lewis and clark had a journal. you, beth-annie, have a diary.

Friday, April 30, 2004
This is very sad.
1:09 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me!

Thursday, April 29, 2004
--"I'd follow you to the ends of the earth..."
--"Just the kitchen is enough."
As part of the decorating of our bedroom that I'm doing, I bought one of them "gallery" photo frames with space for ten photos with the intention of filling it with some of the best photos from our trip out west two years ago. After working on the project over a couple days (it was sort of like an art project for me, actually), I finally have a finished product which I will now show you. Because I like it. I put a lot of effort into choosing the photos, cropping and resizing so they would fit in the allotted spaces, and arranging them in the right way. One thing I should explain: the hardest part of this was choosing ONLY ten photos. Since it was so hard, I decided not to. :) I actually used thirteen total, by combining two shots of flowers into one and for another combining two photos from Las Vegas and one from the mountains in Colorado. It sounds weird, and it kind of is. But it works. You can see all the individual photos I used by clicking on the collage below -- including the original photos I melded together in some cases, and also a few I couldn't find room for in the collage. Every one of these photos was personally taken by one of us, probably me (the only one I know Josh took was the Arches NP one because I'm in it :P).

11:04 AM || I want to be a comment. Post me!

Wednesday, April 28, 2004
I apologize on behalf of myself.
If you can't tell, I've been seriously uninspired lately (and especially this week) as far as thinking of anything to blog about.  So you get this weak non-effort.  I have updated my movie list.  You know I loved Big Fish, so that's nothing new...  Spartan was good, always love Mamet's dialogue, but I prefer his less fourletterword-filled films (as well as those that are not as dark or violent -- see State and Main, The Spanish Prisoner, The Winslow Boy).  Speaking of fourletterwords, Spartan had very few compared to Lebowski, which I had mixed feelings about.  [Sidebar: my deal with bad language in movies:  I really don't mind it in extreme situations or in moderation.  But when it's every other word that comes out of people's mouths and is completely unnecessary, that's when it really wears on me and can seriously decrease my enjoyment of a film.]  I liked the weirdness of the film, and found John Goodman's character to be pretty interesting (and Phillip Seymour Hoffman was great as well), but I didn't care for the plot or the language (of the latter variety described above), and I still have not liked Julianne Moore in anything I've ever seen her in.  Sorry.

One film I can seriously recommend, though, is Lost in La Mancha.  If you've never heard of it, it's a documentary about director Terry Gilliam's attempt at making a film about Don Quixote -- it was initially intended to be a making-of documentary, but after setback after setback after setback, turned into the anatomy of a film production shutdown.  It's terribly fascinating, especially to anyone who has any interest at all in how films are made, and is even funny at times (just see if you don't laugh at some of the freak things that happen while they're trying to film on location).  The DVD has lots of interviews with the filmmakers ( the documentary ones, I mean) and the failed film's director, cast, etc.  C'est tres bon.
3:29 PM    ||    I want to be a comment. Post me!

Monday, April 26, 2004
Pity party.
I'm not "sick," per se, but I have a malady that, while I won't go into detail, makes it extremely painful to eat or drink, medium painful to talk, and sometimes painful to just sit there and do absolutely nothing. I know it's just temporary, but it's made life awfully miserable for the last couple days. Please make it go away.
3:34 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me!

Friday, April 23, 2004
Stupid impulse buys near the register...

The 21st Century, folks. This is what it's all about.
11:58 AM || I want to be a comment. Post me!

Thursday, April 22, 2004
Movie recommendation of the [insert desired time period here].
Big Fish.  It's still in some bargain theaters, and will be released on video/DVD next week.  I haven't thoroughly enjoyed a new movie so much in a long time.  I'm not saying everyone will love it, because you can't say that about any movie, but I think pretty much everyone I know at least has a shot at really liking it, and some of you I KNOW will (Kaly, this means you.  And prolly moM.  And prolly Lizzie.)  So there.

