And While We're on the Topic...

Go Highlanders!!!

My high school (From which I graduated 16 1/2 years ago), Just won a State Championship in Football!!! Even more amazing, they beat Brother Rice, an athletic powerhouse, with alumni includingan NBA All-Star, easily a dozen in the NFL, and even one or two who have played Arena Football. In fact, two of their coaches have played in the NFL.

Amazing? You have to understand. Adams has tolerated decades of football crappiness. I remember when I was a senior in High School, we won the homecoming game. The school had been around for at least ten years, and I'm pretty sure it was the first time the football team had ever won it's own homecoming.

So Yay Highlanders, and Yay first-year head coach Tony Patritto. And especially Yay to the Adams Drum Major, who tolerated several extra weeks of wearing a kilt in freezing temperatures. Now that's dedication.

Go Golden Grizzlies!

I'm a graduate of Oakland University in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Never heard of it? You're not alone. It's the seventh-largest school in Michigan (based on attendance), though I think those numbers only represent full-time students. But it's mostly a commuter school, with a lot of engineering and business students who either work for the "big three" or aspire to do so.

Oakland's never been considered an athletic powerhouse, for two primary reasons. 1) they don't have a football team and never will, and 2) until recently, they've been a NCAA Division II team.

Working in Kirksville, I often stumbled across people who had heard of Oakland. OU won a series of Division II Swimming Championships and was a DII soccer powerhouse, so anyone involved with those two sports were familiar with the OU Pioneers.

Six years ago, the Pioneers achieved "Division I" status, and the glory of playing big-name teams like Michigan and MSU. They changed their mascot from the timid-sounding "Pioneers" to the much more threatening "Golden Grizzlies." Since then, they've slowly moved up in the world. The men's basketball team beat Michigan two years ago, the women's basketball went to the NCAA "Big Dance" last year, and several of the school's teams have won conference titles.

Today, I logged on to CBS Sportsline.com, and was greeted with an article on the Golden Grizzlies. What's this? A little recognition? Apparently playing a bundle of national contenders gets you a little face time.

Ok, so the Grizzlies didn't beat sixth-ranked Missouri tonight, but they gave the Tigers a run for their money. I particularly enjoyed the quotation from Mizzou coach Quin Snyder: "This isn't a matter of us just overlooking an opponent -- we played a very good team tonight. I expect them to win their league and no one will want to play them in the tournament."

Amen, Quin. Amen.

Shopaholics Anonymous

I spent the day after Thanksgiving being thankful that I haven't worked retail in ages. My last retail Christmas Shopping Season was 1991, the year before I went off to graduate school.

Working retail at Christmas time is enough to make the biggest Tiny Tim into a Scrooge. From November 1986 to December 1991, I had nightly nightmares about rude customers and insane co-workers. Then I'd get to work the following day and deal with even ruder customers and even crazier co-workers than the ones I dreamed about.

Today, I got up at 5:40 a.m. to do a bit of quick Christmas shopping. The first half-hour at Parisian wasn't too bad. Only a few stores had opened, and people were still filing into the mall. It started to get a little hectic at JC Penney at 6:30. At 7a.m., Dillards opened, and it wasn't too busy for about half an hour, either, for the same reason. Then, I decided to expand my horizons and head on over to Best Buy, or as I like to call it, The Madhouse.

Our Best Buy is brand spanking new, and it stands alone at the top of a hill next to the mall, where a dairy factory used to be located. It has it's own parking lot, which was completely full. In fact, people had created their own parking spaces randomly around the building, and it was nearly impossible to get around. I found a spot and went inside, only looking for one $10.00 item.

I can't even begin to describe how long the line was at 7:30 a.m. I've seen shorter lines at Cedar Point. It snaked around the ropes, across the front of the store, and up the main center aisle as far as the eye could see. It was enough to give me retail flashbacks for the rest of the day.

So, in the spirit of the busiest shopping day of the year,
The Friday Five.

