of the most entertaining things I've seen in quite some time - it's so ridiculous.
  
• For the comic book folks - Civil War reenactments? Try SECRET WARS reenactments!
• C For Cookie - Sesame Street meets facism, anarchy is gluttony?
• Though it's still more than a month away, you may want to start getting ready to celebrate the National Day of Slayer - June 6th, 2006.
  

Two Weeks Later, Sci-Fi Day Pass

Been two weeks since Evie was born, and they've went by in a flash. As we've done for the past 9 months, I'll still keep most of the purely Evie-talk over at her page, but that doesn't mean that this will be purely devoid of baby-mention. Still, for baby-talk and pics, be sure to stay on top of things there.

Because Amy is the awesomest wife/new mom ever, I did get to hit the 23rd Annual Ohio Science Fiction Movie Marathon this past weekend. Since Evie was originally due on the 20th, it was really unlikely that I'd be going, but since she came early and friends & family were available to help out, Dad & I did get to go, which was awesome. We've been going every year since I was in middle school (I'm pretty sure 1990 was the first year we went), and it's a heck of a lot of fun. These days Gary and Hutch come too, as well as other folks depending on availability. The highlights of this year's marathon for me were definitely Godzilla: Final Wars (which I hadn't seen) and Serenity and Forbidden Planet (which I had seen before - the latter quite a few times). They also showed about 6 Batman serials from the early 1940s (during WWII) which were hysterical - so different from anything they'd show today - Batman got knocked out at LEAST once per episode, sometimes more often, and was constantly getting bailed out by Robin and even Alfred!

Getting ready to go back to work later this week, which means polishing off yard work and such so that Amy will be able to just relax and hang out with Evie during the days. Found out that we've got a robin's nest on our fence. We didn't really want one because the dogs might bother it / get into it, but after tearing down two completed nests, it came back a third time and now there are eggs in it, so I'll just try and leave it be and keep them safe:


There's three little eggs under the proud parent there. I don't think the dogs know about the nest, so lets hope that things stay that way. You'd think that even in a neighborhood without any mature trees like ours, there's still GOT to be a safer/better place to nest, but hey, I guess for a bird this persistent, we can allow a little backyard squatter.

April 11, 2006

All details, and links to more pics over at Baby T's page!

Make It Stop

Another weekend, another Monday. Not a whole lot of note done over the weekend. Saturday Amy & I just hung out and relaxed, Sunday Amy went out with the girls while Gary & I hung out, gamed, & relaxed. So relaxation is good.

Going back even further for a sec to pimp Shadowbox - Go see Crazy From The Heat at Easton. It's a damn good time, including new sketches for quite a few of their better regular characters - Jason's Scary Stories, American Top 40, Dr. Mystery, the game show gang, etc. Lots of fun. Additionally, of course, BillWho? rocks the house with some great tunes.

Today was a pretty busy day at work, but I did get a bit o' free time here & there to do some interesting reading. This is what really got me worked up - Telegraph headline: "Bush is planning nuclear strikes on Iran's secret sites". ARE YOU SERIOUS? I mean holy crap, as if the whole propaganda parade wasn't already bad enough, now they're alleging that folks in the administration are refusing to take the nuclear option off the table. The story has spread to a lot of other sources as well, and SERIOUSLY. SERIOUSLY - the fact that military action is on the table AT ALL here is a testament to how deluded folks in Washington must be about how things are going over there. Given the news from Iraq, the fact that we're still in Afganistan, how could we POSSIBLY afford (money-wise, troop-wise) to open up yet ANOTHER front? This does make last week's story about the US plan to build new nukes for the first time since 1989 (possibly up to 125 new nukes a YEAR!) a LOT scarier...

A senior Pentagon consultant said that Mr Bush believes that he must do "what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do," and "that saving Iran is going to be his legacy".

...YEAH. And that's your warm fuzzy thought of the day right there.

Illness, April 1st Fun, Further Evidence

So I'm pretty well recovering from the plague that struck me down last week. Unfortunately, I've passed it along to Amy, who isn't open to get the same NyQuil/DayQuil benefits that got me through last week. I feel really bad and hope that it makes it's way through pretty quickly.