[And Matthew:  I do not know if you would like it, because you are a movie snob.  You know this.  But while we're speaking of movies, please either A) update your movie lists/mini-reviews, B) put all your reviewlets (like those you've posted on your blog) on a page we can all acess, or C) update your archives so we can go back and find your reviewlets on your blog.  Or, you know, all of the above.  Thank you.]
12:57 PM    ||    I want to be a comment. Post me!

Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Songs I'm digging on right now.
The Mars Volta - "Televators" (If you're in a rush, skip ahead to about the 50-second mark.)
David Gray - "Dead in the Water"
Elliott Smith - "Waltz #2"
Death in Vegas - "So You Say You Lost Your Baby"
Sarah McLachlan - "Stupid"
Basement Jaxx - "Good Luck"
Radiohead - "Karma Police"

Please listen to them they are good thank you.
12:54 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me!

Tuesday, April 20, 2004
"Alright, buddy, keep your voice down... this is an outdoor superstore, people are trying to concentrate."
Since Kaly screwed up our plans to visit her at Greenville last weekend so we could all go to a free Guster concert down in Carbondale, we decided to make her really sorry by crashing her camping trip with her friends in Maquoketa Caves State Park.  After all six of us (Kaly and three friends driving up from Greenville, and Josh and I driving over from here) miraculously arrived in Maquoketa at about the same time (close to 11pm), we went grocery shopping and then took off for the short drive to the park as the sky lit up with lightning.  No rain yet, but we knew it was coming.  As was the wind, which increased as we tried to set up our honking big tent.  On rock hard ground that was near impossible to pound stakes into.  Especially when no one remembers to bring a hammer.  Luckily there were some other very nice campers still up at 12:30am who helped us pound our stakes in with Maglites and a hammer.

Now, before I get to the rest of this story, you must have some background.  The tent we were using was a three-room (two smaller on the ends and one bigger in the middle) we inherited from Josh's parents from before they became camping gear snobs.  We had an experience with this tent at the Cornerstone music festival several years ago that would have made any smart persons (which, you will soon discover, we obviously are not) stay far away from said tent in any instance in which rain is even a possibility.  I will give you the short version:

[Begin story]  First night.  Set up tent in dark.  In perhaps light rain.  Get in tent.  Rain pours down.  Notice tent is leaking at some seams where sides meet floor, usually at stake points.  Attempt to use seam sealer while tent is in the midst of leaking.  Put rags and paper towels where leaks are and figure it's good enough and go to sleep.  More rain pours down.  Wake up at 5am.  Water many places.  Sleeping bags soaked.  Water even coming in seams in the middle of the floor because under the tent is a stream of water.  Makes tent floor feel like water bed.  Kind of cool, but not so practical.  Still raining.  Open tent door to see said stream of water.  See crawdad swimming by.  Not so good.  Get out and move tent to less streamy location.  In the rain.  Can't get back to sleep in soaked sleeping bags.  Morning comes.  Rain stops.  Must go to the festival "store" to buy something to soak up all the water in tent.  Store is out of many such things.  Must be a run on them.  End up buying maxi pads.  Maxi pads turn out to be very absorbent and perfect for the job.  Though can't help but laugh our heads off as we crawl around tent soaking up water with them.  [End story]

This time perhaps we felt it might not be a problem as long as the tent wasn't actually sitting in standing water.  I guess we were willing to take that chance, as we didn't want to split into the two smaller tents we had, which also would have had to be on separate sites, and, you never know, maybe it wouldn't actually rain much or even at all.  It started raining just after we got most of our stuff in the tent.  We hunkered down and hoped for the best, sticking four of us in the middle and one in each of the end rooms.  That's about when the leaking started.  (Duh?!  Duh, you say?  That's not very nice of you...)  The first leak was in the big middle room at one of the stake points.  Josh unstaked that one and it seemed to stop leaking after that.  Phew.  Then all four of the tent corners started leaking.  You can't unstake those.  We pondered our options, which weren't many.  The middle room, which sleeps four, seemed to be staying dry.  The side rooms weren't.  So we stuck our shoes and cooler on the floor in the side rooms with our bags/clothes on top of them so they wouldn't get wet and proceeded to squish all six of us into the center room.  It was... cozy.  I slept mostly on top of Josh and Kaly was smooshed up right against me, but it worked.  And no one got (much) wet.  But, needless to say, I think it may be time to retire the ol' girl.  At least in any case where there's even the slightest possibility of rain.

