When Peggy Met Lolo

Lolo Jones was in town for the Drake Relays last week and was doing a meet and greet at Prairie Meadows, so my mom went to meet her. I took the picture. I feel like I had more of a point to this but I'll be damned if I can remember what it is.


Doesn't she kind of look like Rashida Jones?


Oh, I remember what my point was: when my mom was telling me to come out and meet Lolo too, she said, "Her birthday is only two weeks after yours!!"

Me: "Wow. I have done nothing with my life."

Corey Taylor and the Junk Beer Kidnap Band

I've mentioned before that Paul and I have to drag each other to concerts.  He doesn't really love my music and I'm not all about his either.  But when my friend Jimi found out Corey Taylor's new band was doing a secret show at People's last night, I didn't have to be coerced too much.  Why?  'Cause Corey describes the Junk Beer Kidnap Band as a "stoner rock disco funk band - basically a cross between Sabbath, Prince and Zappa," and who can resist a description like that? And it turns out I went to school with the guitarist (Jimi is friends with him which is how she knew about the show).  He graciously acted like he remembered me, even though I don't think we've spoken since eighth grade.  Which was a loooong time ago, people.  

Anyway, when they opened with a cover of Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" I was beyond delighted.  Didn't get that one on video, though.  However, I DID get a bit of them doing the Cheers theme song:

And some of the guys from Stone Sour were there, so they played a couple of songs. Paul got 

some pretty good video of Through Glass:

So there you have it. They were good, and definitely entertaining. Working out some kinks

I think. They're going to be at Lazerfest at the end of May for their "official" debut. Oh, and some 

of the Slipknot guys were there as well. Paul got his picture with Shawn Crahan (Clown) who 

was filming pretty much everything. Paul wishes he knew Shawn was doing an evil face 

because it makes Paul look entirely too happy by comparison.

Also, my font is doing weird things and I don't know how to fix it.

SPRING!

The Three Weeks in Review: April 1 - April 22

The more I say I'm going to post these with more regularity, the longer I go between posts. My Weeks in Review need more fiber. And if it seems like this is a small number of stories for three weeks, you're right - I had a week off for my friend Lisa's wedding.

Mental Floss

10 World's Fairs. I feel like World's Fairs don't get that much attention these days. That's a postcard from the 1964 Fair in New York, which featured several exhibits from Disney, including the debut of everyone's favorite nightmare-inducing ride, It's a Small World.

10 Imelda Marcos-esque Collections. I someday hope to rival her shoe collection. In my dreams. The best part about this story is the comments, though. It's fascinating to see what people collect!

The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. My friend and I are spending a couple of nights there over Memorial Day Weekend and I'm super excited about it! Some people might be excited to see starlets getting wasted at Teddy's or sleeping off a hangover by the famous pool, but I'm hoping to catch a glimpse of starlets who used to hang by the pool 50 years ago... i.e., Marilyn Monroe. She haunts the place, you know, and so does Montgomery Clift. I know I'm not really going to see anything, but I'm excited about getting myself spooked anyway.

How 10 Works of Art Were Discovered. I've actually seen half of these. I'm not super-schooled in the arts, only about two years' worth (I have a minor), but I definitely appreciate it, especially in person. And in person, the Winged Victory of Samothrace is AMAZING. And so is the Colossus of Constantine.

10 Places I Demanded to Stop on my Road Trip. 10 places I demanded, but only 7 of those were heeded. :) Don't worry, Elvis... I'm coming back for you.

10 Facts About St. Peter's Basilica. It's kind of funny... looking at these posts over the last three weeks, I can totally tell that my head is on a new adventure. I keep writing about places that I loved and things I've seen and trips I'm planning on taking. I've been to St. Peter's a number of times - most of them when I was studying abroad in Rome between my sophomore and junior years of college. Then Paul and I went again on our honeymoon and got special seating because we were newlyweds. Some newlyweds even wore their wedding outfits to the mass, because if you were willing to do that then the Pope would bless you personally. Um, my wedding dress weighed like 30 pounds and was fairly voluminous, so I wasn't really willing to bring it overseas with me. Wow, I'm really rambly today. Anyway. Even if you're not Catholic, St. Peter's is very cool and awe-inspiring, if not just for the architecture and sculpture.

10 Facts About MGM Studios. The most important thing you should take away from this post is that MGM has Bill and Ted 3 slated fot release in 2010. Yeah.

Lunchtime Quiz: MacGyver. A rerun, but still fun.

10 Hermits. Including the musical variety.

10 Serious Things That Happened on April 1. Word to the wise: if you want your death to be taken seriously, don't kick it on April 1.

Neatorama

Movie Trivia: Heathers. What's Your Damage? "I love my dead gay son!!!" Best line from the movie. OK, I can't really say that with confidence. There are sooooo many good lines in that movie, it's not really fair to pick just one. Also, delivered perfectly by Ms. Shannen Doherty: "Veronica, why are you pulling my dick?"

Things You Didn't Know About Napoleon. Including the story of his traveling penis and how it ended up in the United States. C'mon, you know you're intrigued.

The Current Careers of Six Former Teen Idols. What would you do if you got busted by Bobby Sherman?!

Movie Trivia: The Nightmare Before Christmas. This was a Tim Burton double feature, since I missed a Sunday when I was on vacation. Nightmare is a favorite around our house; we have Jack Skellington and Co. decor in the house year-round, including two cookie jars, Deadly Nightshade salt and pepper shakers and a figurine collection (we buy one of the WDCC pieces every time we are at Disney).

