Crusty Hulagin Lactating

Tonight I went to an Improv comedy show with Crystal and Jennie (from Flatiron Crossing), Donovan and Adam. The show was held at Colorado University and featured a talented group of students.

Now, my experience in the past with college Improv groups is that after like 20 minutes, all the jokes become about sex and drugs; about having sex, not having sex - taking drugs, not taking drugs. And I believe that these are possibly the easiest jokes ever. Anyone can make a joke about sex - we do it all the time without meaning to. Where's the challenge in that?

So, given my prior experience, I was hesitant about going to the show. But it was Friday night, and ultimately, if I didn't go to the show, I'd've probably ended up laying on the couch, thinking about how I should be cleaning the house. And somehow, that didn't sound exciting. So I decided to take a chance on Left Right Tim.

The format of the show is great. Two teams "compete" for audience votes to determine the winner of the Improv-off. Four members (all in white shirts) made up the team representing Left Right Tim while four other members (all in black shirts and cliche evil villan mustaches) made up rival club Up Down Jeff.

My favorite game of the evening was called "Playground." Two cast members, one from each "team," were sent off-stage while the audience came up with the perfect playground taunt using an adjective, a noun and a verb. The team members were invited back into the room, and they faced off, as fifth graders on the playground, to see who could come up with the audience-picked perfect taunt. To help them out, two members of their team stood behind the "tauntee" while the "taunter" tried to figure out the clues team members were giving in Charade-like fashion.

The first word...Crusty.

The first few guesses - Dough, Pizza, Pie and finally...Crusty. Point to Up Down Jeff.

The second word...Hulagin.

Guesses - Hula hoop, hula-can, hula-cancer, hula-drink, hula-skirt. And finally...Hulagin (technically hula-gun, but the "taunter" quickly figured it out from the clues). Point to Left Right Tim.

And finally...Lactating.

Only two guesses here. Milking...then lactating. Left Right Tim - Game, set, match.

It was a fun evening. Relatively clean, given the shouts of the audience members (of course, made up of college students. And if I can digress for a moment...when did they start admitting 7th graders? It's possible that college kids are getting younger, or it's possible that I have, in fact, been out of college for 10 years...TEN YEARS. Ugh.)

Anyway...hats off to Left Right Tim. A very talented group of people who managed to avoid the easy jokes.

Plus...I had a great title for my blog post. Admit it...you were curious when you read the title.

Saturday on a Friday

Colts Pro-Bowl center Jeff Saturday signed a 3 year deal with the Colts, a huge deal to maintaining the power of the Colts high-flying offense. Saturday was sorely missed in the early weeks of the 2008 season, when he was out with injury.

But really, the reason for this post was not to celebrate Saturday's return (though I'm totally celebrating that). In truth, the reason for this post was to feature this picture from the Colts.com website.

It's an action shot, but it TOTALLY looks like Saturday's posturing for the camera. That's why this guy is so cool - holding back what appears to be the Texans defensive line all while looking straight at the camera and putting on his Sunday-tough face.

Nice job Saturday!

Stumbled Upon...

This evening, I stumbled onto the end of the internet...

Well, not really. Kinda...

Everything is on the internet. EVERYTHING. News. Weather. Shopping. Games. Email.

People I want to stay in touch with. People I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole.

Music. Movie trailers. Movie times. Movie reviews. Movies.

Television shows I missed. Television shows I saw but feel the need to watch online anyways.

Too much information about celebrities, too much information about me.

Have you ever Googled yourself? Scary.

Also, I'm convinced that there is no such thing as a rhetorical question when you have access to Google.

But the fact of the matter is, with all there is out there, with all the places I could explore, I end up at the same places every night. Someplace for my news, someplace for my games. Another place for my email. And a place to debunk all those urban legends I receive through email - you know, the ones that are imperative that I forward on immediately to 19 of my closest friends.

And, of course, my daily round of blogs.

Really...very tame. Very safe.

And then, I found (or actually, was introduced to) StumbleUpon.com.

It's this awesome toolbar on your computer. Click it, and it takes you to a random page. You can set preferences. Like, I like history, or entertainment, or news, or weird things. Or, maybe even underwater basket weaving.

You can rate pages. Thumbs up. Thumbs down.

And when you find a page that StumbleUpon hasn't already seen, you can add it to the vast universe of this random-page generating website.

Though, seriously? Can you honestly tell me that I'm the first person with a StumbleUpon toolbar to find 1800PetMeds.com? Cause, seriously, if that's the case? They need to rethink their advertising budget.

Anyway, I've found a ton of really cool websites - way more than I would have on my own. And instead of playing it safe in my little corner of the world, I explore so much more. And tonight, in my exploration...I discovered the end of the internet.

Oops...Time to turn back.

One of the Best Feelings in the World is also a Mixed Blessing

I'm a reader. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who knows me.

And if I had to sit down and make a list of my all-time favorite feelings in the world, somewhere on that list would be this:

To be in the midst of reading a book that you absolutely HATE putting down. To be so involved in the story and the characters, the drama and/or romance, that you constantly think about picking it back up again when finally, at 5 o'clock on the dot, you are released from your cubicle-hell.

Though to be honest, I don't work in cubicle-hell. But you get the point.

So, last night I finished reading a book that I couldn't put down. Absolutely couldn't put down. Discussed plot points with the reflection in the mirror as I brushed my teeth. Imagined conversations between me and the main characters (heck, even the minor characters). Started like 4 different "fan fiction" story lines which, of course, star me.

The book I'm talking about is "Dark of Night" by Suzanne Brockmann. It's like book 14 in her Navy Seals/Troubleshooters series. It started out as independent stories loosely tied together, in that all the male heroes of the books were members of the same Navy Seals team. Then, the first hero of the books is kinda forced out of the Navy and starts his own business. And somehow, this series of loosely tied together stories became this incredible series that I am completely obsessed with. Like seriously...obsessed. I reread all the books last summer in preparation for her August release, and I'm seriously thinking about doing that again this year.

Does that qualify as obsessed?

But the funny thing is...it took me almost a week to read 417 pages. And while a week isn't that long, it's a long time for me. Especially when you're talking about a book you just can't put down.

And here's why it takes me so long to finish such a great book. Like I said, one of my all-time favorite feelings in the world is being in the midst of a great book. But it's so rare. It really doesn't happen that often. Probably once every couple of years. Maybe. I mean, I read a lot of good books. But the kind that reach out and really grab you? That's rare. So, while I love the feeling, it's a mixed blessing. Cause I know when I reach page 417...it's over. That's it. Finished. The feeling is gone.

And that just plain sucks.