I think I could use a Tivo.  That way, I could Tivo Dr. Phil and watch it when I fold laundry – that would certainly be better on my ears and more entertaining than the screaming parrot.  Well, actually, I don’t know how Tivo works – I could probably only watch what I tape record (I grew up in the 80’s – we “taped” our movies and our music) on the tv that has the Tivo, right?  But anyway, I could pause it when someone needed a diaper change or help with something or a snack or a drink to be able to watch more tv instead of just never getting to commit to watching shows (except really good ones like The Office) because of my lack of time and my lack of Tivo.  I wonder how much they cost; I have no idea.  It occurred to me that I don’t watch much tv anymore; a hobby I really liked as a kid.  It’s not a bad thing, really, I’m busy doing other more worthwhile things.  But I do miss getting to watch Dr. Phil – my tv has been hijacked by the likes of Dora, Diego, and Max and Ruby in the morning when it’s on, and I don’t like not being able to watch the Office until it’s available online.  We try to watch The Office when it airs on Thursday night and without fail, all hell always breaks loose with the kids even though it’s on at 9 and they should be in bed.

I got the movie Mr. Mom from the library for the kids to  watch.  I figured since my husband and I liked the movie as kids, we should show it to our kids – after all, they loved Annie (the 1982 version, the update is awful).  But apparently Mr. Mom came out before the MPAA came up with the PG-13 rating – there were a few scenes (funny how neither one of us remembered they were in the movie) I would rather not be in the type of movies my children enjoy.  At least we were able to skip over the strip club scene without them even noticing, yikes.  I surely don’t remember that from watching that movie as a kid.  Maybe there was an edited-for-television version…  Anyway, all this got me to thinking that they should have a function for dvd players where you can edit the movie to play while skipping certain parts of your choosing.  Maybe this already exists, but I don’t know a lot about the latest gadgets and such.

Well, anyway…  sorry for the randomness, just had a little time to blog for a change, so I just wrote what was on my mind at the moment!  Maybe I’ll check into that Tivo…

YES… it has been a mere 8 days since I have been able to access the internet.  Our connection via Verizon went down for the umpteenth time so my very Trekkie er… techie brother recommended that we make the switch to Time Warner high speed.  So, for a week I have been getting phone calls from ardent fans asking if I have been abducted  by aliens, fallen off the face of the earth, or just kidnapped by our friend from you-know-where.  Actually, I have gotten a bit accomplished in the past few days: watching the Yankees slip a game or two, memorizing some lines, checking out the county fair, playing some softball (now 3-0, thank you very much), reading a 600+ page book of which I have less than 200 to read, and song lead in church.  I did manage however to go out one day last week to borrow my brother’s computer to read my 81 emails and read a few posts from my co-tangenteers.  Minutes ago, I read another 81 emails (ironic) and am anxious to see how far I have fallen behind in the ranks of tangents.  Wonder if I get to read a take on the EXCELLENT  season premiere of The Office.

Well, this season of The Office is off and running — literally.  Michael, Dwight, and Andy are participating in creating a Parkour video.  What is parkour you ask?  (see video)

Let’s just say that the trio from The Office didn’t create such amazing athletic footage.  It was a great way to start off this season — with some physical comedy!

We also quickly learn what we already kinda knew…  That Pam is carrying Jim’s baby.  And then we learn something we didn’t know…  That Stanley Hudson is having an affair.  Uh oh!

Thanks to some interns, Michael becomes aware that Stanley is seeing someone on the side.  He then proceeds to tell everyone in the office.  Which, of course, he is proud to do — after all, HE has some inside juicy gossip.

Thanks to Jim, Michael begins to realize that perhaps spreading word about Stanley’s affair is not a good idea.  But, as Michael points out “you can’t unsay what you’ve already said” (ok, that is not the exact quote)…  So, his plan?  No problem, he will just spread crazy rumors about everyone in the office.  If he does that, people in the office will realize the information going around is not true and, thus, realize that the rumor about Stanley’s affair is ‘not true’.

In the end, Michaels rumor mill does work…  At the expense of Pam & Jim.  He tells people that Pam is pregnant, unaware that she actully does have a bun in the oven.  The couple had wanted to keep their pregnancy private but confessed in order to protect Stanley.  (If you want that last sentance to make sense, watch the show!)