1. Do you like to shop? Why or why not? Not as much as I used to. When I was teaching, I had way too much free time on my hands in the summer, and I'd go shopping every day. I like the social interaction (I don't get out in public much outside of work)
2. What was the last thing you purchased? Can't tell you. Gifts for Jan, Steve, and Cory.
3. Do you prefer shopping online or at an actual store? Why? If I know exactly what I want, I'd rather do it online. It's a lot easier to comparison-shop for the best price when you're sitting at a computer rather than driving all over town.
4. Did you get an allowance as a child? How much was it? I remember getting $0.50 for dusting the house when I was really little. As I got older, I got more. When I was in junior high school, it was $5 a week for dusting the house, and another $5 if I mowed the lawn. Once I started working (1995), I didn't get an allowance any more.
5. What was the last thing you regret purchasing? Earlier this week, I bought Cory a present that's going back to the store. I decided he doesn't really need it. I regret making the purchase because I wasted a perfectly good coupon on it, and I won't get that discount back!

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving...

"Thanksgiving Song" -Lyrics by Adam Sandler

Love to eat turkey
Love to eat turkey

Love to eat turkey
'Cause it's good
Love to eat turkey
Like a good boy should
'Cause it's turkey to eat
So good

Turkey for me
Turkey for you
Let's eat the turkey
In my big brown shoe
Love to eat the turkey
At the table
I once saw a movie
With Betty Grable
Eat that turkey
All night long
Fifty million Elvis fans
Can't be wrong
Turkey lurkey doo and
Turkey lurkey dap
I eat that turkey
Then I take a nap

Thanksgiving is a special night
Jimmy Walker used to say Dynomite
That's right
Turkey with gravy and cranberry
Can't believe the Mets traded Darryl Strawberry
Turkey for you and
Turkey for me
Can't believe Tyson
Gave that girl V.D.

White meat, dark meat
You just can't lose
I fell off my moped
And I got a bruise
Turkey in the oven
And the buns in the toaster
I'll never take down
My Cheryl Tiegs poster
Wrap the turkey up
In aluminum foil
My brother likes to masturbate
With baby oil
Turkey and sweet potato pie
Sammy Davis Jr.
Only had one eye

Turkey for the girls and
Turkey for the boys
My favorite kind of pants
Are corduroys
Gobble gobble goo and
Gobble gobble gickel
I wish turkey
Only cost a nickel
Oh I love turkey on Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Happy Belated Turkey Day

As Brett Favre once said, "I don't like Thanksgiving. No Presents."

As a kid, I never really liked Thanksgiving very much. There's nothing but parades on TV, and you sit around a house that smells really good for hours and hours and hours, eat for half an hour, and then it's over.

Once I moved away, I developed more of a fondness for Thanksgiving. For the last nine years, I've spent a single Thanksgiving with my family. The first year, I was completely miserable. I spent it with my neighbor's family, and I discovered that the only thing worse than spending Thanksgiving alone is spending it with complete strangers.

Since then, I've had some pretty interesting Turkey Days. One year, my roommate, friends, and I had a feast at Dominos Pizza. My friend Kathy was the manager, and we cooked a huge taco pizza, and brought in pies and stuffing to eat with it. Afterwards, we went bowling, then out for bloody marys.

I spent at least one Thanksgiving with Rich's family, and one year, I cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for all my co-workers. To amuse myself, I've also changed my outgoing message to an abbreviated version of Adam Sandler's Thanksgiving Song (lyrics above).

The last time I spent Turkey Day at my parents' house was in 1998. The NCA convention was in New York City the weekend before Thanksgiving, and since Truman was paying my way to the conference, I caught a three-legged flight and headed to Detroit.

My last few Thanksgivings have been pretty sad. I've worked the last several, and though my old station would (usually) cater us a Thanksgiving dinner, the station where we work now has a catered lunch early in the week, and those of us who don't get the day off are on our own on Thanksgiving day. Two years ago, I went to Shoney's with a couple of coworkers. Last year, I got a carry-out cheeseburger from Denny's.

So actually making dinner this year was a big treat. Sure, it's a lot of work, but it was so nice to have the day off, cook a turkey and watch football. Tomorrow, it's back to work. Blech.

I did not, however, drink this in celebration of the feast.

Mmmmmmm... Pie

Tonight, Cory and I made an Apple Pie and a Chocolate Pecan Pie. I don't think this apartment has ever smelled so good.

Insomnia

Last night, I had some trouble sleeping, so I started flipping channels. Oh, Happy Day!!! I stumbled across one of my favorite guilty pleasures: The Oblongs. If you've never seen the show, it's quite a treat. Its a morbidly delightful cartoon about a family of mutants who live by a chemical spill. The Mom (voice of Jean Smart) is bald, the Dad (voiced of Will Ferrell) has no limbs, two of the kids (comedians Randy and Jason Sklar) are siamese twins, the little girl has something that looks like a penis growing out of her head, and the other kid is just plain weird.

If you happen to be up at midnight on Sunday, flip over to catch The Oblongs on "Adult Swim" at the Cartoon Network. Good Stuff.

My other favorite "Adult Swim" cartoon, by the way, is Home Movies. If you remember "Dr.Katz, Professional Therapist" from the old days of Comedy Central, you'll like Home Movies. It has that same Tom Snyder-produced squiggle-vision quality. Too Bad Cartoon Network hasn't been showing it much lately. Weenies.

Job Hazards

As a result of the freakish hours I've been working lately, the NaNoWriMo has bitten the dust. It's pretty sad. I was really motivated at first, and then once I started getting home at 3am every day, the excitement of sitting at the computer and writing 1500 words really started to crap out.

So I'm a NaNoWriMo failure.

Crap.

Whoo-Hoooo!!!!

Three days off!

As you may have guessed, I'm pretty excited about the way this week is working out. I never get to take holidays off (something to do with only having 2 years at the station as opposed to Dave's 19 years). Since I'm scheduled to anchor every Monday, working on Labor Day, Memorial Day, etc. is just a part of the job. As far as Turkey Day goes, Dave's always offered to let me have it off (Thursday is my usual day off), but it just seemed kind of silly the last few years. What am I going to do? Sit at home and feel sorry for myself while Cory spends Thanksgiving with his family in Missouri? I'd rather go to work and keep busy.

This year, I took Dave up on the offer. After all, I've worked something like 23 of the last 26 days, and most of those were 12-to-14 hour shifts. I need a break. A serious break.

The really nice thing is that Cory couldn't take a long weekend this year and go back to the 'Ville, so we get to spend Thankgiving together for the first time since we started dating three years ago.

Making a Thanksgiving dinner is going to be kind of weird for just the two of us. The only other time I've done it was three years ago, when I cooked dinner for everyone at work. I cooked a 25-pound turkey and we ate right after the 6:00 news.

By the way, my plans for my big three days off: Christmas Shopping. I resolve to spend more money on other people than on myself (a vow I sadly did not make last week).

Another Year, Another Iron Bowl

Somehow, without my permission, my life has begun to revolve around the "Iron Bowl."

For those of you unfamiliar with Alabama's premier sporting event, here's a little taste of the article which appeared in Sports Illustrated this week.

(and for those of you too lazy to read the whole article, here's a few descriptive passages):

"the cliché about football being a way of life isn't a cliché in Alabama."

"Many couples in what is known throughout the state as 'mixed marriages' won't speak on game day, because one spouse is an Auburn fan and the other roots for Alabama. "

And Finally, from Sports-Talk Radio Host Paul Finebaum: "It's like the relationship between the Israelis and the Palestinians. They essentially live on the same piece of land, and in a way they wage war 365 days a year. It never stops, no matter who tries to intervene or referee."

But I digress. As I was saying, somehow, some way, my life has begun to revolve around the Iron Bowl. My first month here, I got thrown into co-hosting an hour-long live special previewing the game. Since then, I've been to Auburn nearly every week of football season to interview coaches and players. Oddly enough, I've never been to a game, which you would think would make it hard to get caught up in the SEC Football hype. It doesn't. 90-year-old women will come up to me at WalMart in July and ask me if I think Auburn can beat Alabama this year.

I still find the whole experience bizarre, and I come from the part of the country with the Michigan/Ohio State game, recently voted the greatest college football rivalry in the country. Here's the difference. If you're not a football fan, it's possible to ignore the UM/OSU game. Sure, 112,118 people packed Michigan Stadium Saturday, but I doubt my mom even knew it was going on this weekend, and she lives only 55 minutes away from Ann Arbor.

You can't live in Alabama (or parts of Georgia) without knowing the most intimate details surrounding the "Iron Bowl." Honestly, it's a little freaky.