So the next day we made a fire (scratch that... KALY made a fire), cooked the obligatory coffee, hot dogs, marshmallows, and beans -- Josh and I couldn't seem to stop from saying over and over, "Big, fat, hot, juicy beans.  Now, don't get me goin' on beans..."  We played a little guitar and went caving that afternoon  (I've been a couple times, Josh once, and Kaly many more times).  I hadn't really planned ahead enough to wear clothes I was willing to get really dirty, so I was kind of limited in what kinds of tighter areas I could climb into.  I've decided that next time I'm going all out, wearing totally crappy clothing and getting really dirty.  (Though Josh will never go into any areas that are too small, so I'll have to have Kaly with me.  I'm sure she won't mind.  :P)

Josh and I had to leave after supper on Saturday (bell choir rehearsal Sunday morning), and since there was another chance of rain we took down You Know Who and put up Kaly's brand new, pre-seam-sealed dome tent. Though it sleeps three comfortably and four in a pinch, I'm sure it felt downright roomy for the four of them after Friday night.

Now, if only I could find a way to put my flipbook of Kaly's getting-progressively-dirtier butt online, I'd be all set.
4:52 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me!

Monday, April 19, 2004
*Sigh*

I don't know, this time it may be the end, folks...
11:34 AM || I want to be a comment. Post me!

Thursday, April 15, 2004
The coolest shirt in the history of cool shirts, OR "You're a strange kind of grown-up."

Click picture to see back.

And, it's the return of:
Things That Annoy Me.  (Because there are SO many.)
Getting viruses emailed to me roughly every other day.  At least, I assume they're viruses as they're usually received in my bulk folder, come from addresses I don't know, have very non-descript subjects ("hey you" e.g.), and have an attachment.  Straight into the trash they go, every single time.  But it does get tiresome.
2:54 PM    ||    I want to be a comment. Post me!

Wednesday, April 14, 2004
"That's MY corn out there!  You guys are guests in MY corn!"
The other day when I was watchig the Cubs get clobbered by the Pirates, the one thing that ended up making the game worth watching was that for the first time I got to see an attempted suicide squeeze play.  Of course, it was a miserable failure because the batter full out swung (and missed) rather than bunting, so as soon as the catcher caught the pitch he easily tagged the runner before he could get back to third base.  The fact that it was so totally screwed up actually made it quite amusing to watch.  Even moreso that it was the Pirates who screwed it up rather than the Cubs.  Not amusing was that other than that the Cubs stunk it up.  But, hey, what do you expect when Corey's not playing?  ;)
11:04 AM    ||    I want to be a comment. Post me!

Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Three words.
Chocolate creme pie.

The Weather Channel's Dave Schwartz Quote of the Week
"Cloudy, cloudy, cloudy, cloudy, and cloudy; cloudy and then followed by cloudy and cloudy, and cloudy and cloudy."
10:27 AM || I want to be a comment. Post me!

Thursday, April 08, 2004
"I AM pretty wisdomous..."
Thus proved by the discovery that the "Ed" bridesmaid shoes I bought are worth quite a pretty penny when bought new from Peter Fox Shoes. And lo and behold when I looked at the shoe box this was confirmed.

No big surprise seeing as they're made of Italian silk with a leather sole. I've never owned a designer anything, unless it was something I bought at Goodwill or the like, and with the exception of my wedding and prom dresses and a winter coat or two, I've never spent more than about $40 on any piece of clothing for myself, no more than $20 on a pair of dress shoes. So I rock. Used or not, I like owning two $250 pairs of shoes. Because I didn't pay $250 for them. I'm an expert bargain shopper, but I think this one trumps all my past purchases. :)
3:32 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me!