We did have a pretty good weekend. Saturday I spent a good portion of the morning checking out all the various Internet April Fools shenanigans that were out there. I think the overall quality was a hair down this year (perhaps because it was a Saturday?), but there was still enough good stuff out there to make for an enjoyable hour or two. The nice thing about April Fools Day on the Internet these days is that most folks are wise to the games now and basically nothing is taken seriously that goes up, is announced, or changes on 4/1. Which means the malice is gone and it's just fun. Although a lot of the original pranks are gone now, this is a pretty comprehensive list of what WAS there. Some of the standouts for me were Google Romance, My Little Pony the RPG, Burgercraft, and Wikipedia's homepage, which was redone with all fictional stuff. Of those, all are still up except for the Wikipedia changes.

As promised, I gave the Evidence another shot. This episode was definitely MUCH better than the pilot, especially as far as the acting and dialogue goes - Estes and Jones felt a lot more natural and not as forced... so it wasn't BAD like the pilot was, but it also really wasn't all that stellar - falling into a "meh" category that might get it watched every now and then, but definitely isn't going to earn it a place in the already way-too-crowded regular viewing schedule. The gimmick of seeing the evidence first and last isn't holding up well either... it's somewhat intruiging, but not really all that earth-shattering. Ah well, still LOTS of other TV to watch, not like I needed one more show.

Still In Tact, The Evidence

Well, I'm still in one peace, and the healing process is coming along pretty nicely. At this point, it's really just down to some achiness at times, and the "steri-strips" (basically tape which takes the place of stitches on small incisions) are still hanging on, but all-in-all, things seem to have gone well.

I've mentioned it before, but I still contend that DVR is a larger contributor to my brain-rot than video games, regular TV, and the Internet all put together. You'd think that after we got the dual-tuner DVR box with more storage space, Amy & I would have trouble keeping up with everything being recorded.... but you'd be wrong. Instead, we keep adding new shows to the DVR schedule just so that we can keep it stocked with things to watch. I'm thinking we may need to join a 12-step program.

Anyway, the newest thing I threw on to check out was the pilot episode of ABC's The Evidence. I've been a fan of Orlando Jones since the "Make 7-Up Yours" commercials, and the premise sounded SOMEWHAT interesting... (that you see the evidence first and have to try and piece it all together, then see what it's actually from as the show rolls on). Anyway, I WANTED to like it - but I was VERY unimpressed. The acting felt REALLY stilted from both leads (Jones and Rob Estes) - there was a lot of "buddy movie" type lines but they felt SO forced, I don't know that the chemistry is really there between them. The show itself, aside from the attempt at the new spin with the evidence thing (which is VERY minor), is just another Law & Order / CSI rip-off crime drama, and didn't really present anything new. Because I really dig Orlando Jones, I may give one more episode a shot, but right now this one's a definite pass for me.

So, I lived

Well, despite my absence here, I did make it through the surgery last week just fine. Since I hadn't really mentioned it here, if you hadn't heard about it, don't worry, it wasn't a big deal. I didn't really go out of my way to let folks know, but I wasn't dodging the topic either.

Anyway, recovery has gone pretty well. I was back at work on Friday. In pain, but back at work. Which is good because of the vacation the week before, and the coming baby-leave, I really want to miss as little work as possible. I'm still in a bit o' pain today, but hopefully everything's on the right track.

In the meantime, things keep rollin' on along, and I ought to get back to work...

Lists of Bests: Mindless Web Fun

So I'm newly re-addicted to Lists of Bests. It's been acquired by the Robot Co-Op and tied into 43places, 43things, and All Consuming, and revamped with all kinds of new goodness. The downside is that it didn't retain the things I'd already marked as "consumed" from the old Lists of Bests site... but the upside is that it's got a new fresh look and snazzy new features - the ability to create your own lists being among the best, definitely.

