An Attempt At Catching Up

We are almost recovered from the craziness that was the luau. Crazy fun, that is! Thank you all so much for coming. I just wish we would have had more time together. We still haven't done any major grocery shopping, but due to beverage leftovers our fridge could be mistaken for something you might see on "Cribs." So sorry about the bug bites. Jon and I were largely unaffected. But as far as I know, none of you rolled around in the grass - where did you find chiggers?

I'm not really sure how to say this next thing that I want to tell you. I scored (for lack of a better word) some free tickets at work for the American Idol Live tour and my mom and I went to the show last week. I am only a casual viewer but my mom watches religiously and has a special gift for picking the top three each season. As soon as Hollywood Week begins she posts her favorites in a central spot in the house so everyone knows her choices and she can't make casual revisions. She has been spot on everytime. Except I don't think she predicated a 3rd place finish for Melinda - that girl was robbed. I digress. The concert, I must grudgingly admit, was quite good. I was really only going for my mom's sake and started to regret my decision when even she was worried that we would "run into someone we know." Not that that would really be an issue because they would probably be just as embarrassed and both parties would either ignore each other completely or sheepishly wave and roll our eyes with a silent understanding to never mention this again. The audience at the Scottrade/Savvis/Kiel/Whatever Center was made up off a lot of families, especially mother/daughter or father/daughter dates. We got 3 hours of solid entertainment - even Sanjaya was decent. I said decent, not good. All of the top 10 finalists seemed much more confident and relaxed and they all seemed to be having a good time, even though I suspect in Gina's case it was more condescending amusement (and her recent engagement) that kept her smiling.

Jon is sporting a new look, or rather an old look revisited. Since the wedding and luau are finished he has cut his hair again. I like it a lot, but now I'm married to a thug.

We traveled from one St. Charles to another over the weekend for a family picnic. St. Charles, MO, was about 105 degrees and dry when we left and St. Charles, IL, was 72 degrees and rainy. Despite the weather, the diehards still went out on the boats for some wakeboarding and tubing. So far, I've brought rain with me to every family event in Chicago. All of my memories so far are of us huddling under tarps and umbrellas. Don't get me wrong, we always have a great time, but it's always a soggy, muddy, chilly kind of fun. On the way home last night we stopped at Ikea and got a few small items for our apartment, including a TV stand. I spent the day today building furniture and we should get our couch by the weekend (finally!).

I'm trying a new thing for keeping up with the many blogs I enjoy reading. Instead of just accessing them from the links on the righthand side of this page, I'm using Google Reader. If you have a Blogger account you can use that to login to Google and do this also. You just tell Google which sites you're looking for and it creates a list which automatically updates. When you login, it will tell you which sites have new posts. You can also create folders and tags to keep them all organized. I've got friends in one (the most important), funny stuff in another (Planet Dan and Improv Everywhere, for example), etc. There are lots of feed readers out there, but I tend to like what Google does and I didn't have to create a new account. I tried the Yahoo reader, both from within Mail and My Yahoo! - and found it to be lacking.

Has anyone seen Becoming Janet yet? I got a new book this weekend called Lost In Austen, by Emma Campbell Webster. It is essentially a Choose Your Own Adventure for adults, based on the Jane Austen novels. I haven't had much time to start it yet so I can't give a review, but I thought the premise at least to be very clever.

In other news, I've already started Christmas shopping and making. The only beneficiary so far is Sophie - I couldn't help myself. *** Christa's blog is now linked in Kristy's list on the right. For creating such an entertaining and informative blog, Christa gets 2 thumbs up! *** I took zero pictures the weekend of the luau except for a few of the kids at Cracker Barrel, so girls, if you'll send them to me, I'll post them all together. *** Kelly, I read some interesting news on Miss Monkey's blog. Or maybe you told me and I wasn't paying attention through the hairspray fumes and pins poking in my head. Tell us more about the triathalon, please!

Do Not Be Alarmed

Now I do not want any of my old friends to be alarmed, but I believe I have made a new friend. We've only met twice, but I think all signs are there. The reason you should not be alarmed is because I was a Brownie for a whole year, just long enough to sell 5 boxes of girl scout cookies, make 2 pieces of macaroni art, and to learn how to sing "make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold." So don't worry, no one's spot will be harmed in the Kelly hierarchy of friendship.

But this is how I knew we would be friends:

1) In our first conversation she referrenced Pride and Prejudice. So happens it is both of our favorite books. She even offered to play the P and P board game Jo bought me many many years ago. This is a first because everyone else I mention this to looks at me as if I just asked them if they wanted to play search for "the-used-hypodermic-needle-in-the-dumpster-game" (that will sweep the nation, mark my words).

2) She was wearing a Time Turner necklace.

3) We have had a lengthy talk discussing the merits of our flat irons.

4) Today she said "Matchy, matchy, green squared." Don't feel bad if you don't recognize this quote, but it's from a movie I have seen tons of times and this is one of my very favorite lines.

I mean if this is not the foundation of a good friendship, I don't know what is!!

Jane Austen News

I really believe I must own this:
If you couldn't tell, this is a Jane Austen "action" figure. I generally don't like dolls and find them a bit creepy (my sister and I just recenlty saw an exhibition of all the presidents and their wives as dolls made out of nylons and I am still getting over it), but I love this.

Then there's the new movie called Becoming Jane that I'm quite excited about. It comes out in the US August 3.

One of my students told me about this book: Dating Mr. Darcy. The author, Sarah Arthur, has something in common with us.