Wednesday, April 07, 2004
"Why don't you just go back and play with your buffaloes?"
1)  I just cannot get excited about a Women's Basketball National Championship game that consists of UCONN vs. Tennessee.  SNORRRRRRE.....

2)  I don't believe it is right to have the Masters on Easter weekend.

3)  When I saw this week's TV Guide in the grocery store, it had Kerry Wood and Mark Prior (two of the Cubbies' brilliant pitchers, for those who don't know) on the cover and was a baseball preview issue.  When I got the magazine in my mailbox, it had Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson on the cover and had NO story on baseball anywhere in the magazine.  I will NOT be renewing my subscription.

4)  Oh, yeah, and Annika got her 50th LPGA victory last weekend.  Yee haw!
12:57 PM    ||    I want to be a comment. Post me!

Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Why I love DirecTV, Part Two.
TRIO's reruns of classic "Late Night With David Letterman."  That's right, I said "Night," not "Show."  As in, when he was on NBC.  We watched one the other night from 1989.  Cybill Shepherd was talking about "Moonlighting."  It was strange.

Why I hate DirecTV, Part Two.
-- Cubs games are blacked out for us on Fox Sports Chicago.  Apparently, we aren't in the local viewing area, despite the fact that everyone else around us, including most of the southern Milwaukee suburbs, are.  One of the main reasons we switched to DirecTV -- and got the extra sports pack -- was to be able to get Fox Sports Chicago so we could watch Cubs games.  Is this a problem?  You bet your booties it is!  Because now that's an extra $12 a month we're paying for basically absolutely nothing.  Bethy is NOT happy...
-- We get approximately ZERO local weather on The Weather Channel.  No current conditions, no local radar, no nothing... The "Local on the 8s" is now worthless to us.  Bethy is NOT happy...
11:09 AM    ||    I want to be a comment. Post me!

Monday, April 05, 2004
Warning:  A Beth-Annie Moment of Seriousness.
Josh and I saw The Passion of the Christ yesterday.  It seemed like the perfect time, seeing as that morning's Palm Sunday church service contained most of the exact same Scripture that the film came from, and also because we knew we wouldn't want to see it after Easter and we were kind of running out of time to do that.  Now, I say "we," but Josh didn't really want to see it   But he went with me because he knew I didn't want to see it alone.  And afterward he thanked me for making him go.  He did watch much of the last half through half- (or all-) closed eyes, but he still thought it was worth it.

My personal thoughts:  I found it to be a very emotional experience, and I don't see how it possibly couldn't be for anyone who believes in the reality of what is on the screen.  I was not (nor was Josh) bothered in the least by the "narrowness" of the storytelling (sticking only to the last several hours of Jesus' life with only a few short flashbacks).  This is certainly a film for Christians, which I don't see anything wrong with, and as such it didn't feel lacking in any amount of backstory or Jesus' teachings -- and it was far from devoid of them.

Some might say (and have said, including one of the pastors at our church) that the relentless focus on Jesus' suffering was unnecessary or that some of the time would have been better spent on other aspects of His story or ministry or personality or whatever.  I would respectfully disagree.  There have been so many productions over the years that have focused on Jesus' life as a whole that I think sometimes the importance -- and intensity -- of His suffering has gotten lost a bit.  Not to say the the rest isn't important by any means -- everything that Jesus did and every word that came out of His mouth is important.  But as a Christian I've had the "whole picture" painted for me so many times that sometimes it can start to lose its punch a little.  Anything that can bring back that punch is definitely a good thing.  And the film's focus on and sincere attempt at not sugar-coating the pain and suffering was extremely effective at that.  Was it excruciating to watch?  Of course!  That's the point.  And on top of that is the realization that as horrible as it is for you to sit in your cushy seat in a movie theater and watch it, that's literally nothing compared to what He endured both physically as a human and emotionally with the weight of every sin that ever was and every sin that ever would be on His shoulders... that just makes it all the more painful.  And it's supposed to.  This film made Jesus' pain real in a way no other film or miniseries has ever even attempted.  You just can't downplay the importance of that.  This is a good thing for Christians.  It certainly was for me.

