Countdown

Well, in about a day and a half, we'll be off to the West. We've got a loose itinerary for our free day, including the Getty Museum, crazies in Venice Beach and sunset and dinner in Santa Monica. Of course, depending on how our scheduled event goes Wednesday, we can probably do the sunset and dinner that night so we're not as pressed Thursday. We're both getting excited about the trip, though not the numerous hours in planes. There aren't more of these ice storms in the forecast, are there?

And I'm not nervous about Wednesday's planned event -- yet. Just pray for fast reflexes, fast recall and favorable topics!

Did I like that?

I finally watched "The Last Kiss" last night after it had languished on top of my entertainment center for a week and a half. I think I really liked it. I could obviously relate to a story about 29-year-olds trying to figure out if their lives were heading in the right direction. And I liked it visually, all the use of neutral colors. I even thought the acting was good; Jacinda Barrett has come a long way from "The Real World."

But I'm conflicted about Zach Braff's character. Now, I like him as an actor, really liked "Garden State" and dig his taste in music (he loves Jump, what else is there to say?). But I wanted to claw his character's heart out last night. Eviscerate him. Castrate him. I won't necessarily say why in case anyone is planning to see the movie, but GRRRRRRRRRR, you don't DO that to a pregnant woman!!!!! I could forgive and even empathize with the character up to that one act, but now I'm not even sure I'm okay with the ending!

Can I thoroughly despise a character and not be 100 percent about the ending of a movie and still highly recommend it?

Answer: 480 out of 25,000

Question: What is the number of people chosen as Jeopardy! contestants each year out of the thousands that audition?

That's your factoid of the day. I haven't posted in a while, have little to say and am valiantly resisting Jenny's meme, so this is what I came up with. Yes, I did get sucked into a few minutes of a Jeopardy! behind-the-scenes show on TV Guide channel last week, and the number above was an interesting tidbit, so I thought I'd share.

By the way, in a totally unrelated comment, 12 days till we go to L.A.

Pilotless drone

I know I've got at least a couple of copy editors checking in here, as well as several word buffs, so here's a good laugh for you. First, go to this clip from the San Francisco Chronicle to get appropriately ticked off. The Chronicle has begun podcasting audio letters to the editor, and this guy is out of control. As a former copy editor, I just want to smack him and scream, "You have no idea what we do every night!!!"

Now, go here and laugh your ass off! That's my kind of dance music!

Thoughts from last night

I couldn't get to the computer last night, so I "blogged" old-school in a notebook. Le voila:

I just finished watching "Elizabethtown," which was a really good movie. Not great because it dragged a bit, but really good. In watching it, three things occurred to me:

1.) In 2000, I had scheduled an interview with the paper in Elizabethtown, which I cancelled after I took the job here. Who on earth would I have become if I'd wound up in Kentucky?

2.) I have always wanted to be a marvellously quirky girl like the character Claire. I wanted to wear odd vintage clothing and hats, know all kinds of indie music, and say incredible things to men at the drop of a hat. Yet I'm me.

3.) I really, really have to take a cross-country road trip. Maybe it stems from growing up near Route 66, but I have always wanted to have that quintessentially American experience. I want to see the bizarre roadside attractions out west, get stuck at stoplights in small towns, eat at diners, and lose myself in the loneliness of the plains. I'm just not sure when I'll do it or with whom.

Woo-hoo, winter!!!

In the words of Bing, Danny, Rosemary and the other girl: "Snow ... Snow ... Snow ... Snow ... Snow!!!"


Yes, we got 4 inches yesterday! Lovely fluffy stuff, great for packing. I took Abigail out for two half-hour snow sessions, the first at 7:45 a.m. -- I wasn't too sure how long it would last! The first time, the snow was coming down in huge, beautiful flakes, the kind that muffle all other sound and land with a plop on your shoulder. Abigail was delighted. The only other snow she's experience was the dumping back in 2004 of more than a foot, but she was only 18 months old. So this was her first real snowfall, her first snow angel, her first snowman, her first snowball fight (which was more like just smushing snow onto mommy's coat). The second time we went out, the snow was starting to get quite wet and what was falling was more like slushballs, but it was still good fun. Even I plopped down for a snow angel -- which are really darn big when you're grown up!

But alas, this is South Carolina, and to my husband's delight and my daughter's dismay, the snow is almost gone this morning. Snow melts, one of those harsh lessons Abigail must learn. I just don't want to deal with her reaction to the current state of Frosty: