Nothing exciting ever happens in Omaha

That’s what one of the kids lined up outside the Qwest Center, waiting for the American Idol auditions, said.  The Omaha episode aired last night on Fox.  Yea.  I typically pride myself on NOT watching this ridiculous phenomenon called reality television, but last night I made an exception.  I probably shouldn’t have.  The city officials can say all they want that AI made Omaha look good, but I thought they portrayed our small city as a one-horse hick town, famous only for our corn.  (Seriously, corn???  I don’t think of corn when I hear “Omaha” – I think steak!!!)  MSNBC went on and on about how all the good ‘ole boys and girls trying out “aw-shucks’ed” their way to Hollywood.  I guess I’m frustrated by the fact that they felt a need to “portray” Omaha at all.  Auditions in bigger cities – New York, L.A. – don’t need to be depicted like this.  They simply say “We’re in Los Angeles, CA, auditioning contestants for American Idol.”  Period.  Why pick on us smaller towns?  Why does the rest of the world need to be presented with a caricature of life in Nebraska?  Great.  Now we’re the small honky Midwestern city where nothing ever happens, filled with corn and crazy Goth girls that laugh like hyenas.  

Brrrr....

Gotta love Nebraska winters…no, wait, you don’t!  Ugh.  It was near 50 degrees on Sunday and Monday before the latest cold front rolled in early Tuesday morning, bringing snow, single-digit temps, and 45 mph wind gusts.  At least the weekend was nice!  Sunday was the first official Omaha Running Club race of the year, the Chiller Challenge 8k.  This was my 3^rd time at the Chiller, and it was definitely misnamed this year.  Folks showed up in everything from hats and gloves to shorts and tank tops – the spring-like weather left everyone a little confused on how to dress.  I left my coat in the car, but wore my mittens and hat…until I reached the first mile marker, where I tucked those babies in my waistband…  All-in-all it was a good race; however I really felt my lack of training when I got a mean side cramp right before hitting mile 4.  Ouch!  I finished in the top 30 women, coming in at 44:35.  Not great – not even in the top half – but considering my recent bout of laziness, not bad either.  I’m really just happy I didn’t walk!

 

This was the 1^st race for the 2008 Run the Magnet Challenge, which will be my 3^rd challenge…and potentially last for a while.  If I have my jaw surgery around Christmas/New Year’s time, I will probably be prohibited from running for a few months – I was told to abstain from contact sports (“No boxing, huh Doc?), but I’m guessing that running is also too high-impact for my recovery period…

 

Here we go again...

Eric Crouch is back on the professional football field.  How many days will he last this time?  Sorry, that’s mean.  I really am rooting for him.  4^th time’s the charm!

 

 

And the gold medal goes to...cough, cough, cough...

The Omaha World Herald ran a story today about how Olympic athletes are preparing for the Summer Olympics in Beijing, one of the most polluted cities in the world.  Randy Wilber of the U.S. Olympic Committee has designed a mask for training purposes to protect our athletes from the noxious air, and teams around the world are planning to arrive as late as possible to avoid the pollution before the competition begins.  Although Beijing officials assure the world that they are doing everything they can to clean things up before August, really – how embarrassing!  C’mon, China - no one wants to come to your dirty freakin’ city!  You’d think the shame alone would make them clean up their act; but seriously, this is something they should be doing for the health and safety of their own people, not just because they have a world audience.  Perhaps air quality should be a factor for even qualifying to host such a prestigious global event…  It’s pretty bad when athletes are asking if the best way to prepare for breathing in your atmosphere is to run behind a truck!

waste not

As part of this month’s co-op order, I picked up 10 lbs of baby potatoes, 5 lbs each of Yukon gold and red-skinned.  About two lbs into the bag of Yukons, I noticed that they were sprouting eyes…darnit!  I know that it’s safe to just cut the eyes off and eat them, but once the eyes have appeared, I have to worry that it won’t be too long before the potatoes start getting soft…the end is near.  What to do?  I spend an hour or so last night sorting, washing, skinning, and boiling the remainder of the potatoes before whipping them up with cream cheese, butter, sour cream and chives.  I froze the whipped potatoes in scoops on a cookie sheet, and then put the frozen clumps in freezer bags for storage.  Now whenever I want some yummy mashed potatoes, I just pull out a couple of chunks and nuk’em in the microwave.  Guess what I’m having for lunch today?

No "Brokeback Mountian" sequel

Heath Ledger was found dead today.  Sigh…too young and too cute for such a tragic ending…

 

Ugh...It's (logically) Monday...

