Is it Cool Yet?

I really do hate hanging out on my laptop when the weather is warm. May our summer rains come soon and cool things off.

Movie Enchantment with a Robot

Pixar sure knows how to take an unconventional story and come up with something enchanting. Think of Finding Nemo, for god’s sake. A fish frantically looking for his son? Oh that’s sure to be entertaining. And yes, it was.

Now it’s a movie about a dirty, post-apocalyptic Earth and a Hello Dolly-watching robot. And I have to say, Wall-E is great.

He’s just so plucky. And really, you have to love any movie where the audience gasps in sadness and dismay when a cockroach is squashed.

Sucking Mad

I just watched Mad Money, starring Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, and Katie Holmes. It pretty much sucked. But it didn’t suck as bad as the pilot “comedy” I had to watch for a survey. Of course, it ended up that it wasn’t a survey about the pilot, but certain products seen in a commercial. It was kind of silly how they make you watch a fake TV show in order to get your opinion about vitamins. I wouldn’t mind so much, but making me watch some horrid, unfunny, sucky comedy for almost a half hour makes me irritated.

Enjoying Sunday Morning

I managed to wake up early and even get out of bed early, which always gives me a sense of accomplishment. Of course, it’s really due to the heat. Lounging in bed isn’t that comfortable when the temperatures rise above normal. It’s been in the high 80s the last week, and it does get warm inside.

So what’s a gal to do on a hot day? Why get up and get out. I finally made it to our local Farmers Market that happens every Sunday morning in Flagstaff. It starts in early June and continues until October. It’s happened for several years, but I’ve never gone before. Hey, getting up early is not my usual thing, much less get dressed and into town. Well, it’s much easier when I still have a few more days off (flexible work schedule, plus a vacation day) and this isn’t my last weekend day to relax.

I picked up a variety of items. I’m most excited about the rhubarb jam and the green zebra tomato I bought. I mentally know that there are all kinds of tomatoes that never make it to the grocery store, but seeing them in front of me had my jaw dropping. What the heck? All kinds of colors, sizes, and markings. The lovely woman manning the table answered my questions and she helped me pick out the green zebra. Now, I’m not a super tomato fan. I like them in sauces, salsas, and on sandwiches, but I don’t normally drool over a tomato. Yet, I’m excited by this one. May I not be disappointed.

The rest of my morning should stay relaxed. I’ll sit here and think about how to fix the tomato, surf the web, putter around doing some cleaning, and enjoy the day.  Now that’s a nice Sunday morning.

Piece of Paper

On the bright side of life — versus the dark side of paying for auto repair (see below) — my diploma arrived. I have that piece of paper stating I actually completed enough classes to earn a Master’s degree.

Stimulating the Economy

Ouch. My stimulus check is going to be stimulating my mechanic. A tune-up, belts and hoses replacement, and various other tweaks on my 15 year-old truck came to a higher amount than what I wanted to pay. Well hey, I only wanted to pay $75, so anything over that is irritating, but when the grand total is going to be about a thousand bucks, it is more than irritating.

At least the stimulus check will go off into the economy and make things all better for America. Sheesh, what I do for this country.

Parading Around for Obama

It’s official. I am “marching” in the 4th of July parade. Okay, with my bad feet it’ll be more like limping, but I’ll be ready for it. We’ll carry some Obama signs and hand out Obama buttons. We should get a good reception from the Flagstaff crowd.

There’s nothing like living in a small city where you can easily limp in the parade.

Politics, Planning, and Social Gatherings

Tonight, after work, I went to a City Council meeting. I rarely would do such a thing, but tonight they swore in the new mayor and City Council members. One of my old DFA (Democracy for America) buddies, Karla Brewster got sworn in as one of those City Council folks.

Some of the DFA regulars were there and it was good to socialize with them. I committed to being in the 4th of July parade. It’ll be hot, I’ll stand for too long on my bad foot, and I’ll end up sleeping the rest of the day, but it’s been fun the other times I’ve done it.

Then I rushed home, fed the animals, fed myself, and joined one of the Netroots Nation in Second Life planning meetings. I’m one of the committee heads. Hard to believe, but I’m in charge of the social events for the event in July. I’m also on several other committees. I’m off for five days starting Friday, so hope to actually get some stuff done.

The fun part about these planning meetings is that we socialize afterwards. Tonight we watched Al Gore’s endorsement of Obama, plus various other videos, including the new MoveOn ad, and a very entertaining video about McCain’s use of a very offensive word.

A picture of me leading a committee meeting:

So tomorrow night is another political and social event. It’s the parade planning meeting. It’ll be fun too…I hope.

Well, here are links to the three videos I mentioned. Watch out, the last one has a bad, bad word (used to hilarious effect).

Gore and Obama:

MoveOn.org ad:

McCain’s Very Bad Word or “He Said it First”

I’ll save the Bollywood Obama for another day.

Is My Mouth Foaming Yet?

