Feb

“Greys Anatomy” Fans To Get an Interactive Viewing Experience on iPad.

Okay, I love my iPad, and I still like Grey’s Anatomy, but not sure about all this… overkill? Don’t know … probably the wave of the future though. We generally watch everything except live sports via Tivo after the kids are down, and not always even on the night they’ve aired. So the social features would likely be wasted on us, since what are the odds someone else will be watching at the same time? But the additional interactive elements seems interesting … I’d particularly like a way to browse the music, as they often have songs I like on the show, and it can be hard to track them down later.

  

Mar

Some dude with WAY to much time on his hands spliced together all the swear words from The Sopranos … it’s 27 minutes long!

The Sopranos, Uncensored

Pretty hilarious. Someone should do this with Deadwood…

Thanks Entertainment Weekly for bring this little gem to my attention … nice spring break fun!

  

Mar

OMG, this is the funniest thing I have seen in a while…

Seriously, this Vote for the Worst website – I guess I just don’t get it. I mean, they spend a HUGE amount of time researcher and watching and commenting on this show…yet still claim to hate it. What the &@*% ?!!

Actually, in retrospect, this ad is possibly second in terms of funniness to Sanjaya’s hair – a fauxhawke?!!

I’m comfortable admitting it – I LOVE this show! But in a way, the VFTW people, mean-spirited and jealous though they are, are right in the sense that this show doesn’t really represent “reality”. It’s faux-reality! But watching the drama unfold is HIGHLY entertaining. And, truly, a few of them can actually sing…like Melinda (Craig’s favorite) and Blake (my fav).

  

Jan

We love TV at my house, though we do TV TiVo-style. Here are our current must-see shows:

1. American Idol
2. Prison Break
3. Lost
4. Desperate Housewives
5. Sopranos
6. Weeds
7. Related
8. Deadwood
9. West Wing
10. My Name is Earl

By the way, we REALLY miss Sex and the City (the whole reason we ever subscribed to HBO to begin with! , and Six Feet Under!!!

Okay, time to go pick up my kids, then watch some TV! %-)

  

Aug

This new show on Showtime called Weeds is hilarious!!! Mary Louise Parker is awesome as the spunky housewife who starts dealing pot to maintain her lifestyle after her husband dies unexpectedly. And the supporting cast is great, too.

In particular we love making fun of the cookie-cutter-ness of the planned community where they live. Planned communities are the new big thing around here, and *so* many of our friends have (inexplicably, in our view) gone down that road. I just don’t get why it’s fun, cool, logical (insert any positive word you can think of here), to live in a house that’s exactly the same as everyone else’s in the neighborhood, and where “the neighborhood association” gets to tell you what kind of fences you have to use, what kinds of play equipment you’re allowed to buy for your kids, what kinds of decorations you can put on your house, etc., etc. Utterly mystifying. The theme song “Little Boxes”, by Malvina Reynolds, perfectly captures our feelings on this topic!

  

May

Okay, I’ve decided to do a “Blog Challenge” to try to help me update this thing more often. We’ll get to that tomorrow, but first and foremost…BO vs. Carrie!!!

I gotta say, I’m very torn on this. Bo is, quite simply, HOT!!! Oh, and yes, he sings really well, too. But, for reasons I can’t even articulate that well, I just love Carrie. She has an amazing voice, and it just FEELS more right for her to win – she’s young, innocent, and exactly the kind of person this show is “supposed” to discover. Bo has been performing in a band for years, plus it seems like he just wants it less. Of course, as a lot of commentators have said, it doesn’t really matter who wins – they’re both clearly going to get recording contracts at this point. Still, it means SOMETHING to be THE American Idol.

Round 1 – both songs were wierd choices, but especially Bo’s. A ballad? His personality still comes through, but it wasn’t his best performance. Carrie’s performance was “pitchy”, but still – amazing voice. I agree with Simon, round 1 went to Carrie.

Round 2 – Craig is in the process of voting for Bo without even waiting until the end, or even hearing Carrie’s second song (we’re watching on TiVo with a slight delay, so we can vote whenever). I’m waiting until the bitter end to decide, since I still can’t make up my mind. Craig doesn’t like country music, and so he’s always been more of a Bo fan than a Carrie fan. Ok, Independence Day isn’t my favorite song of hers, but she did a great job. I’d say round 1 also went to Carrie.

Round 3 – man, this “inside your heaven” song is really sappy crappy. But, now that’ I’ve heard them both on it, I do think Bo did a better job on it. Okay, gott pause for crying kids. I love my TiVo!!!

