Saturday, March 31, 2007

What's happening, hot stuff?

That's a great line from a funny movie: Sixteen Candles. Who doesn't love Long Duk Dong?

We recorded our very first Say Anything podcast, which can be downloaded/listened to HERE. We talked about sex, public peeing, funny drunk stories, sex, "naked time", restroom peeing, and sex.

We also played The Dollyrots, a poppy punk band... or a punky pop band, depending on how you look at it. Here's their MySpace page, if you want to check out more of their songs.

Tonight we are meeting some friends for Chinese food (they say it's MSG-free, but I am addicted, so they may have replaced the MSG with crack) and then on to Devaney's to celebrate a friend's 40th birthday. I am so happy for him! 40 rocks!

Tomorrow we have a ton of errands to run, then we are meeting my camera club mentor so I can learn more about studio lighting. One of the main things I need to learn is: How can I buy really good stuff for really freakin' cheap?

One of the things we talked about on Say Anything is being comfortable naked in front of your significant other. As the years pass with my sweetie, I am more and more comfortable, and I am now thinking of having him take pics of me naked. I mean, I don't have a perfect body, but my boobs look great. Especially for a 41-year old. I feel like their perky days are numbered, and I should preserve them for eternity on...er... jpeg images. Right?

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Busy!

It's exciting, I have a lot of things going on right now. I am too busy, but I guess I can rest when I'm dead, right?

1) We are recording our very first Say Anything podcast tomorrow, and it will be up on the site on Saturday by 5:00pm ET. I really enjoyed sitting in with The Syndicate last Sunday. You can listen to Debe (third hour), Jen (first hour) and me (second hour) here: listen. This is something I really never thought I would be interested in, or good at, but so far I really like it. W00t!

2) I am setting up a photography studio in our sun room. I have joined a local camera club, and am setting up a time to meet with a photography mentor to learn more about studio lighting.

3) I am hoping to have a new sideline job that will involve writing and will bring in a teeny bit of $. I don't have it yet, so I don't want to say too much... But I am hopeful things will work out!

4) Next week is Greg's birthday. Yay! In the Ellen tradition he will be celebrating his birthday for most of the week: We'll have a fancy steak dinner at a fancy steakhouse on his actual birthday (4/5), we'll have a Playdate (a Pop Culture Playground official outing) to see Grindhouse on Friday 4/6. I'm not sure yet what's going on on Saturday (other than the fact that I have a wedding to go to, which hopefully won't last too late). Sunday is Easter, which we'll spend having lunch/dinner with Greg's family in Lakeland.

5) In two weeks Greg and I are going to Miami for a few days. Greg'll be attending a convention/seminar/training session for part of each day (it's a work-y trip for him) but then we'll have some of each day to explore Miami. I've only been there once, to see an adults-only Halloween Genitorturers show... That was YEARS ago, and I really didn't see any of the actual city.

Wow, it's all good stuff, but it's a lot!

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Visit With Mom & Dad

On Monday morning I got up early and drove up to north Georgia to surprise my Mom & Dad with a visit. (I wrote about the possibility of surprising them in a recent blog, here.)

At around 4:30pm, I got off the elevator in their building, and called Mom from my cell phone as I walked down the hall to their apartment.
Hi Mom!
Are you at work?
Nope, I have the day off.
You go back to work tomorrow?
Nope, I took a few days off.
What have you been doing today?
Well... driving. What are you doing?
Getting ready to watch Jeopardy. There was a three-way tie yesterday!
(I knock on the door)
Wait a minute, somebody's at the door...
It's ME! I'm at the door!
Yay! She laughed and was completely delighted with the surprise. Dad put down his cigar and came over to find out what was going on. Hugs all around!

I stayed two days, and it was a great visit. We went to get 'nanner pudding at Longstreet, we bought Mom a new pantsuit at Belk's, we had lunch at Red Lobster, Mom gave me some old pictures, we ate pancakes at IHOP, and Dad dictated his obituary to me.

Having elderly parents is weird sometimes. I'm sure a lot of people their age are a challenge to be in the same room with, but Mom and Dad are so sweet. They are trying so hard to get everything in order for their family so that when they are gone everything goes as easy as it can.

So Dad decided to dictate his obituary to me. He was reluctant to include his Bachelor of Science degree from Va Tech (even though he is the only one in his family to get a degree) or his Army career (which included serving during World War II), he really just wanted to say that he dedicated his life to Christ in 1930 and has spent the years since being active in the Church, and that he raised two daughters and one son and has spent 70+ years married to his wife. He told me that his family and his church mean more than anything else.

Mom, however, disagreed, so I am assigned to write up two obituaries; one including his degree/miliary and one without.

I am also typing up one for Mom, who, as Dad said, spent her whole life cooking for him and raising three blasted kids. I'm not sure how that'll translate into an obituary, but I'll see what I can do.

Tonight, after sitting in Atlanta traffic on 85 and Georgia road construction between Macon and Valdosta and listening to my iPod for almost 8 hours straight, I am HOME!

Whew!

Sunday, March 18, 2007

St. Ellen's Day

I had a great birthday! I had my hair did and my eyebrows waxed, I ate a yummy chocolate birthday cake, I had a wonderful dinner, I got cool gifts, I hung out with friends, I got a lil buzzy... Yay!

And then this morning I slept late, got up and ate birthday cake for breakfast.

Happy e11en's birthday weekend, everyone!

:-D

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Day at Universal

Yesterday we slept late, then went to Universal. I was surprised to see that parking is now $11! Dag, dude. That's freakin' ridiculous...

We went to Islands of Adventure first, and immediately went to the Hulk, where there was an hour wait. That's too long, even though I love the Hulk. We rode Spiderman, which is always fun, and then when we came out it was raining. Did I mention that IOA was full of spring-break kids? Apparently when you're 14 it's fun to get rained on. When you're 41, not so much...

So we went to Universal, where all the attractions are inside. We did the Terminator 2 thing, which I love. The actual live-action part isn't so impressive anymore, but the 3D movie part is just so cool.

We rode the Mummy, which was fun but too short. Then we realized there's just nothing else at Universal that was interesting to us. Twister is the stupidest thing ever and should be taken out, the Men In Black ride is okay but not worth waiting in line for, Earthquake and Jaws are just boring after, what, 20 years? I used to LOVE the Hanna-Barbera ride, but they TOOK IT OUT. Bah! The Blue Man Group dealie doesn't start until this summer...

The whole experience really made me agree with Mike Thomas' recent column about the decline of Universal.

So we walked back over to CityWalk and went to the movies. There we discovered something terrible: They no longer give you concession credit for the parking cost! That was EXTREMELY disappointing, especially after paying so much to park.

We saw 300, which was great! I walked out of the theatre feeling like the whole 2-hour movie had been about 15 minutes long. I normally really hate battle-y movies, but this was awesome.

Greg wrote a review of it in the Pop Culture Playground.

Fuck Universal! Go see 300 (somewhere else)!