Anyway, I’m sick of blogging…  The point is — THE OFFICE IS BACK!!  YHOOOOOOOOOOPPPPIIIIIEEEE!

From the Financial Pages today – business news is not something I usually write about, but you’ll see why the following story would interest me:

Disney To Acquire Marvel Entertainment

Our family frequents the Orlando Florida area, home of Disney World and also their major competitor – Universal Studios.  For those of you who don’t know, at Universal’s Islands of Adventure (the newer and more thrill-ride oriented of Universal’s two Orlando parks), there is an entire area called Marvel Superhero Island®.  So my question is, now that Disney, Universal’s biggest competitor and business enemy, has bought Marvel, what will happen to Superhero Island at Islands of Adventure?  I can’t imagine that Universal would want to keep the same characters, now owned by Disney, at their park.  And I can’t imagine Disney letting Universal keep the characters at their park, unless the price was right, of course.  But based upon the competitiveness that is obvious to the tourists flocking to the area, Disney’s superhero lease price would probably put Universal out of business!

Marvel’s Superhero Island currently contains (click the link for an interactive map – Superhero Island is on the left side of the park, just left of the main gate) the following attractions:   The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman, The Incredible Hulk Coaster, Doctor Doom’s Fear Fall, and Storm Force Accelatron, which we’ve always skipped since it seemed like Universal’s answer to Disney’s Teacup ride.  We always skipped Doctor Doom also since it’s a free-fall ride and I’m afraid to go on those.  I think my husband went on this one however, but I don’t remember him saying it was any different from the rest of these types of rides.  In short, it probably won’t be much of a problem to rename these two rides.  The Hulk coaster is an awesome coaster and should also be able to withstand the re-themeing, although it might need a paint job to change its current green/purple Hulk theme.  The Adventures of Spiderman is another story.  This ride is awesome!  There really isn’t anything else like it in either of the two parks.  It’s basically like taking a thrill ride into a 3D Spiderman movie.  I guess they’d have to choose a new character and make a new movie.  Whatever they do, I hope it’s as good as the original Spiderman ride!  Also complicating a theming switch would be the superheros and villians that walk around Marvel’s Superhero Island.  I guess all the costumes would be sold to Disney.  Perhaps Disney will build a superhero section – my guess would be at MGM Hollywood Studios if I had to pick a place.

And Universal would have an entire area to theme and fill.  Hmmm, imagine the possibilities….
Let’s see, would they coincide the new area with  a new movie coming out (Smurfs (sorry Carol), Jetsons – not sure if those are Universal movies)?  Or would they take one of their existing franchises (Simpsons – they’d have to move that super-cool new ride from the Studios park to the Islands park!, NBC land (The Office – The Ride!)) and create a whole new world?  Any ideas?

**UPDATE** – From orlandosentinel.com: “…theme-park rival Universal Orlando will likely retain the park rights to its four Marvel superstars, including Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk…
…Universal’s contracts apparently gives it exclusive U.S. rights east of the Mississippi River for theme-park attractions built around certain of those characters, notably Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, X-Men and Dr. Doom.
Universal Orlando said Marvel characters will remain a staple at its parks.
“Marvel Super Hero Island at Universal’s Islands of Adventure and the Marvel characters are an important part of the Universal Orlando experience. They will remain so,” said Tom Schroder, a Universal spokesman. “Our agreement with Marvel stands for as long as we follow the terms of our existing contract and for as long as we want there to be a Marvel Super Hero Island.”

So in response to several comments from blog readers, there are a separate set of rights for the Marvel characters in question – theme park rights.

