Sometimes on gloomy, rainy days….

I just have to watch a little “Everwood” to make myself feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

If I have not already mentioned it, Everwood is the greatest show in the history of television.  You might think that is an exaggeration, but it totally is not.  It is the only tv show that can make me consistently laugh out loud (not little giggles, but actually laughs) and cry at least once during every single episode.  The plot revolved around a brain surgeon from New York who packs up his son and daughter and moves to Everwood, Colorado after his wife dies, but of course it is so much more than that.  The show is kind of like Gilmore Girls (with lots of quick fire pop culture filled dialgue) except that father and son hate each other instead of being best friends.

Everwood is populated with so many phenomenal characters that it would be impossible to list them all, but of course  I will try: Dr. Brown, Ephram, Edna, Irv, Bright, Dr. Abbott, Rose, Amy, Hannah, Nina.  Aaahh, it makes me happy just to list their names.

Unfortunately I came late to the Everwood party.  I saw the last ten minutes of the last episode that ever aired.  I thought it was wonderful, but they never even showed reruns after it was canceled.  Then I found the first season DVD at Wal-Mart for $16 and bought it.  I would advise everyone to go out and buy it right now because it is totally worth whatever it costs.  None of the other seasons have been released (some lame excuse about music rights) but I was really bad and managed to get some bootleg copies.  They are some of my most prized possessions.  I know that is totally wrong, but if evil corporate empires are denying fans the episodes, I feel it is our right to get them by whatever means necessary.

Anyways, now I am just rambling, but I wanted to share my favorite scene that involves a fictional character that I would definitely date, Mr. Bright Abbott.  He starts out in the first season as a typical mean jock, but over the course of the series he screws up, grows up, and turns into a pretty fantastic guy.  Most people get all excited about Amy and Ephram, but I get all gooey over Bright and Hannah because it’s always nice when the popular jocks go out of their comfort zones and fall for the nerdy, plain girl (yes, Hannah is supposed to be unattractive even though she is gorgeous).

Anyway, here is the scene where they first kiss:

Jen

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!

Rockapella, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiago?, Gumshoes!  It doesn’t get any better than this!

You’re welcome,

lindsayF

Sometimes We Just Have A Little Trouble With The Monkey

OK, so most of you should have read Amber’s post about Camp Rock.  How many of you actually watched it?  If you say no, what’s your excuse?  It was not only shown on Disney, but ABC Family, and ABC, and then on disney.com.  So if you don’t have cable, you could have watched it on ABC.  If you don’t have a TV, you could have watched it on disney.com, if you don’t have a TV or the internet, well, this doesn’t apply because all of our readers at least have the internet.  So no excuses!  

Well, what can I say.  I have to agree with a post made by namedropper, and also Amber whom I talked with on the phone after watching the movie.  I think maybe we wouldn’t have been so disappointed if Disney hadn’t hyped the damn movie so much.  If they hadn’t raised our expectations then the movie would have been great.  But it was supposed to rock the summer, and quite frankly I’m more excited about tomorrow night when the American Gladiators go head to head with the cast of The Office on the Celebrity Family Feud (watch in on NBC at 7:00 PM central time!).

I’d be scared if I were a gladiator!

Anyhow, back to Camp Rock.  If you haven’t watched it by now, and still want to, stop reading right now and go watch it.  If you haven’t watched it by now, and probably will never watch it, go ahead and keep reading if you want.  I don’t want to spoil anything.

Sure, the movie was adorable.  However, as Amber pointed out, and which I have to agree, there are certain things that just don’t really groove with the plot.  For example, why did they show the mean girl looking at Mitchie’s song book if she wasn’t going to do anything with it?  There are certain things where it just seemed like the middle was a little twisted and didn’t fully connect with the end.  

Much like this kid and how he completely and utterly failed at putting together the silver monkey.