Recently at TechCrunch they posted a really awesome looking preview of Google's forthcoming online web calendar, CL2. I've checked out a number of the many new webcals so far, including 30Boxes, Spongecell, Eventful, Kiko, and Planzo... honestly they're all pretty much the same with maybe ONE distinguishing feature or focus for each. CL2's integration with Gmail alone should be enough to push it through to the next level -- basically it's moving towards more of an MS Exchange-level of integration. I'm really excited to try it out, so hopefully it makes it out of private status soon.

Ahh, Vacation

Earlier this week Amy & I took our last pre-parenthood vacation, heading down to Glenlaurel Inn in the Hocking Hills for a brief yet incredibly relaxing and much needed vacation. Our goal (sure to take many years' time) is to eventually stay at least once in each of their rooms. This time around we were in the MacKenzie Royal Suite. The story being that in the olden days, Scottish nobles would always keep one suite or room always ready in case the king or queen decided to stop by for the night. It was a really nice room, a little larger than the pictures make it out to be.

While we were there, Amy was a serious champ and we hiked Cedar Falls, Ash Cave. and Glenlaurel's own Camusfearna Gorge. Not too shabby! Pictures of the nature-type scenes, and a few of the room are here. There wasn't really any snow on the ground (it did snow briefly while we were there, but didn't stick), but there were lots of great icicles along the cliffs:


I think we even managed to capture a couple pretty decent pictures of me in the process as well. Can't beat that.

We came back Tuesday night and were still off on Wednesday for some relaxation around the house and to get a few errands done. Unfortunately Mr. Migraine paid me an unwelcome visit, so I had to turn in early on the errands, but I did manage to make it through a visit to baby Alison! She's an awesome girl, and even at less than two weeks old was a lot of fun - she makes some seriously funny faces. Can't believe it's just over a month now until Baby T comes along...

March Already

I can't believe it's already March. Seems like time alternates between flying by so quickly you can't catch a breath, and crawling so slowly it's worse than watching paint dry.

Anyway, here's a few links to keep the March boredom away:

• MC Hammer has a blog!
  
• Homeless blogging! (NOT by MC Hammer)
• Hilarious Something Awful Photoshops: Choose Your Own Adventures!
• Re-Imagineering: Disney and Pixar professionals talking about "imagineering missteps" (in park design and such) and musing on the future. Given that I'm an admitted hardcore Disney-phile, I agree with a LOT of what they have to say on changes to the parks which haven't worked, what could improve things, etc. I really hope that some of this stuff catches the right ears (er, eyes).
  

Farewell 2Co's

Saturday night was the last show at 2Co's, and Amy, Randy, Gary & I were there. Heather was originally going to be joining us as well, but unfortunately she couldn't make it. We headed down around 5pm and there was ALREADY someone in line, even though the doors didn't open until 7pm. We killed some time at Randy's apt, then I headed over and got in line at 6pm. The others all went back to Randy's apt to stay inside in the warm. Which was probably a good thing, because it was DAMN COLD out, and I was pretty well frozen by the time they finally let us in. It was a full house - after only selling a few tickets they closed it to the general public and made it invitation only, filling the place up with hardcore regulars and a few former staff. There was a lot of great energy coming out of the audience and the performers really gave it their all, making for one hell of a great show. Amy & I had already seen it once before, but it was MORE than worth seeing it again, and this one was really all out with some excellent performances all-around. After the show there was much applause, some crying, and a nice speech by Steve Guyer, then everyone retired to the gallery for cake and a little reception. All-in-all it was a really great night and I'm so glad that we were able to be a part of it. I'm really going to miss a lot of the performers who aren't moving on to Shadowbox (including a few who had already left), but I can understand folks wanting to move on and wish them the best. If you never got a chance to check out a show at 2Co's, you missed out on one hell of a great experience...

Sunday we hit-up Shadowbox proper for the matinee of The Who's TOMMY. Wow, that was way cool. First off, just the stage alone blew me away - they've got a cap over the middle stage to make it equally as tall and deep from wall-to-wall and it's just crazy looking, being so used to the regular setup. It was also a blast seeing the Newport who came up to be in the show. They did a really great job with it -being more faithful to the original album then the Broadway musical or the 70s-tastic movie. I do love the movie, and I missed the religous overtones, but it was an awesome production, and included some REALLY well done video work on the screens. And of course solid performances from some of their best folks. If you like Shadowbox, or musicals, or The Who, you NEED to see this show.