Anyway, tonight was the big game. I missed most of the first half, since I was at the hockey game (see below). Considering the fact that both Auburn and Alabama have had lackluster seasons, it was a damn good game. Cory got to go, he helped shoot video of the game for the station. He was trying to decide whether or not to go, and I told him "one of us should experience an Iron Bowl sometime. I'm always in the studio, so that leaves you."

The game ended 2 1/2 hours ago. Cory just called about 15 minutes ago to tell me that they just got out of traffic and were headed back. He could have walked to Columbus in that amount of time (Ok, not really, but you get the idea). I hope he had a good time!

Warning...

The opinion I'm about to express is going to be an unpopular one. Generally speaking, I love it when big groups of soldiers go to sporting events in Columbus. Usually, it's guys who are suffering through basic training, and they're pretty starved for entertainment (and beer, too). They yell and shout and cheer for the home team, and they really get the rest of the crowd into the game. It's great for everyone... the team, the fans, and the soldiers, too.

Something at the hockey game tonight really disturbed me, though. Occasionally, the soldiers will burst out into chants, things like the "Ranger Creed." When they finish, the fans cheer like crazy. Ok, that's cool. What I find not cool... and disturbing, in fact, is when they chant things like "ooh, aah, I wanna kill somebody, right now!"

Normally, I only find it mildly disturbing. But in the last month, a former Fort Benning Soldier has been arrested and charged with the murder of another soldier, and three current Benning soldiers are charged with "concealing a death." The "I wanna kill somebody" cheer seems beyond inappropriate, but they were cheering it, very loudly, every twenty minutes or so. Disturbing.

In addition to that, I'm a little sour on Fort Benning right now anyway (and it's "God Bless Fort Benning Day" in Columbus, by the way). When I arrived at the game tonight, I was seriously struggling to get in the door. I have to buzz myself into the arena, which requires pushing a button and turning a door handle at the same time. I had to do this while holding a 20+ pound camera, a 20 pound tripod, and an equipment bag. Needless to say, I didn't have a free hand to buzz or turn the door handle, and the whole process of getting into the building took about three minutes. The entire time, a bunch of soldiers just stood there, staring at me. No offer of help. A little girl finally offered to help me. As I passed them, one of them cracked a joke.

Later, as I stumbled past another bunch of soldiers, and dropped my equipment bag, the only thing any of them said to me was "Can you put me on TV?"

Ummm. No. No I can't.

Reality Bites

In the past, I've waxed poetic on my disgust with Reality Television. There are a few shows I like: Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and The Anna Nicole Show (before it got really contrived). But I've always loathed shows like "The Real World" and "Survivor." And the dating shows? They're the absolute worst.

But I have a confession to make. I love Average Joe. It kicks ass. I spent close to half an hour talking about the show with another co-worker who had been equally guarded about his "Average Joe" obsession. It was so cathartic, so theraputic.

By the way, we like Adam and John. We really, really, really don't like Zach. On the first episode, Zach went on a tirade about how insulting it was that he was considered "average" and an equal to all the other geeks. Zach's got a bit of an ego for a guy with his hairline. What a tool.

WTF?

Oddly enough, we didn't study this guy when I minored in Art History.

20 Years Ago Today...

I watched the scariest movie I've ever seen.

Michael Jackson Update

Ummm. Ok. I've seen the mugshot. Judging from his complexion (he's paler than I am... and I've been nicknamed "pasty"), I can only assume the "B" next to "Race" stands for Bleached.

By the way, the official statement from the 1993 molestation lawsuit is online. Read at your own risk. These last couple of pages are not for the squeamish.

Even more disturbing: Apparently, Jacko has been importing boys from foreign lands.