Seriously, is it that hard to put together the shrine of the silver monkey?  Honest to goodness, I swear I could put that thing together in my sleep in like 5 seconds.  I’m still waiting for them to put me one that show.  I don’t care that they stopped making it like 10 years ago, I will get on it somehow.

Anyways, I was super ticked off with ABC for showing so many commercials during their airing.  I feel like I got to watch 5 minutes of the movie and then we were back to the ads!  I’m all for ad integration into shows.  When someone finds out how to do it subtly and so that it doesn’t ruin the show, please let me know so I can start plaguing the networks with requests to do it.  Also, I was really annoyed with how they continually said that they were going to show clips from ABC’s new show, HSM Get in the Picture, during the movie, but then didn’t.  Also I was annoyed with the fact that I had to wait like 20 minutes to see the Jonas Brothers new music video, which was way cute.  Is it wrong if I imagine my 15 year old self was attracted to Nick?  And I love that they put Selena Gomez (aka Mikayla from HM, thank you Jill, and Alex from Wizards of Waverly Place, thank you Amber) as Nick’s love interest.  I think she is way adorable, but I agree with Amber, I’m not sure where our friend status would fall if ever that were to occur.  Plus I love Wizards of Waverly Place, and I can’t wait to see what happens with Mikalya and Miley since the last time she was on Mikayla was all like Let’s Be FRIENDS! with Miley, but she wanted to talk about how much she hates Hannah!  I smell a friendship?  Maybe?  

Well, that’s all I have for you right now.  I’m trying to be oh so diligent with my mathematical essays (I had to write an essay about which mathematical philosophy I believed in, logicism, intuitionism, or formalism, and I totally had to figure out what I did believe in.  It’s logicism, but only partly, because I don’t believe that logic precedes mathematics ALL the time), and today is the first day that I’m actually slightly succeeding.  I’ll leave you with a nice video of a former Backstreet Boy, A.J. McLean (hint, he’s the only boy and the one in blue…in this video, it’s only part 1 of 3, so you may think he’s going to dominate, but SPOILER, he loses to a girl). **Taken from margflower’s youtube account**

<3, lindsayF

 

 

Best part of Camp Rock? wait for it….

Ok, we can’t talk too much about Camp Rock yet because Lindsay hasn’t seen it yet (she doesn’t have cable so she will be watching it tomorrow on the Wonderful World of Disney), so I won’t say whether I liked it or not, I won’t even say my favorite part (although it is currently my facebook status), but I will say the BEST part of Camp Rock was when it was over—-wait wait, that does not mean that I didn’t like it? (or does it?) but just that THE NEW JONAS BROTHERS MUSIC VIDEO WAS CRAZY ADORABLE!!!! Yes, right after the premiere of Camp Rock came the premiere of the music video “Burning up”—Thank you, Disney! Um, I like the Jonas Brothers’ music and all, their style is mesmerizing, but I don’t own any of their cds and I really have to think to remember their names, but oh no, not after this video–Nick is the suave one, Joe has the mustache, Kevin is a ninja, and Rob can do it all. It is all so easy.

OOH, did you see the girl from Wizards of Waverly Place? Gosh, I love her! although, I’m not sure she’s the type of girl that would ever be friends with me… Of all the Disney show characters, my boyfriend says I’m most like Ren from Even Stevens… or Lola from Charlie and Lola…

Ok, the real reason I like this video so much? Because it totally reminds me of an *NSYNC video. Hooray for the goofy plotlines and silly outfits and boybands being back in pop music!!! sigh, I just found my old *NSYNC poster in my room yesterday when I was moving stuff for the landlord to put in new windows. I just can’t throw it away, you know? I remember 30 days before my first *NSYNC concert I covered that poster with 30 squares and peeled one off each day. You know what the last square to pulled off? Justin’s face. And I shall leave you with that bit of knowledge about myself and one of *NSYNC’s best.

Oh gosh, that part where Justin falls and gives that little laugh? goosebumps and giggles.

amberj.