I’m fully aware of the actual day of the week, but it sure feels like a Monday. :P  It was a decently long weekend – very productive in the Wardrobe Refashion and social life/fun departments.  I finally got my serger back up and running – it’s a funny thing to be so intimidated by such a small machine, but it’s scary!  It has knives attached to it!  J  But it’s working now, and I have new PJs…  I also finished up a brown plaid scoop-necked top and put together a paisley-polka dot blouse and a second scoop-necked top in cozy flannel.  As for going out, I’ve seen 3 movies since Thursday, and we went to a birthday party for one of the Divas.  First, the movies:

Thursday night, I treated myself to Billy the Kid, a documentary about this kid named Billy (appropriate title, don’t you think?) who was a little bit “different”.  While fairly intelligent, he had some behavioral issues that held him back in life, destined to remain an outsider in his community.   It was hard to watch at times, because you just felt so bad for the poor guy – every awkward attempt at dating, every social misstep…while I certainly don’t consider myself to be this socially-stunted, watching Billy was like seeing every personal insecurity magnified on screen. 

Friday night, the DH and I decided to see The Orphanage instead of fighting the crowds in line for Cloverfield.  The Orphanage is a Spanish horror film (in subtitles) done by the same folks that brought us Pan’s Labyrinth.  It was excellent – it was frightening and suspenseful in a way that American films can not do justice.  Go see it – NOW!   But if you do, please remember to turn off your cell phone, do not answer it during the movie, do not complain about the subtitles (if you go into a movie not realizing that it is in another language, that’s your own d@mn fault), and do not sit right next to a complete stranger and then proceed to hang your arm over the shared armrest and hit this complete stranger repeatedly throughout the film.  That’s just rude. 

Last night, I braved the icky rush hour traffic to see The Savages.  This film centered on John and Wendy Savage, two self-involved adults living in New York state, completely wrapped up in their own insignificant lives.  They receive a phone call that their estranged and aging father needs them – he has no place to live and has developed Parkinson’s disease.  For the holiday season, John and Wendy must put their own issues on the back burner and attend to their ailing parent.  It was a touching film, but omg – I’m not looking forward to this stage of life.  Second depressing film of the weekend – check!

Saturday night, after dining at the Omaha-famous King Fong Chinese restaurant with my in-laws, the DH and I trekked out to the Roxbury to celebrate the B-day of Diva Maurine and see our friend Jay’s band (a.symbiot) and our friend Ed’s band (DiFi).  It was an…interesting show – the first 2/3s of the evening was spent listening to rap/hip-hop, first by some guys I’d never heard of and then by DJ Sid of the Slipknot – it was his birthday as well, and he was supposed to be the focus of the evening.  While quite talented, he and the other hip-hop grounds more than filled their allotted time on stage, leaving almost no time for DiFi and a.symbiot.  DiFi’s set was severely abbreviated, and a.symbiot ran well past the 1 a.m. cutoff.  On the bright side, I got hit on at the bar!  This is good not because I’m looking to get hit on (I’m not honey, I promise!) J but because it really gave me a nice self-esteem boost after my first week of metal mouth.  That I’m not a total hideous mess now is reassuring.  Phew.

A girl after my own heart...

This girl’s blog was on Craftzine today: http://cristencrochet.blogspot.com/. She crochets stuff out of plastic bags! I love the can koosies! J This is definitely on my to-do list…I just need to bring home the monstrous stash of old plastic bags in my desk at work, since I’ve mostly rid our house of the evil little beasts… I think it would be awesome to have a set of reusable shopping bags crocheted from plastic bags.

In my own little crocheting world, I finally made something that was not a scarf. For my first non-scarf, I made a striped hat with earflaps. Then I made another scarf… it matched the hat, so it was appropriate…although I might unravel it and make something else… Then the DH actually requested that I make him something (a beanie). Usually he just kinda looks at my latest project, rolling his mind’s eye like he’s pondering how he married such a nerd… Don’t pretend, honey – I can tell! ;) But I spend my snowy Wednesday evening whipping up a lovely brown and cream-striped number for him, guessing on the size (and coming up with the right one!)… Next up: mittens to match my non-scarf hat (and matching scarf).

Checkmate

Bobby Fischer died yesterday. 

 

NSFW

You know what I think is NSFW (Not Suitable for Work)?  Reading a magazine in the restroom.  That just seems a little odd and very inappropriate for the workplace.  IMHO.  Maybe it’s just me.

 

In the ladies’ restroom near my office, in one of the two stalls, there sits a copy of the latest issue of Glamour magazine. It’s been there about a week.  (And this isn’t the first one I’ve seen in there.)  I used to read Glamour.  I used to read a lot of magazines like that (Cosmo, etc).  Then I figured out that I have better things to do with my time and that they all just say the same thing over and over.  Now, I don’t begrudge anyone else these glossy bits of brain candy…but seriously, people!  You’re at work, not at home!  Maybe I’ll set up a side table and a reading lamp…do you think our Glamour-reader would get the hint?