Friday Five
Wow. Here's a Friday Five that's sure to make you feel empty inside. Here we go.....
1. List five things you'd like to accomplish by the end of the year. i) Take my remaining two weeks of vacation and all the holiday time I've accrued this year. ii) Clean the apartment. iii) Clear my wardrobe of ill-fitting clothing. iv) Make a really nice dinner for Thanksgiving. v) Pay off my credit card (I'd like to accomplish this, but realistically, it's not going to happen).
2. List five people you've lost contact with that you'd like to hear from again. i) Casey Witucki (my crazy friend from my days at Foland's). ii) Melina Barona (from my days at Truman State University). iii) Kelly Watson (another Truman-type). iv) Sean Severide (my first-grade crush, just curious as to what happened to him). v) Kirsten and Kimmy Cook (my best friends when I was a very little kid).
3. List five things you'd like to learn how to do. i) Simultaneously blow-dry and style my hair. ii) Use a non-linear editing system. iii) Sing. iv) Assert myself without being bitchy or passive-aggressive. v) Make pottery on a wheel.
4. List five things you'd do if you won the lottery (no limit). i) Quit my job. ii) Go on a year-long trip around the world. iii) Buy Jan & Steve a house on Maui. iv) Find someplace that I really like and settle there. v) Invest my remaining winnings and live off the interest.
5. List five things you do that help you relax. Nothing helps me relax. But five things I do to try to relax are: i) Read. ii) Sleep. iii) Have a beverage (Smirnoff Ice is currently my drink of choice). iv) Get a haircut. v) Snuggle with Zoe (my kitty).

It's Very Late...

Even for me. 3:30 a.m. isn't my ideal time to get home from work.

At 3:30 a.m., when you're still wound up from being at work, there isn't much on TV to watch. A lot of infomercial, a lot of religious programming, and reruns of last week's late night talk shows.

One thought, as I watch a rerun of last Wednesday's Late Night with Conan O'Brien: Does anyone else in this world find Brendan Fraser to be as adorable as I think he is? This isn't just the Mountain Dew talking here, either.

By the way, I just spell-checked this entry to see how to spell "infomercial," and I discovered that the blogger spell-checker doesn't like "a.m." It kept suggesting "ahoy" instead.

It's now 3:42 ahoy. nightie-night.

And Now, a Word from our Sponsors

Another way-cool Honda commercial.

Attention Hipsters (You know who you are)

I'm not a hipster, nor do I play one on tv. But I know a hipster when I see one. So, how 'bout a little game of BINGO?

Today's History Lesson:

The origin of "the finger"

God Bless Liv Tyler

While I loathe the fact that all little kids these days are fat, I greatly admire women who don't feel the need to look like thirteen-year-old boys:

"The Lord of the Rings" star Liv Tyler is paying no mind to the Hollywood suits who want her to shed poundage, according to the Internet Movie Database. The 26-year-old daughter of rocker Steven Tyler says she has been told by movie bosses that she risks losing top film roles unless she reduces the size of her God-given bod. But Liv, who trimmed to a svelte 125 pounds for her part as heroine Arwen in the "Lord of The Rings" trilogy, then piled 28 pounds right back on after shooting wrapped. She insists she's happy with her weight and doesn't want to diet. She says, "I've been told that if I lose weight I'd have more work, but . . . to the rest of the world I am slim and I like the way I am."

Now, completely off the subject, has anyone seen Anna Nicole Smith lately? I hear she lost something like 50 pounds, but I've yet to see the evidence.

Attention Film Snobs-

A list for you.

Yippiee!

I get a half day off work tomorrow!
That's right kids. A half-day. I'd love to spend it catching up on all the sleep I've missed out on while working my a$$ off... but I've got too many errands to run. Maybe I'll get another half-day later this week to sleep. I'm not counting on it, though.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

But whatever you do, don't make one of these. It is possible to take a good thing way too far.

The Friday Five

We're gettin' descriptive at the Friday Five. This week's list brought to you by the letter "A."

1. Using one adjective, describe your current living space. Messy.
2. Using two adjectives, describe your current employer. I refuse to answer this question on the grounds that it may incriminate me.
3. Using three adjectives, describe your favorite hobby/pasttime. Creative. Relaxing. Colorful.
4. Using four adjectives, describe your typical day. Exhausting. Frustrating. Stressful. Long.
5. Using five adjectives, describe your ideal life. Happy. Relaxed. Healthy. Successful. Loving.

Junior High School Flashback

Cory was flipping around the channels while I was balancing the checkbook a while ago, and he paused on a tv show. I couldn't see the tv set from where I was sitting, but it still only took about three seconds for me to not only realize what show it was, but what episode he was watching. It was the short-lived "Square Pegs," and the episode was the show's most memorable: "Muffy's Bat Mitzvah" (Featuring Devo).