Damn You Axl Rose!

I have had G'n'R's "Patience" stuck in my head for way too damn long. When did it come out? '89? Maybe since then. It all starts out with that whistling hook, and then worms its way into my brain like a termite and takes hold. Based on this absolutely scientific evidence, I submit that it's got to be one of the catchiest or most addictive songs of all-time.

This would rank up there with Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water", Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner", and others which I'm not thinking of at the moment that may or may not be as bad as those three. Musical viruses that work their way into your system and never really leave. You can drown them out with other music, other catchy tunes, etc, but you're only treating the symptoms - the cause is still there, waiting, and it won't be long before you find yourself mindlessly whistling that hook YET AGAIN...

In other news - Shadowbox Insanity Week pt. 49 commences tonight: Sex At The Box '06 tonight, 2Co's Final Show Saturday night, and Tommy at the matinee Sunday afternoon. There will be much good times (and most likely a fair helping of melancholy) to be had! Viva Shadowbox!

The Boondocks

The Boondocks is one of my new favorite comics. It's actually been around for quite some time, and I can even remember when it started being carried in most papers and such, but for some sad reason it didn't really catch my attention until it became a cartoon on Adult Swim. After catching a few episodes there, I went out to start reading the strips, and they're definitely well worth the read.

The best thing about it, in my opinion, is that it's got a good mix of urban social commentary and liberal-flavored political commentary, but even while putting all this out there, it doesn't fail to take potshots at itself and those fields as well - Huey (the protagonist) is usually the voice of reason, of educated African American youth, but his extremes play off of Riley (his younger and generally more sterotypical brother) and his views aren't safe either - like the cartoon episode regarding wanting to "tell white people the truth".

It's just a great read, almost always has a great laugh, and manages to sneak a few good messages by in the process. Check it out.

Date Movie Dump

In retrospect, I probably should've known better, but over the weekend I talked Amy into going to see Date Movie with me. I had high hopes, as I thought the first Scary Movie was good, and really enjoyed the spoof Not Another Teen Movie. The SM sequels were nowhere near as good, abandoning satire and parody in favor of over-the-top farce and bathroom humor. Maybe I'm too old, but that kind of crap really doesn't do it for me. Date Movie had a few good moments, but overall was just "lets cram a whole bunch of references to other popular movies in and hope people think that's funny parody instead of worthless nonsense". Yeah... just pass on it. At BEST it's a cheap theater flick, but really it's a catch it free on TV or not at all kind of thing.

We also had dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen - that was a pretty good time. My first time there, I avoided the pizza of course, but they have lots of other great choices, including a plethora of great salad options. I had the Thai Crunch Salad (with avocado!) and Amy had the BBQ chicken salad. I liked mine better but both were good options.

Gotta run and do the grocery shopping (whoo-hoo FUN)...

Happy Valentine's Day

...every day, the 14th. Well, OK not really, but it's a song, you know? Yesterday was also Chris's b-day, which I of course completely forgot about, despite it being such an easily rememberable day. Yeah, I suck like that.

Amy & I had a phenomenal dinner last night at Morton's, which has definitely been our favorite of the anniversary steakhouse tour to date. The return trip didn't disappoint at all - I had an excellent Chicago-style bone-in ribeye, and Amy had the double-cut filet mignon, both excellent, excellent cuts o' meat. I also partook of the lobster bisque, some of Amy's chopped salad, and for sides we had broccoli and hashbrowns, the latter being especially tasty. For dessert, the hot chocolate cake, which was superb... though still a notch below Lindey's. It was a great time, and I'm really glad we got to enjoy it, since this was our last pre-parenthood V-Day. I think Amy's also trying to work in one last pre-parenthood trip to Glenlaurel as well, though the timing is pretty tight and I'm really not sure if it's going to work out.

I know I've linked Cute Overload before, but I just had to make special note of a post overthere today - this page has a good number of pics like the awesome one to the left -- fish-eye lens + puppy cuteness = the awesome.

I mean, how can you NOT look at that and say "awwww"?