I Really Like to Take Pictures of Books

Today I went into work on my day off just so I could shop at the library book sale.  As an employee I get the privilege of shopping a day before the screaming masses descend upon the bargains.  It was kind of annoying because since I was in my “street clothes” people kept coming up to me and saying, “I’m sorry, the sale doesn’t start until tomorrow.”

But I did get 16 books and 4 videos for $16.25!!!  Not that I need to add to the massive amount of books I have to pack, but I simply could not pass up a library sale.

I am really pumped about “365 penguins” and the “Scary Stories” books.  I used to read the scary stories books and absolutely terrify myself.  Hopefully, since it is now seventeen years later, I can read them without having to sleep with the lights on.

But the best, best part was that I found four Babysitter’s Club videos!!!!  I used to check those out of the library in Scranton when I was little.  I think we checked out at least one every time we went to the library.  Yippee!!!

It has been a very good day!  And my mom is visiting this weekend and will get here later tonight!

Jen

P.S.  Here are some cute pictures of my cats, just cuz I can.

Update From the ‘Burbs

Well, like Amber, I have also been absent for awhile, but mainly because my life is not that exciting.  But quite a bit of stuff has happened to me too in the past week or two.  I will try to give a quick rundown a la Amber.

1.  I got ringworm.  Again.  I feel all dirty like a leper or something.  Thank God my cats have not caught it.  I am pretty sure I got it from work, because it runs rampant in children and wrestlers (and since I don’t hang out with too many wrestlers…..).

2.  I had a wicked bad earache that is finally gone, but I still can’t hear properly out of my ear.  Probably not a good thing.

3.  The city police have barricaded every entrance to my apartment complex except for one and this is what I have to face everyday when I come home from work:

Apparently the cops were so sick of coming here all the time for noise complaints, domestic violence calls, burglaries and vandalisms that they just decided to set up shop and scope everybody out as they pull into the parking lot.  It has been all over the papers and the news for the past week.

4.  Also, said apartment complex is being torn down next year to make room for a new set of condos.

5.  Needless to say, I have decided to move.

6.  The elevator is broken at work and won’t be fixed for 8 weeks.  That involves transferring books upstairs and downstairs in baskets, not to mention how much it sucks for our disabled patrons.

7.  Today, while practicing a storytime outside with my co-worker, a giant spider fell down my shirt.  Of course I was wearing a tank top underneath my shirt with one of those built in bra things.  So it got stuck above the elastic band.  I danced around and screamed for a few minutes before I finally got rid of it.

Other than that, things have been going pretty well.  My mom is coming to visit me this weekend and it is also the library book sale.  I hope to come away from the sale with lots more books to pack up!

Jen

In case you were trying to find Sleeping Beauty…

Check the Horror section!

I’m serious–there i was in the Iowa City Public Library looking at the Musicals’ section of the DVDs trying to decide if I really needed to check out both Jungle Book and Thoroughly Modern Millie (I put Jungle Book back… for now) when I turned around to look for Jill and my eyes landed on Sleeping Beauty. Ahhhh, I totally want to watch that! so I grabbed it (It is actually playing right now while I watch this) and then I wondered “hey, why wasn’t this with Jungle Book? Wha, wha, what section is this anyway?” OMG IT WAS THE SF/HORROR SECTION! And right next to Sleeping Beauty was gasp! The Santa Clause 2!!!! What kind of crazy twisted world is this????

So I went to the Fiction Desk because I was sure these had to be mismarked… But NO! The fiction librarian said she was just as confuzzled as I was, but it has something to do with how fantasy fits in with science fiction and science fiction with horror. I now really look forward to the cataloguing class I will be taking this fall because it is sure to be R-I-O-T. seriously, I’m not being sarcastic, this gives me the giggles.