It began with $3 cash being enclosed in a letter – we had been selected to be a Nielsen family.  You know the Nielsen company – basically, they gather information about how many people are watching what on tv in order to determine how much commercials should cost.  So anyway, they sent $3 cast, and I have to admit, that piqued my interest.  They called with a short phone survey, and a few weeks later, we received a large envelope with 4 booklets (tv diaries), and $30(!) cash.  There were instructions; all we had to do was record what we watched on which tv for a week.  But it turned out to be easier said than done…

Recording what is watched on all of the tv sets (what year were those diaries  printed – who says “tv sets”?) in our household turned out to be quite a challenge!  First of all, we have a parrot in the laundry room, and his tv is on all the time.  I don’t always know what is playing, but I do know that the bird loves The Price Is Right.  So I made a little note in our tv diary for that tv and mentioned that it’s on all the time for the pet parrot and that he especially likes The Price Is Right.  I made sure to notate that I don’t know if he prefers Bob Barker or Drew Carrey, though…

And then there is the kids’ tv, which is in their room.  I know they watch a whole lot of the Disney channel, but I don’t know what’s always on it.  Because it’s summer, we didn’t watch much tv in the living room; we mostly use that tv for movies on DVD.  It was challenging to remember to write down details every time a tv was watched, and if we forgot, it was hard to remember what was watched.  So at times the task was daunting, but we had already accepted the payment, so I felt that we had to follow through with the project.  Overall, it was a neat experience, and if they value our input, there will be a lot more of The Price Is Right, The Office, and hopefully Cubs baseball on tv 🙂

Just for the heck of it, I took a picture of one of the tv diaries and the envelope:

Overall, a fun experience, but next time I might have to decline depending on how old the kids are when our names come up again.  It was very difficult for me to have to complete “homework” with 4 small children underfoot – hard to say if it would be worth the $30 again…  maybe if the kids are older and can fill out their own diaries…

The title of this post is a quote from my favorite tv show, The Office.  Now I must go on a brief tangent to find out when this awesome show starts for the season – there it is, September 17, ugh, almost two months to go!  Time to add a countdown to the site…

Tangent over.  Anyway, in the tv show The Office, they have an annual awards show called The Dundies.  The lovable yet jerk of a boss, Michael Scott, gives (mostly silly) awards to his staff, and the workers generally are not thrilled about the Dundies.  A character named Oscar Martinez says the following about Michael and his Dundies:  “The Dundies are kind of like a kid’s birthday party, and you go, and there’s really nothing for you to do there, but the kid’s having a really good time, so you’re kind of there? That’s… that’s kind of what it’s like.” The reason I’m sharing the quote with you is because it floats through my mind every time I invite our family friends to one of my kids’ birthday parties.  I have 4 kids, one born in every season, so we have a birthday party around here every few months.  For the older ones, we invite their friends from school, and we invite family and a few of our adult friends to the parties for the younger ones.  I really hope no one is ever bored – it is, after all, a bunch of adults sitting around at a kid’s birthday party.  We don’t play “pin the tail on the donkey” or break a piñata; it’s just a reason for a bunch of us adults to get together, chat, and have some cake.  This is exactly what we did this past Sunday at my son’s first birthday party.  He had a really great time, and so did his sisters helping him open the presents.  He turned blue from his birthday cake, which he absolutely loved, of course!

BEFORE:(his bib says “My 1st Birthday”, but he hated it and is trying to get it off in this picture)

AFTER:

He also got lots  of great presents –  some adorable outfits and cool toys that actually kept him busy for more than 10 minutes!  He likes his new toys so much that he’s been playing with them non-stop!  They’ve actually kept him out of trouble – well, kind of, he did have two baths out of necessity already today and he spilled a glass of water all over my computer wires, but that’s nothing for him.

So thanks again to everyone who attended – he especially loved it when everyone sang ‘happy birthday’ to him!

This time, the actual viewing did not involve me.  Monday night, before I left for a theatre meeting and later to watch a movie, I was conned into sitting with my nephews and niece while my brother went to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.  I had a feeling this was happening… why else would you need a sitter at midnight (well…)?  How nice of him to ask if I wanted to go along…. which I would have.  We could have easily taken the 13, 9, and 4 year-old, especially when the youngest wanted to see it.  We even made a suggestion that the kids go to their mother’s for the night

So, I went out about 10.30 after watching the Yankees lose AGAIN… come on… jees and watched My Bloody Valentine (no 3-D but an enjoyable movie and no kids… definitely not one for the young).  After the movie, I watched a few episodes of Michael Scott and Co. on the DVR then fell asleep.  At 3, I was awakened by the screaming of an excited 18 year old who proclaimed his pleasure with the action-packed thrill fest… excusable since the couch was really uncomfortable and knowing the 18 year old as well as I, the awakening could have been worse.  I will have to go Friday when I have another day off… two movies in one week?  Don’t know if I can handle that…. but I will try.