Among the myriad productions made on the life of Jesus, is there room for just one that chooses to focus almost solely on the immense burden He carried?  ABSOLUTELY.  In fact, I think it was about durn time.
2:43 PM    ||    I want to be a comment. Post me!

Friday, April 02, 2004
"I mean, it was like the Algonquin kids' table..."
With all the talk of buying dining sets being done by some people I know, even though we will not have the luxury of buying one for ourselves anytime soon, I figured I would, just for the fun of it, show you all a few of the sort of dining set I might buy had I the money and place to put it.

This is what I would buy right now, since it's small enough to fit in our current off-the-kitchen dining area, plus it goes perfectly with the sort of seaside cottage style I've been going for in that room.  (Sorry for the blurry quality, the only pic I could find on Pier 1's website was a dinky one I had to blow up.)  And later on if we eventually have a formal dining room, I would love to still have this in an eat-in kitchen or something like that.  This is the best example of the style I love right now.

The rest of these are more actual dining room furniture, and for the most part I'm only looking at the tables and chairs to determine if I like it or not, not the buffets or china cabinets, etc.  There's this one, although I greatly prefer a pedestal table to a corner-leg table like this one.  I also like this here, and I like the idea of a round table, I just don't know about the practicality of it (depending on whether it could be enlarged to fit more people).  This one is very much not round.  But I like the combination of wood and metal... sort of reminds me of the wrought iron stuff I like so much in Spanish/Italian architecture.  And, finally, the most formal, which I think is probably about as formal looking a dining set as I would ever want.

So, vote for your favorite, and then we can not buy it.
4:12 PM    ||    I want to be a comment. Post me!

Insanity is relative.
We're buying a Toyota Prius. Have a nice day!
1:23 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me!

Thursday, April 01, 2004
"I heard some really... REALLY awful music, and I knew it could only be self-indulgent actors with instruments."
After almost two months of slacking, I have finally updated my movies and CDs.  A couple of things to say:

- In Runaway Jury, the movie was perfectly fine, but the agenda that was exposed quite blatantly toward the end of the film was enough to bump it down to a neutral grade, even though I actually agreed with the general sentiment.  That's how much it bothered me.

- Tad Hamilton is Exhibit A in the case to prove that Beth-Annie will see just about ANYTHING if it has someone(s) she likes in it -- in this case, those someones would be Kate Bosworth, Ginnifer Goodwin, Topher Grace, and Josh Duhamel.  I dig them all, but didn't particularly like any of them in this film (Topher Grace being the least of the offenders).  It wasn't a monstrously BAD movie, it was just mind-numbingly predictable and mediocre.  Ah, well.  This is where you (and I) tell me I should have known better.  (Oh, and Ginnifer, ditzy and swooning don't fit you... stick to Diane Snyder types, please -- or at least not the polar opposite of her.)

- While I need to do a bit more research before I can write a comprehensive post on potentially promising acts we have discovered on XM's The Torch, I shall tide you over with one band that impressed us enough we've bought their CD: The Fire Theft.  They have a bit of a cornfusing history, in that all or most of the band used to make up the secular group Sunny Day Real Estate, the lead singer/writer then became a devout Christian, they broke up, then at least some of them (including Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel, interestingly enough) got back together to form The Fire Theft, of the new Lifehouse-esque genre (not in specific musical style, but in the whole mainstream/Christian fuzzy area thing).  A couple of very good songs are "Chain" and "Heaven", and if you try to listen to any other samples from their CD, I'll warn you that pretty much every site I've gone to has had the samples messed up in that you hear a sample, but it's not from the song it says it is.  You can hear the entire song "Chain" on their website by watching the video for it, but I would recommend not actually watching the video (it's stupid).  I also have a full live mp3 of "Heaven," (you really have to hear it as an entire song to do it any kind of justice) which I don't feel bad about posting on here because it ISN'T the album version, but is still a  fairly good representation of the song, just a tad more stripped down.
12:32 PM    ||    I want to be a comment. Post me!