Oh, and isn’t the “Once Upon a Dream” Sequence where Prince Philip surprises Princess Aurora/Rose in the forest just to die for. I really thought that was how I was going to meet the love of my life–not going to lie, I used to walk off into forests/thickets/trees quite frequently when I was younger so that an opportunity could arise.

amberj.

Amber is resurfacing!

Gasp! the air feels fantastic! I have been absent for way toooo long from this blog, and so many things have happened that I should have written looooong posts about, but I’m going to give the long/short version of them all combined in a neatly ordered list.

1. Jill, Steve, and I joined Team Fiona with Sarah and her family for the walk for Angelman Syndrome in Des Moines, IA.

2. Lindsay and I roadtripped to Peoria for a Wizard rock show to see Lena of the Butterbeer Experience, Lauren of the Moaning Myrtles, and Kristina of the Parselmouths (and we also got to see NinaMyrtle and the Ministry of Magic). We both wore super cute blue summer dress and hats, but it got cold so we had to switch into the clothes we bought at the nearby mall…

3. Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson got married, and I had to read all the tabloids. I never would have predicted that Ashlee would become my favorite Simpson. Life is weird.

4. NerdGirl Lindsay gets Married! (Lindsay left her wand in Iowa City, but I made sure to bring mine, because what good wizard bride doesn’t get a photo with her dress, flowers and wand? and Lindsay is for sure the good wizard bride.)

5. Bachelorette party for Sheila in Chicago! Never ever ever stay at the Wingate by Wyndham in Arlington Heights. The staff will stalk you and make you feel most uncomfortable. And apparently the staff at Howl at the Moon ALL know the words to a Spice Girls song now, even though back in February, when the Spice Girls WERE IN CHICAGO, the staff acted clueless to our requests, huff huff.

6. Sheila gets married in 21 words: walk down aisle power out water pours through roof priest says holy cow trees uprooted walk out of church all sunny.

7. Iowa City floods. Things are getting better, I just unpacked my emergency evacuation bag last night. My apartment was fine because it was on top of a hill, but water came up from 3 sides leaving only one road out–very scary. And my poor Art Museum (you can’t really see it in the video, it is just past the Theater Building). I feel incredibly guilty that I didn’t even help sandbag it (I only sandbagged one day, which is pretty lame of me. Although, most of the sandbagging was done on the east side of the river which we weren’t supposed to cross. Other people did though. But I am a loser and follow whatever anyone tells me…) I’m sure I don’t need to go into too much detail since it has kinda been all over the news. P.S. My roommate Cassi is the lovely videographer and narrator in the video.

8. And last, my anxiety disorder has made a reappearance. Maybe someday I’ll go into more detail on this since I think mental disorders definitely need to be discussed more openly so they can be better understood and so I guess I have to talk the talk, right? Not right now though. Things are getting better! I think I have finally found some medications that are helping (yesterday I smiled while by myself for the first time in a week! I was dancing to Ingrid Michaelson in my bedroom, which is also something I hadn’t done in several weeks. I never realized how much I normally smile until I stopped and the frowns just feel so foreign.) While I’m on this topic, let me just praise praise praise the latest installment of the Princess Diaries Series by Meg Cabot:

Princess Mia is one the best books, YA or not, that has portrayed depression honestly and realistically, and it is the first book with a depression theme where I have actually felt a connection with the character–many books on this theme seem to feature already jaded characters who endure incredible trauma or tragedy in their lives, which is definitely a needed literature, but I think it is also important to show that depression and mental disorders can hit even the cheerful, the happy, and the, well, average. Go Meg Cabot!

phew, now I am all caught up with the boring elements of life, I am free to blog about more relevant things, like why Sleeping Beauty and the Santa Clause 2 DVDs were in the SF/HORROR section in the library…

amberj.

Double Dare Should Never Have Gone Off the Air

Hey y’all!
I just watched an old episode of Family Double Dare on Daily Motion, and I was reminded why I loved Nickelodeon so much as a child.  To make this episode even better, Weird Al was on the red team, playing against the guy who used to be the Incredible Hulk (there’s been a lot though, lately, so think late 80’s Hulk) on the blue team.  Weird Al’s team won, and got to go to the Obstacle Course, where they got through in time and won a car (it was a really ugly car, but then again this was a car from 20 years ago, so….). 