Here there be spoilers!!!

A friend and I went to see The Hangover last night.  Going in, I was not expecting much: undoubtedly an unremarkable plot hopefully with a few laughs.  Not expecting a big award winner, I did have a good time.  Three of the actors I was familiar with: Bradley Cooper (from his days on Alias… I didn’t know he was in it going in), Ed Helms (from The Office), and Heather Graham.

The movie centers around Doug (who is two days away from being married) and his  trio of buddies traveling from LA to Las Vegas for the bachelor party.  Doug is entrusted with his future father in law’s Mercedes (hmm…).  The morning after arriving, three of the four wake up and discover that they remember almost nothing that happened the night before and learn that one of the companions is nowhere to be found.  Hilarity and some groans ensue as the three go on a whirwind search for their friend and their lost evening through the streets of Sin City.

At times, some of the situations reminded me of a combination of Three Men and a Baby and License to Drive.  As with most buddy comedies of today, there are a number of gross out moments (one involving a tiger… one of those groan inducing segments).  Another memorable bit takes place at an LVPD precinct in which the three are subjected to some police brutality at the hands of a group of youngsters on a school field trip…. don’t remember seeing a teacher.

The best part was the three leads themselves.  Each of them had a distinct personality that was rarely dull.  Cooper plays Phil (rhyming with Will… his Alias character.. coincidence?) the leader of the band of partiers and must have been quite the ladies man back in the day before getting tied down.  Zach Galifianakis plays Alan, the loner of the group who is along because he is the  brother of the bride.

Helms is the highlight of the movie.  Stu is a doctor who is in a relationship with a domineering woman who thinks the little getaway is to  Napa Valley wine country.  I really enjoy seeing some of the actors from my favorite comedy on television on the big screen.  John Krasinski is in a limited release this summer called Away We Go. Wonder why the distribution was not wider.

Overall, I thought The Hangover was  fun.  It had lots of laughs even if there were moments of mindless ridiculousness.  Any movie featuring more than a cameo by Mike Tyson (even playing himself) is not going to be the greatest movie ever made.

Don’t wait. Guarantee your seat before you go and avoid a sold out show. Skip the box office lines and buy movie tickets at Fandango.com.

Our dog Beesly (named for the character Pam Beesly on the awesome NBC show The Office, which you should really watch (end of shamelss plug)) can grow to be very fluffy.  From people who have seen her, we’ve had comments  ranging from “That dog is more round than she is tall!” to “there is more fur than dog there” and then there are the people who would just laugh after they saw her.  She is was a very fluffy dog.  Since it’s summertime where Beesly lives, we figured it was time to shear her like a sheep, which ended up being a surprise doggie makeover because she had SO much fur.  Check this out:

BEFORE:
AFTER:

After we sheared Beesly, we looked forward to showing her to our 9-year-old daughter, Taylor, who is Beesly’s main caregiver.  We told the kids we had a surprise for them, and we let Beesly in from the back yard and my daughter’s friend cried out that the surprise was that we got a new dog.  Well, thanks for giving the kids expectations about the surprise (hehe), but she was half-right.  The surprise was a “new” dog.  The kids can now pet Beesly since before the haircut you would only be petting a thick mat of fur.  Beesly herself appreciates this makeover a lot too!  She is much more cool when she lays outside, she is less thirsty, and she even has lots more energy!  She IS like a new dog!  And by the way, the kids all liked the surprise.  Taylor saw Beesly and laughed and laughed; it was adorable.  And as a finale to this blog post, THIS is how much fur we got off of Beesly – the pen is sitting on top of the bag to reference the volume of the fur contained inside:

I know they make clothes out of alpaca fur and sheep’s wool; does anyone know about the harvesting of dog fur?  And I’m not talking about Burlington Coat Factory, YUCK!

We were all over the place this past weekend.  I guess it was the nice weather…  wait, it rained Saturday!