A thought came to me, as I watched Jami Gertz act snotty towards Sarah Jessica Parker. It's been a really long time since I was in Junior High School. The episode I was watching was 21 years old. 21 YEARS!!! Has it really been that long? You better believe it.

It's kind of like the first time you hear a song from "your era" on a "Classic Rock" station. You think to yourself, "This isn't classic. This is only a few years old. It came out when I was in High School."

Then, you suddenly realize, "Oh, crap. That was ten (or fifteen, or twenty) years ago."

In summation: I'm old.

Now That's a Lot of Bull

Seriously. This is a lot of bull.

Hello. My name is Sportlady, and I'm a Sucky Blogger.

Sorry, kids. I suck. I worked a 70 hour week last week, and I actually managed to blog once or twice. This week it'll be more of the same. Dave came back to town for a day, his personal stuff hit the fan again, and so he's back to Illinois for the rest of the week. Thank God I got Monday off.

I was actually supposed to be off today (though I was going to go in for a couple of hours to work on our half-hour sports special that airs on Friday), but had to come in and work a full shift.

Dave, of course, was very grateful that I could cover him so he could get back to his family. Haven't gotten a "thank you" from anyone else for the extra days I've worked yet. Maybe someday (sigh).

No blogging tomorrow night. I'll be at work until at least 3 am working on "Sports Overtime." I'll try to post something Saturday morning.

Before You Ask...

I lived in Kirksville, Missouri for seven years... not Kirkwood, Missouri. Things like this never happen in Kirksville.

Rent Update

(And no, I'm not talking about the musical)
Cory paid our late fee with the overdue rent check on Thursday night. Friday morning, there was a note in our mail slot...

"Forget the late fee! I know that you must have forgotten since you all have never been late. You will have a credit next month of $52.00."

God bless 'em.

Friday Five

For some reason, I like this week's Friday Five. Not to sound too cheesy, but it celebrates our differences. So let your freak flag fly!

1. What food do you like that most people hate? I love broccoli. Seriously. Raw, cooked, in a soup or in a casserole, I don't care. I love the stuff.
2. What food do you hate that most people love? Pumpkin Pie. It took me years to realize that it's really the taste of ginger that I don't like. Thus my distaste for Gingerbread, as well. Second Place: Pepperoni Pizza. I love pizza, but only if it has ham and lots of veggies on it. All the grease on a pepperoni pie makes me want to barf. I think it has something to do with my four-month tour of duty at the Pizza King in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.
3. What famous person, whom many people may find attractive, is most unappealing to you? An easy one. Male: Vin Diesel. It's enough that I find him really, really, unattractive, but he's such a terrible actor that it makes him even less appealing. Also, Ashton Kutcher. He just seems really, really, really dumb. I know it's his character, but it doesn't seem like much of a stretch. Female: Drew Barrymore. Her face is crooked. End of story. also, Renee Zellweger. Stop squinting, stop pursing your lips. I could name hundreds more, but I'll leave it at that for now.
4. What famous person, whom many people may find unappealing, do you find attractive? Funny guys. Conan O'Brien and David Letterman to name a pair. Also, I've always found Steven Tyler oddly appealing. He's kind of a heavy-metal Mick Jagger. Oddly enough, I don't find the Stones' front-man appealing at all, though.
5. What popular trend baffles you? Low-riding women's jeans. I know I've blogged about this before, but why, oh why, do girls feel the need to show off their plumber's butt? Girls, we all have cleavage back there. You're not special. Especially not when your super-low-ride jeans accentuate all of your other nasty fat bulges.

Ok, I know some of you are just dying to weigh in on this Friday Five. Fire away.

Ahhhhhh.....

I left work before 1 a.m. today. Very nice.

A summary of the last few days: Woke up, went to work early, stayed at work very late (generally between 2 and 3 am), Suffered brief bout of insomnia (cured by a big swig of NyQuil. And no, I'm not addicted to antihistamines), had a brief panic attack before Sports Overtime.

The show went off relatively well. Jeff's only anchored once since he left the station two years ago, so he was a little rusty on the first few stories, but got back into the swing of things really quickly. Most important, we had final scores for almost every game, and the show filled our 20 minutes almost perfectly. If it had been a normal show, I would have been a little disappointed in it, but considering it was my first time producing the show all by myself, I think it went fairly well.