 

it's so easy to forget

How great a workout feels, that is…  Why is that?  Every time I finish a long jog, a gym class, or a dance rehearsal, I think “Wow!  That was great!”  But then I take a day off and it’s SOOOO hard to get started again.  I took the weekend off, as well as most of last week, because I felt sorry for myself having to deal with “the braces”.  Oh, and because I’m just lazy.  That, too.  But after several days of sitting on my rear end, I figured I better get outside and work some of the jiggle out of my wiggle, so to speak.  I went on a nice (cold) run last night after work (here’s where the DH laughs at me, because he goes on a nice cold run everyday and doesn’t whine about it – but he was blessed with the virtue of willpower…); it was a fabulously meditative run, with some old mellow emo favorites playing on the ipod… I felt great afterwards, of course, and wondered yet again why I ever skip a workout… Sigh.  Fortunately, dance classes and rehearsals have picked back up after our holiday break, so I’m back at the studio 3 times a week, needing as always to increase my personal practice time.

 

On the diet front, since I can’t chew yet, I’ve been restricted to whatever semi-solid foods I can mash between my tongue and the roof of my mouth.  This weekend I learned that this does NOT include potato chips.  I’m a little concerned that most mashable foodstuffs are high calorie and high carb, but considering how long it takes me to eat anything, I’m probably eating a lot less that I think.  Fortunately, I like oatmeal and it’s good for me.  I am perfectly able to maintain a local diet if I want to – scrambled local eggs, mashed local potatoes, and yummy local buttercup squash soup have been on the menu this week…but I’m also indulging this opportunity to excuse myself to eat some definitely non-local and non-healthy treats, such as Culver’s chocolate milkshakes and Spaghetti-O’s.   Of course all I want is something crunchy!   

 

Happy Tuesday…

What's Chinese for "Paper, please"

China has banned the production of plastic grocery bags. The story on CNN says that as of June 1, no plastic bags will be manufactured, and business that use them will have to charge their customers. The People’s Republic already goes through 3 billion bags per DAY and most of those are used once and thrown away, due to China’s low rate of recycling. I think it is awesome news, and definitely the direction the U.S. should be heading. However, I wonder…if everything else in this county is Made In China, where do our plastic bags come from?

On a more personal note, I forgot our reusable shopping bags last night and resigned myself to bringing home plastic during our massive biweekly grocery excursion. Sigh…and we were doing so well!

public library sabatical

I am taking a break from the public library for the rest of January.  Why, you ask?  Because I consistently check out far more books that I possibly have time to read, put them on the coffee table for the 3 weeks check-out period, then rush to read them before they are due, or renew them for several more 3-week intervals.  At one time I had 17 books checked out, with various due dates strewn across my calendar.  Not only that, but I belong to Paper Back Swap and have only read fully one book I've received since this summer, because I keep distracting myself with library books.  So, after I finish the one remaining book I have checked out, I will not visit the Omaha Public Library until February 1, or until I've finished all my PBS books, whichever comes first (the former is most likely).  Tonight I returned 3 books, only one of which I had completed.  The other two were great books that I'd love to read...it just isn't going to happen soon and I'd had them both since early November.  They will go on my to-read list and I'll look them up again this summer...

Come one, come all

The DH’s new band, Aurasing, is debuting at the House of Bricks in Des Moines, IA tomorrow night – come check them out if you are in the area (you know, somewhere on the high plains…) I’ll be the groupie in front of the stage, screaming and throwing my panties at the hot drummer. At least during Aurasing’s set. J

For a current schedule, check out their MySpace page, but so far:

v January 5, ’08 – House of Bricks, Des Moines, IA

v January 12, ’08 – Box Awesome, Lincoln, NE

v February 1, ’08 – The Rox, Omaha, NE

v February 13, ’08 – River Concert Series, Sokol Underground, Omaha, NE

In High Refashion

ML and I stopped into the new Urban Outfitters Wednesday night after seeing “For the Bible Tells Me So” at Film Streams.  (I won’t dole out my immense praise of this film, but ML wrote some awesome commentary about the movie - check it out).  Anyways, while perusing the merchandise at UO, it occurred to me that I am sewing and refashioning clothing that looks an awful lot like what they are selling there.  Conclusion:  I must be cool! J  They do have some terrific clothing at that store, but even if I didn’t have 3 months left on my current Wardrobe Refashion pledge, I wouldn’t be spending that kind of money on clothes anymore – though I’d be sorely tempted. J  However, knowing that I can make most of that stuff buoys my spirits…which have been in the mud since I broke a thread on my new serger and haven’t been able to use it after the first t-shirt.  I’m actually wearing that t-shirt right now – and I’ve been able to wear my “own” clothing all week, which is a great feeling.  Oh, this?  I made it.