Movie Trivia: Big Fish. I am a cold, cold soul. Ask my husband. I don't cry at anything. Well, that's not entirely true. I don't cry at things most girls cry at; I save it all up for something entirely stupid and not cry-worthy and then the floodgates open and I sob for like half an hour and freak Paul the hell out. My point is, I'm not much of a crier, but the end of this movie gives me this big, immovable lump in my throat that I'm unable to swallow for a good 20 minutes. It's heartbreaking and feel-good all at the same time.

I Made Cupcakes

Here's what I did before noon today:

1. Made cupcakes
2. Ran 9 miles*
3. Finished the NYT Sunday crossword**
4. Wrote a story***
5. Finished my book proposal****



*Actually, that was yesterday. Today I am compensating for that by sitting around on my ass eating cupcakes.
**There is no truth to that whatsoever
***Well, I'm working on one. Then I got distracted by cupcakes.
****I thought about working on my book proposal. Similar to finishing it, right?

BRANDON NO.

Look, BFlo... I've stuck with you through your "Floppy Indieboy Too-Much-Hair-Product" phase, your "Lipglossy Flamboyant Maybe I'm Gay" phase, your "Metrosexual Guyliner" phase (OK, I LOVED the guyliner phase), your "Olde West Revue at Diamond Lil's Saloon" phase, your "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Thrift Store Band" phase and your "Questionable Feather Epaulettes and Sheer Shirt" phase.



But I will NOT stick with you if you insist on going through a "Night at the Roxbury" Phase. I won't do it.

::sigh:: Yes I will.

The Mark Game

Soooo if you follow my stuff with any regularity, you know that my husband and BFF and I took a whirlwind five-day road trip to Florida for the wedding of one of my other BFFs (that's us on the left). This makes it sound like I have a bunch of besties but I really don't... I can count on both hands the number of friends like them I have had in my entire life (if I had a couple of freak fingers I could probably do it on one hand). I don't make close friends very easily. I'm a bit guarded, which is probably hard to tell when I'm out there blogging my life every day, but I am. Uhhh. I'm rambling. All I meant to say is that I don't throw the "BFF" term around lightly; this was a very important wedding AND, in turn, a very important road trip.

Given the short time frame, we were going to fly like most normal people would. But when we added up the airfare plus the car rental once we got there - Easter weekend in Florida is hella expensive, y'all - we decided it would be cheaper for the three of us to drive and split gas and whatnot. Especially with Cleo the Prius ($150 in gas, total. That's nearly 3,000 miles for the price of a pair of boots).

On the way there we split the drive up overnight and stayed with my friend Sheila in Nashville and went out to a honky-tonk. We drove the rest of the way on Thursday and landed in Sarasota at about midnight (we may have detoured to visit Jack Daniel's Distillery for a couple of hours). But more on that in a later post... this is about the Mark Game. The way home yesterday and today was not nearly as leisurely and fun; we drove it straight overnight from Orlando to Des Moines. We left Disney at 3:00 yesterday afternoon, and after we picked up the dogs and dropped Courtney off today, it was 3:00 before I was at home on my couch today. It. Was. Nuts. To keep ourselves awake in the wee hours this morning, we played the Mark Game. You may remember Mark from hits such as tailgating and drinking and tailgating. Oh, and from his Bret Michaels hair. It started when I e-mailed him with the subject line "Marky Mark!" a couple of weeks ago which he apparently he didn't care for... even when I said we would be the Funky Bunch. So then I started thinking of other nicknames he might approve. Marcus Welby, M.D., was immediately shot down as well. Fun hater. We warned him that we were going to play the Mark Game on the way home and text him with all of our ideas (Mark doesn't send texts; he only reads them). Let me tell you, at 3 a.m. this morning, this was frigging HYSTERICAL.

• Marko Polo
• Marc Chagall
• Marc Summers
• TradeMark
• Karl Mark...s...
• Line of deMarkation
• Magic Mark-er
• Maker's Mark
• Mark Cohn of "Walking in Memphis" fame (yes, you have to say that whole phrase)
• This little piggy went to Mark-et
• Mark-ette University
• Markansas
• TexMarkana
• Markedly Different
• Markhail Gorbachev
• MarkGruff the Crime Dog
• Markiavelli
• MarkDonalds
• I lost my f*cking bumper due to a downed power line in AlaMarkbama
• Markwing Duck
• Freddie Markury
• Markcaulay Culkin
• The Mark Knight
• President William MarkKinley
• Markret Thatcher
• Markquis de Sade

We've received feedback that Markret Thatcher is the winner (the unwritten rules were "come up with a nickname that squicks Mark out the most), but Markwing Duck made him laugh the hardest. But I'm still taking suggestions if you have any.

And this is how tired I was when we got home today. Yep... that's the dog on my butt. What I can I say, it has a lot of cushioning.

And here's lovely Lisa... more on that later, but how gorgeous, right?!

For now, my bed is calling my name. It says, "Stacy, I promise I'm much more comfortable than being curled up in the fetal position in Cleo's passenger's side seat. Stacy, I promise if you crawl under my covers, I won't wake you up like a shot when Courtney veers onto the rumble strips. Stacy, I promise you will have feeling in your feet when you leave me in the morning."

And all of that sounds pretty good, so...

The Great Filet-O-Fish Ripoff

What is this!?  It's like a quarter piece of cheese!!  I guess times really ARE tough.

This is how I store my paper clips

I thought you would like to know. He's supposed to hold toothpicks, but I find him helpful for work stress relief.