I’ve mentioned the joy of having a killer kitty here and here. She brings sweet little meadowland creatures in and slaughters them. I try to save them. Well, yesterday I tried again. This pack rat or vole or some kind of rodent was what Lulu brought in. It was still alive.

Now, it takes a quick move to grab a still living critter once the cat has dropped it. Often the mice she brings in are paralyzed with fear and I have a moment or two to grab them and get them out. This time? The rodent was squirming to get up when I picked it up bare-handed. It was pissed and didn’t seem to feel that I was a Disney heroine out to save the poor little Disney creature. The damn thing bit me. On my thumb.

I called the vet, Animal Control, and the doctor. The vet would charge over $100 to do rabies testing. Animal Control let me know that rodents don’t seem to have rabies…at least in this state. The doctor? I went there for a tetanus shot.

The sad news is that the rodent died anyway. Whether it was due to the cat mauling it and then me scaring the hell out of it and it then being forced into a shoe box, it didn’t survive. Poor thing.

Still, I guess I should read up on the symptoms of rabies, hanta virus, and the various diseases I may face. Damn rodent. Damn Lulu.

Life Upon the Wicked Stage

Dang Internet. I was going to bed two hours ago, but a stray thought came to mind, a bit of Googling research, and a multitude of videos later, I’m still up.

The stray thought? What cast members are needed for a stage production of Little Shop of Horrors. Why? Our local community theater is putting the show on later this year and I wondered if there were any character roles I could audition for. I wouldn’t have even thought this if an old friend hadn’t come to town last week and we went to see the dress rehearsal of Play it Again, Sam. Seeing a show rekindled that show biz ardor I had banked down the last few years.  The star of the show, Matt Wilson — who was great in the “Woody Allen role” — had played my son many years ago in a production of The Shadow Box. Talking to him after the show, and seeing his joy and excitement brought it all back — theater is fun! Okay, it didn’t help that one of the young women in the show remembered me from another show I was in. My ego was stroked as she declared how wonderful I had been as the crazy psychiatrist in Beyond Therapy (I’ll toot my horn on that one; I thought I was good too). Yep, theater is way too much fun…as long as the part is small and you have a few good lines to say.

So, from seeing what the cast looks like for Little Shop of Horrors (nothing for my age and type), I had to watch some videos from various productions of Little Shop of Horrors on YouTube. From that, I ended up watching various Tony Awards musical moments, and I ended up watching one of my favorite live performances. There’s nothing like a combination of darling innocence backed up by decadence. A young Anna Kendricks sings “Life Upon the Wicked Stage” from Showboat backed up by Cabaret’s chorus from the Kit Kat Club. It’s from the DVD My Favorite Broadway: the Leading Ladies.

Feeling Lost

Oh dear. I am now hooked back on Lost, the TV series. I purchased the season 3 DVD and am working hard at not watching all of them in one marathon setting. I know enough from various web sites to have some ideas about what happens to a few characters. Still, I’m enjoying the whole thing tremendously.

And may I just say, “Hurley rocks!”

Activated

This story about a woman who took her first step into the world of politics by donating $10 is fascinating. The web certainly has changed our lives. I became more involved thanks to the internet and Ms. Linnie Frank Bailey did to:

She didn’t foresee any of this activism. There was “no grand plan,” she says. She never thought politics would define her life; she had spent more time watching HGTV and the Food Network than reading news articles. But gone are those apathetic days. The Web, she says, has “awakened” her.

After the initial $10 online donation, after hours and hours of volunteering, then opening Obama Riverside, then winning a delegate spot to the national convention and, later, deciding to run for local office, Bailey, politically, has been born anew.

Go check it out. It’s fun to read how it all happened.

A Break?

I think I just took an unintended break. I’m back. Um…not that it is exciting news to hear that, huh?

Women Power

Well, it seems that Sex and the City did very well this weekend. That long line of women waiting for the next showing of the movie didn’t happen just in my local theatre.:

The big-screen ” Sex and the City ” _ reuniting Parker and TV co-stars Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon _ strutted to a $55.7 million opening weekend, far exceeding Hollywood’s box office expectations.

That was nearly twice the forecast by distributor Warner Bros., whose head of distribution, Dan Fellman, said he had hoped the movie might deliver a $30 million debut.

I don’t know why, but I’m pleased by this. It’s the first movie aimed at women to do so well. It’s putting up record numbers:

“Sex and the City” put up numbers never before seen for a movie aimed mainly at women, who do not tend to rush out in huge numbers for opening weekends the way males do.

“Sex and the City,” released under Warner’s New Line Cinema banner, had the best debut ever for an R-rated comedy, topping the $45.1 million opening of “American Pie 2.”

The movie landed at No. 5 on the all-time list among R-rated films, behind “The Matrix Reloaded” ($91.8 million), “The Passion of the Christ” ($83.8 million), “300″ ($70.9 million) and “Hannibal” ($58 million).

Now if I could only get over the movie’s glorification of  silly shoes.