+

I hope all of you watched Double Dare as children (or young adults, or adults – depending on how old you all are…I don’t know…I’m not even going to guess), because it was seriously one of the best programs on television…EVER.  Or at least in my opinion it was, which pretty much solidifies it.  You know what else was a great show on Nickelodeon back in the day?  Legends of the Hidden Temple.  That was the show where they started out with like 6 teams of 2 kids (Red Jaguars, Silver Snakes, Green Monkeys, Organge Iguanas, etc.), and then had to cross the moat via some way and then that narrowed it down to 4 teams, and then from there they had the steps of knowledge where they listened to the legend for Omac (the temple god or guardian or something) and then they had to answer questions by slamming their feet into pads on their squares to move down to the bottom of the steps.  The first two teams to the bottom of the steps then got to go onto the temple games.  The teams then won penants of life (to protect them from the temple guards), and whoever had the most penants got to go into the temple.  I always was (and still am) completely sure that I could go on that show and kick some booty.  Especially in the temple part.  Have you seen how slow some of those kids go?  Come on, you only have 2 and a half minutes to get in, get the artifact and get out, unless you get caught without a penant of life, and then you have to leave the temple while your partner goes in and hopes that he/she can either get out in time, or if they don’t have a penant of life, get caught by another temple guard in another room.  Seriously.  It especially made me angry when the kids couldn’t put together that silver monkey.  It’s not that hard!  It’s only 3 pieces!  I swear to goodness, if they resurrected that show, I would put a petition in to let people in their 20’s go on it since we were the ones who grew up with it.  …they should put that on NBC.

Another great game show – Guts, and Global Guts.  They’re exactly the same show, except obviously Global Guts had kids competing from other countries too.  This is another show that I’m certain that I would totally rock.  Some of those kids should never have gotten to go on that show – I mean, we are talking elite kid athletes here – not kids who lift their cabbage patch dolls for exercise. 

That should have been me.
But whatever, I may have not gotten a chance to shine on a game show as a child, but maybe in the future.  Who knows?  I’m definintely always going to keep out an eye for the Wheel Wagon, becuase that’s another show I think that I’d totally kick butt on – unless the wheel bankrupted me everytime.  But whatever, I could still get all the toss up puzzles. 

Anyhow, it’s getting late, and seeing as how I’ve procrastinated almost my entire day away with watching movies, and old nickelodeon game shows, I think I’ll try to do some essays now.  When I get done, I’m letting myself get some shorts from J.Crew!  Wish me luck!

<3, lindsayF

Camp Rock countdown

Get this widget!

OK, I am SO excited for the premier of Disney channel’s newest original movie (a D-COM, if you will), Camp Rock!!!!!!!  I won’t even talk about the fact that I’m now 23 and married and still watch the Disney channel.  I figure I’ll be watching that channel for the rest of my life.  For myself until I have children, and then still for myself when I have children and they also want to watch it.  The premier is on June 20 (Friday!) on the Disney Channel (which I sadly do not have down here…yet), then on ABC on June 21 (hello Saturday night!), then ABC Family on June 22 (which I also do not have, which doesn’t make me that sad), and then on Disney.com on June 23!  OMG are you super excited to!?  Yes?  Eeeeeeeee!!!!  No?  Watch this, and then you’ll change your answer and then you can geek out with me!

And also!

I dare you to NOT get up and dance like I want to do, but am refraining from doing since #1 I am wearing headphones while sitting in the medical building 3 plaza (which would not stop me usually), and #2 Andrew is having a lab meeting at the next table over, so I don’t want to make a bad impression because at least half the table knows I’m his wife.

Rockingly yours,

lindsayF