It started with game night on Friday night – my intentions were to take it easy and end somewhat early so we could rest up for a big day with the kids on Saturday.  It didn’t end up that way – we began the weekend by staying up too late!  But it was a fun game night, kind of a different crowd, so it was interesting to mix it up a little.  Our new friend brought presents for the kids to game night, and I can’t express enough gratitude – she basically saved game night!  Our will-be-5-yr-old-tomorrow Sammie was in a mood, and seeing the new friend (the presents didn’t hurt either!) actually got her out of the mood she would have otherwise stayed in all night probably – thanks Mary!

Saturday we were going to take the kids to the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, Michigan.  My husband and I (and Taylor in her fetal days) went there in ’99, and we loved the zoo.  We found out it was only about an hour and a half drive from here, so we decided to check it out.  An hour and a half drive doesn’t seem like a long time if there’s no traffic and the kids are good!  Besides, an hour and half drive home after a busy day can sometimes (if we’re lucky) cinch the deal and put all 4 of them asleep for the night.  Well, anyway, it was raining on Saturday.  And we didn’t want to take 4 kids through an unfamiliar zoo in the rain.  So we ended up at Crazy Pinz in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  It’s a place where they have arcade games, bowling, mini-bowling, mini-golf and the kids’ favorite, Ball-O-City – a giant play area with levels and tunnels and balls to shoot at each other.  I was really happy when my husband pointed out the Chicago Cubs game playing on the huge tv in the bar.  So I stood over there and watched the Cubs wriggle out of a dicey situation – they had been winning 4-0 when all of a sudden, Houston scores 4 in the 9th and ties it up!  They also had bases loaded, but the Cubs got out of it somehow and came back with a win in the bottom of a 9th!  The bar at Crazy Pinz erupted in a cheer – Cubs fans everywhere!  So we stayed there for awhile and then got home late but not too late for us to catch up on watching the season finales of our two favorite tv shows – Lost and The Office.

I guess I should save it for another post, so let’s just say we were really happy with the finales of BOTH shows.  Lost actually answered a lot of questions that were outstanding, and it can finally be seen how events are starting to come full circle for the characters.  Something awesome occurred on the Office, well, it was alluded to anyway, but I think it was obvious what the next development is for the Pam and Jim characters.  Ahem.

Sunday after church we decided to reclaim our Saturday plans and head up to Battle Creek to Binder Park Zoo.  Sunday was a gorgeous, picture-perfect day weather-wise, and it ended up being a great decision – it would not be fun to tour this zoo in the rain with 4 little kids.  The zoo is mostly outdoor, and there is a bit of walking if you want to see the majority of the zoo.  You climb aboard a (free) zoo tram that takes you 5 minutes into the wilderness, err Wild Africa as the zoo calls it.  But whether it’s the wilds of Michigan or the savannas of Africa, the view that awaits you when you arrive in Binder Park’s Africa is breathtaking.  Beyond the authentic-seeming African village is a wall, and beyond the wall:

Click the picture to see a larger version – those are zebras and Thomson’s Gazelles grazing in the huge pasture.  And a clutch of ostrich eggs (real?) on the edge of the exhibit (lower right middle of picture).  The giraffes can go out there too, but they are usually over here:

where you can FEED them!  It was a great day at a great zoo, and we even saw an animal I had never heard of – the Patagonian Mara.  Fully grown they are about 35-40 lbs. (the one here at Binder Park is 9 mos. old and about half that), and they are rodents most closely related guinea pigs.  At Binder Park, the keeper was in the cage with the mara, and she was jumping onto his leg and doing tricks for food – very cool.  I didn’t get the best picture; there was a tree in the way – again click for a larger pic, maybe you can actually see the mara:

The Binder Park Zoo also has a cute rabbit exhibit where the kids can crawl through a tunnel and end up “in” with the rabbits, a cool children’s zoo (housing the happiest Guinea pigs I’ve ever seen – the first time I’ve seen Guinea pigs that weren’t squealing with fright or freaking out), and a carousel, among other fun things.  Here is my son on his first carousel ride:

And two of my 4 happy kids at the zoo:

And my other two riding a giant ant:

So…  a great weekend, even if we were never home sweet home.  I was going to share my pastor’s story he told on Sunday, but this post is long enough, that will have to wait for another post!  Until then…