Home Invasion, Part 2

Tuesday, of course, brought new surprises, along with a trip to see Ratatouille.


Besides my invader squealing over that rat and laughing over the preview for Underdog ("You don't see dogs stealing from each other..." "You don't see humans sniffing each other, either." "Hmmm...Touche.") we had a wonderful time, as I had mentioned previously. We finished off the day making Spitterdoodles---I mean, Snickerdoodles. We went through a lot of time draining the eggs instead of cracking them, as we had plans for the next day.

Oh yah, that morning I had broken an egg over my invader's head. At first my invader thought it was a real egg. Then she touched it and discovered it wasn't, which set us to laughing, and then inspired us to drain the aforementioned eggs, so we could stuff them with confetti and break them over unsuspecting people heads. Our chance came when we went to a picnic the next day....

Confetti everywhere. We had a few people react like my invader had, wondering if we had just actually broken a real egg over their heads. Then we played Apples to Apples (hilariously, of course) played ultimate, and then played hide-and-seek in the Japanese gardens. Before you complain that we're too old to be playing that, you should try it some time. Its wonderful.

Thursday brought the drawing to the end of my home invasion. We went to a street fair, which happened to have some of my friends playing there, and did some "dancing in the streets." It was during this time that my invader broke her camera. Fortunately, I was not responsible, nor did I happen to be swinging with her at that time.

*Sigh of relief*

Friday we took our Home Invader to her home.

*Larger sigh of relief*

I like my invader, but it was nice to get a full night's sleep....

10. Invaders will give weird looks if you break an egg over their heads.
9. Invaders like their own club name to be in a movie.
8. Invaders like music. It is wise to bring an invader to listen to music.
7. Do not do anything that would hold you responsible for damaging an invader's property while they are listening to music.
6. Do not tell invaders that you have never played "Apples to Apples"
5. If you do tell your invader that you have never played "Apples to Apples" make sure you have an equally fun game to teach them.
4. Bring a blanket to a picnic.
3. Play Hide and Go Seek or other childish games in Japanese gardens. This gives Invaders the chance to take cool pictures.
2. Invaders like taking cool pictures.
1. Hug your invader hard when she leaves.

~Dresden

Home Invasion Pictures

I promised them. Here they are.

There is one more picture of the glasses...that is really dorky. Unfortunately, it is on a phone that I don't have the download equipment for...something to look forward to....

~Dresden

Runnin' Just to Catch Myself

Please grab a piece of paper and a pen. (Yes, for the two of you that think pens do not need to be in existance, grab a pen. That's the round thing that doesn't have an eraser on the other end.)

Okay, this is what I would like you to do. Listen to the song (you can watch the video too, but I'd like you to also listen.), and write down what it makes you think of. This can be a list of words, simple phrases, people that you think are perfectly described, anything.



Please post what you came up with!

(Hint: Your posting will help me in my creation of a post, and I don't mind crediting people in the least.)

~Dresden

Support yer low-cal sheriff

Support yer low-cal sheriff! He's always got some weight-reducing food on hand, and is always ready to jump you through the hoops of your exercise regimen. What would the sheriff say? Go, go, go, go!

And then the temptation of Krispy-Kreme? Well, the last one in the valley just closed, and the good ol' sheriff will be more than happy to point at your gas gauge and remind you that gas is about $2.75 a gallon right now. Why not get out and take a brisk walk to the nearest jamba-juice? And make sure you get the protein boost! No, don't turn in at the starbucks. You need to be able to sleep tonight. Jamba's just up ahead...there we go.

Augh!!! NO!!! Do NOT even THINK about getting that bready item! It has sugar in it! You are simply to get a 16-oz Jamba with a protein boost. And not that dream-sickle one. Get the green tea one. That'll boost your imune system. There we go...see, its almost ready for you. Now all you need to do is walk back home and scrub the kitchen.

VIGOROUSLY! We want to clean up you! The Sheriff in Support Your Local Sheriff cleaned up the town. I'm here to clean up you! We need everything to be nice and in order so that your little house will run just as well as that little town ran under the Sheriff. And that's what I'm for! Clean! Scrub! Exercise! No coffee, no caffine, no soda, no junk! Slim down and clean out!

Don't hear it? Well, it's time to rouse your little Sheriff...Where did mine go?

Okay, let's quit being silly.

Support Your Local Sheriff is an older western movie (not too old, as it is in color) that is...pretty good, actually. The movie has a good mix of shootin' and rough-housin', along with some idiotic scenes that should make you laugh.

Story line is simple enough: Gold rush in a town, the whole world comes over to speculate, the bad guy's family takes 20% of all the gold, since the gold has to be shipped through their territory, town needs a sheriff, and James McColough just "happens to be passing through on my way to Australia." Which, he claims, is the last real frontier country. He ends up becoming the sheriff, and after lots of bang! bang!-s he defeats the bad guys, explodes Madame Orr's house (completely by accident. He didn't know the cannon was loaded!) gets married, and never makes it to Australia.