Back – Carrie was REALLY off on that last song. Round 3 definitely goes to Bo. I think Carrie was just very nervous tonight. She’s just a kid after all! Craig got through once for Bo. I think in the end I’m going to vote for Carrie. I still just feel like she deserves it more. Simon agrees with me – always a good sign. But Bo is so fine…maybe I’ll vote for both! %-)

A brief aside – I saw something amazing today. A website that charges you $29.95, and claims to vote as many times as you want for the American Idol candidate of your choice. I mean, really – I like the show, but to PAY to vote? Especially to a service that can’t verify that it actually does what it says it will do? I don’t think so.

Okay, it’s done – I voted twice for Carrie and once for Bo. But I don’t feel like I’ll be disappointed whoever wins. I know I’ll be buying both albums from iTunes as soon as they’re released!

Leslie (& Craig, sort of), out!

  

Jan

Happy 2002, everyone!!! What a long, strange 10 (and a half, but who’s counting? %-) months it has been since Sami was born! I have no real excuse for why we haven’t kept the web page more up to date…we just haven’t. Yes, we’re busy, but so is everyone else, right? Anyway, one of our New Year’s resolutions is to stay in better touch with people. So, here goes…

Rather than try to go back and re-create the last few months, we’ll just jump right into where we are now. Sami is growing like a weed – 98% for her age in height! She also has an amazing disposition. People tell me that you have to have two kids before you start really believing in personality; I didn’t, Sami made a believer out of me all by herself. She is *so* much nicer and more plesant than either Craig or me!!! Clearly, her personality is *not* something she inherited from us – she is her own person! She is constantly smiling, even when she’s sick. And when she gets upset about something, she can be cheered up pretty rapidly, and is smiling again before we know it. She loves to dance, and she’s very into anything that makes noise. She is right on the cusp of being able to walk – she “cruises” (walking holding on to furniture) constantly, and she likes to hold our hands and walk across the floor. She can also stand without holding onto anything for about 30 seconds or so now. But, she hasn’t quite gotten brave enough to take that first step. As for talking, there is some debate among us – Craig thinks she is talking already (“mama”, “dada”, and “byebye”), but I still think it is wishful thinking on his part. She understands a lot of words now, but I haven’t heard her say any. Wanna guess what her first word will be? Vote in our Sami’s 1st Word poll!

Okay, time to take a break and go watch Survivor (yes, we are still TV addicts). More later…

  

Nov

I just got back from Belize! Kim and I are both about to turn 30 (!!!), and we have been talking for years about getting certified to scuba dive. So, as a birthday present to ourselves, we decided to do it, and then go on a trip to a fabulous dive area to celebrate/mourn and practice our new skills. It was *so* amazing! We stayed at Journey’s End Resort on the Ambergris Caye, just north of San Pedro (it’s where they filmed the first “Temptation Island”, in case anyone watched that .

Getting there was a bit of an adventure, since American Airlines (I know, I know, they suck, but we were using frequent flier miles) did there best to make sure we didn’t arrive y changing our flight without telling us. Luckily, we made it to Belize proper (though several hours later than we should’ve), and then took what was truly the smallest plane I’ve ever seen out to San Pedro, and finally a water taxi to the resort. Kim’s sister Kristen also joined us (we were supposed to meet up in Miami, but due to our last minute change, we didn’t actually find her until we got to Belize), and Julie, another friend of Kim’s and mine from grad school came down, too. We met her at the resort, since she hadn’t done her certification dives yet and had to come a couple of days early.

They call the resort “a barefoot adventure”, and that is a very apt name! It is one of those fantastic places where you can totally relax and veg, or stay incredibly busy with all the activities they have, or some combination of both (which is what we did). We went diving every day, and also did a night dive. The resort has its own dive shop Belize Ocean Divers, and they were really great. We had very small groups of divers on each trip, and they had a divemaster who would lead us through the site, but also give us autonomy to explore. As for the diving itself, it was really amazing! I have to admit that, during the training, there were several points when I thought I just wasn’t going to make it. But I stuck through it, and it was *so* worth it! Diving in the ocean was much easier than I expected, even doing the backward roll off the boat. I didn’t have any bouyancy problems like I did during the training.

Oh, and while I was off having a blast, Craig stayed home with Sami. What a great husband I have, eh?!!

  

Jan

An interesting idea. Let’s see how it goes. I just got home after a long day in Nashville. Now I’m looking forward to a long 4-day “weekend” of chilling and feeling the baby kick! But right now it’s time to go watch my time-shifted tape of “ER”.