One truly embarrassing thing, though. At the end of the show, we tape a little :30 promo that airs on Saturday and Sunday. The script goes something like: "Hi, I'm so-and-so, and I'm so-and-so. Friday on Sports Overtime, we showed you...." and then we say a sentence about four of the games, and wrap it up with "Next week, we'll show you (insert game here) and (insert game here). So join us for Sports Overtime, Friday Nights, on News Leader Nine" We didn't have much trouble writing or shooting the promo, but when we went to watch it, something was very wrong. When Jeff was reading his lines, I was moving my lips along to the words in the TelePrompter. Moving my lips like some quasi-illiterate inbred freak. So sad. So folks around the Bi-Cities can watch me look like a moron all weekend long. Pathetic.

I've always known that when I'm tired, my (already bad) posture gets much worse, and I walk even more pigeon-toed than usual. Apparently, when I'm tired, I also move my lips when I read.

Blech.

Sorry I've been such a crummy blog-buddy lately. I'll summarize briefly.

It's 2:57 a.m. My bedtime was 27 minutes ago. I just walked in the door from work.

I spent the last two days producing, anchoring & reporting the regular newscasts (my usual days off), and producing "Sports Overtime" for Friday night. The legwork alone for the show (finding phone numbers, calculating playoff standings, etc.) took me three hours tonight.

Tomorrow I need to be in early to finish producing Sports Overtime, plus to produce the regular 6pm show.

The good news? I'm going to have a co-anchor, at least. Our old pal Jeff Chardos is coming in to help me out. Thank Goodness he's a kind soul. He got the hell out of news two years ago (I filled his position here).

Oh, i't not just the blog that's suffering. Because my work schedule has been so freakishly hectic, I completely forgot to pay the rent. That's a $50 late fee, kids. Fun stuff.

Oh, and NaNoWriMo is suffering, as well. I've written a measly 5,025 words on my novel-in-progress. That's out of 50,000 I have to have completed by the end of the month. My goal was to have 10,000 by today. Hell's bells.

Ok. Seriously.

Is anyone writing their own music any more? Five more minutes of watching early-morning cable (VH1 this time) and I have to ask. Limp Bizkit is doing a cover of "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who. I can't argue with their taste, it's a hell of a song, but their version is just so empty and soulless. Maybe that's the effect they were going for.

But here's something I bet you didn't know. Bryan (Not Ryan) Adams did a cover of the song, as well. And apparently, it's a big hit in the Rumania.

And Speaking of Rock Stars

We've all bought some pretty lame albums in our day (CDs, for my younger readers who don't remember vinyl). But which one gets your vote for worst album cover ever?

It Had To Happen Eventually

The NyQuil has worn off. It's 7:30 in the morning and I can't sleep.

The good news? I turned on the tv, and on MTV, they were actually playing music videos (believe it or not). I just found out that No Doubt has done a kick-ass cover of one of my favorite 80s songs, "It's My Life" by Talk Talk. This may not be news to the rest of the world, but I don't listen to Top-40 radio, so it was news to me.

I was especially pleased since I really haven't liked anything that No Doubt has done since Tragic Kingdom. I thought that was a great album, but they really seemed to get away from it and get into this dance-music groove that I just don't like. Maybe there's hope for ol' Gwen and the boys after all.

By the way, if there's any doubt (pun intended) that rock stars aren't real people, read this.

Remember...

...How excited I was about going to see Winged Migration this week at the Columbus Film Festival?

Guess what? I won't be getting a night off this week. No movie for me. Dave had a family emergency, and he left for Chicago this afternoon. I don't blame him, he needs to take the time off. But because we're a two-person department, I'm stuck being the one-woman sports staff for the rest of the week... and I still feel like crud.

I got Monday off this week, but that's just because I was sick. I suppose I could have gone to the movie then, but the NyQuil probably would have made me sleep through the whole thing.

A Simple Explanation

Next time somebody asks me "Why did you go into television? Didn't you take a 60% pay cut from when you quit teaching?"... I will tell them I was having a quarter-life crisis.

In Case You Hadn't Figured it Out...