Wonderful movie. I feel a top 10 list coming on...Ought to think about that one....

Home Invasion, Part 1

It all began with a simple CXing at a simple round at a simple tournament....

The question itself was simple:

"What would your parents feel like if one of your friends just decided to invade your house?"

The answer, in fact, was even more simple:

"They wouldn't mind. They like my friends. In fact, they are quite happy with one of my friends invading this week!"

Groans all around, and a few laughs. My friend makes appropriate noises for being called an invader.

But that is what she is. I, according to the CXing debater, have just survived a home invasion.

Thus it began. After a perilous 15 minute ride to a nearby restraunt, made perilous by POTC music being played in the back seat off of a cell phone, the Invader and I donned dorky glasses and set foot outside the car.

It must be said that the glasses were increadibly dorky, and we have pictures of almost every teen at the dinner wearing one of the two pairs. I will do my best to get pictures as soon as possible.

Anyways, after we ate, we barely survived the road trip home. Evidently a car had been lit on fire, and the firefighters were just putting it out when we drove by. I don't want to know what chemicals we drove through...But, to say the least, that put a damper on our conversations.

Sunday went by quickly, and I'm sure you will see an oyiandclari story about that Sunday in early January.....

Monday was made happy by a trip to Panera's. Invaders like Panera's.

Tuesday in like manner was made happy by a trip downtown. Our little town has one of the best downtowns. Besides a nice theater (we went to see Ratatouille), Scooters has a very tasty lunch (we went there, too), the Second Hand Rose is a treasure trove (don't think that this is a clothing store...if you do, you have a whole 'nother thing coming....), Pret has overly-expensive clothes (I could make some of the dresses we tried on for a quarter of the price of the dresses on the 50% off rack), and our day was done too quickly...But we did have to stop at the grocery store, where my invader insisted on buying peanut butter.

Thus, from the first four days, I provide the following:

Tips for Survival of a Home Invasion:

10. Do not wake up the invader too early. Invaders are crabby if they get woken up too early.
9. If you MUST rouse an invader out of bed, make sure you do it with a small dog with a wet, floppy tongue.
8. Make sure you have a brand-new container of peanut butter. Invaders are suckers for peanut butter.
7. Do not kid invaders about seeing a movie they have seen three times in theaters already. Invaders may get violent.

6. Invaders like to eat at Panera's. If your invader is crabby, make sure to make a trip to Panera's.

5. Invaders are usually camera bugs. If you must break an invader's camera, make sure you do it on the last night.

4. If you must break an invader's camera, make sure you are not responsible for it.

3. If you must break and invader's camera while not being held responsible, make sure that the invader is swinging with someone very apologetic.

2. If at all possible, make invaders wear dorky glasses. (Pictures coming!)

1. Offer invaders beads. It makes them happy.

Pirates of the Caribbean III *SPOILERS* Part 6

Technological Critique

I know, this is terribly overdue. The movie isn't even in theaters any more. But that's okay, 'cause it means I can get the multi-disc soon...Which will tell me all about how they made it, which is really really cool. * thinks about inserting a jab about OB in here, but decides that T&M won't be reading any time too soon, so it isn't worthwhile. *

Anyways, we can start out looking at the soundtrack. Very well done, very expressive. Even though I do not care for some of the pieces as stand-alones, they represent the film very well, and complement the corresponding scenes.

Next, all our computer animated friends, including Davy Jones, with his forty-someodd tentacles. Very good, looks like real things, and the parts between Davy Jones and Tia Dalma were very good. Those scenes brought out some sort of human connection for our dear departed friend, and made a bit more sense out of the nonsense parts in the second movie. But I digress.

Camera shots were quite good, although in a few places different angles may have provided better views, such as with the section about the freeing of Calypso.

I feel like an idiot...the rest of this post is delayed until I can watch the movie with a notepad and pen in hand.

Cooking for Two, Part 2

All that to say that I did NOT post the correct bit the day after I posted the first one and that I've been gone for two weeks.

Anyways, to continue:

The other day, which, if I had posted when I should have would have been yesterday, but now it's not....Scrap that.

The other day, I decided to make a somewhat complicated meal for two. One thing I have known for quite a while is a complicated meal should not be made in small amounts. If you must make a complicated meal, make it so that you can have multiple servings.

But I didn't want leftovers.

Meaning I had to make it for two.

So thus I began. I had decided that a half an hour would be my aim for making this meal, and, when I finished, I had barely squeaked by. As it was, I had broken four coffee cups, shattered three water glasses, burned two fried pita breads, left a huge scorch mark on the ceiling, and generally wrecked mayhem in the kitchen.

But the meal was very good.

And nobody noticed the scorch marks, as they came off with a bit of scrubbing, the pita bread could get thrown out and replaced, we have an overabundance of coffee mugs, and water glasses can be replaced at your nearest garage sale.

All done in 1/2 hour! Don't you feel proud of me?

Alright, that's not what really happened, but that story isn't half as interesting...What good is life without exaggeration?