I'm not at work today. That's right. For the first time in nearly two years, I'm taking a sick day. I feel really guilty about it, though, because I work in a two-person department. That means if I'm sick, Dave probably has to come in on his day off.

The last several times I've been sick, it's been during Dave's vacation, and I've just worked through it. I'm not gonna make the poor guy come in when he should be enjoying time off with his family. People always tell me "You shouldn't come in when you're sick." Well, no kidding. Unfortunately, I usually don't have much of a choice.

On the other hand, I have co-workers who call in sick at least once a month. I don't get those people. It's like they're trying to prove that they're completely expendable.

Is There a Doctor in the House?

Are expired vitamins dangerous? I've been trying to dose up on Zinc and Multi-Vitamins since last night, and I just noticed that all of my vitamins expired earlier this year. Ooops.

Attention Children of the 80s

(Anne, Melissa, Mike, this means you)
An excellent song lyric quiz:

I contend that if I hadn't been halfway doped up on flu medicine I would have scored even better than 120.5 out of 100.
However, I did get ten points for getting #83 right (though I guessed at the spelling).

Feelin' Poopy

Blech. Had a sore throat when I got up this morning. Nothing too unusual, but it didn't go away. I wrote it off as allergies. After all, I've been outside for six or seven hours every day at the softball tournament.

Then, around 4 pm, I started to get really achy. Did my show, went home for dinner, felt a little better with a full tummy. Then the chills set in. Not feeling so hot.

Long story short, I won't be blogging for too long tonight. Just until the NyQuil kicks in (ok, actually it's Wal-Mart "Nite Time." whatever).

Why I refuse to Own a Cell Phone

Because people get way too attached to them.

Ahhhhh... Culture

The Columbus Film Society's movie this week is "Winged Migration." I haven't been this excited about a movie since "Spellbound" was in town.

Friday Five

Once again, a day late and a dollar short on the Friday Five. I'm sure I've probably mentioned one or two of these before, but what the hell.
1. What was your first Halloween costume? The first one I remember was a leopard costume that my mom sewed for me. She always made me nice costumes, and I think that's part of the reason I still like to dress up to this day.
2. What was your best costume and why? Ahhh, the Barbie Doll. About six years ago, I made this fantastic costume. I got a pink fitted t-shirt, painted "Barbie" on it in glitter paint, and sewed a really tacky pink-and-orange miniskirt. But that's just the beginning. I still had hot-pink pumps from the 80s, which matched perfectly. I stuffed a huge bra to give myself a more Barbie-ish figure, and bought a massive blonde wig. Then I put a big pink bow in the wig, wore a lot of pink plastic kids' jewelry, and a heart-shaped necklace with a picture of a Ken doll in it.
Fantastic.

3. Did you ever play a trick on someone who didn't give you a treat? Nah. I'm too nice of a kid. An interesting note for all of my friends in Michigan, though. Apparently "Devil's Night" is a Michigan-only phenomenon, and everybody thinks that all we do is go out and shoot people on October 30th. Kids in the rest of the world egg houses on Halloween, which to me seems like a waste of candy-eating time. Oh, and around here, you don't "T.P." people's trees. You "roll" them. How dumb does that sound?
4. Do you have any Halloween traditions? (ie: Family pumpkin carving, special dinner before trick or treating, etc.)
Not really. I wish I could have a costume party every year, but my job prevents that.
5. Share your favorite scary story...real or legend! How's this: I lived seven years in Kirksville, Missouri! Aaaaauuuugh! (well, it was pretty scary for me. For God's sake, I dated a man named "Bubba." If that's not scary, I don't know what is.)

Author, Author!!!

A NaNoWriMo update:

1,223 words written.

That means only 48,777 words to go before December 1st.

I can do this. Yeah. Right.

In Case You're Wondering...

No mention of Friday night's show on the blog? "How odd," you think, knowing how much I like to bitch about my job.

I wouldn't call it a "train wreck," but it was close. Two tape problems, both on games that I was anchoring. One teleprompter problem, on one of my scripts. I was completely lost in the show, and didn't know what the hell was coming next. I just knew the stuff that I was saying was very wrong. Then, I lost the ability to speak in coherent sentences.

All in all, a stellar night on Sports Overtime.

Jealous?

It's November, and I got a sunburn today. How do you like that?