Goin' to the 'Nasty

This past weekend we took a trek to Cincinnati to see our friends, J & E, accompanied by our other friends J & C. We had been planning the trip since Christmas, so we were all looking forward to it. J & E now have two extremely cute children, so it was nice to see them and squeeze babies.

We got there Friday around 6-ish, and hung out that night playing the Wii. The boys stayed up until about 2:30 in the morning watching History channel stuff, as usual. Saturday was fun, as the grown up girls went with both the kiddies to a kid's birthday party at a place called "Pump It Up," that I had never heard of until this trip. For the uninitiated, "Pump It Up" is a place to have kids birthday parties (and other occasions) that has rooms full of inflatable obstacle courses, slides, and bounce houses. So we all took turns watching the baby and going into the inflatables with J & E's daughter. Then, after a certain period of time, everyone is moved into a party room, where pizza and birthday cake was served. In that room, C and I were watching the baby while E was supervising the two-year old, and as we were sitting there, we were talking to a woman who works for the same company as our friends. This other lady has twins and was very personable. On the drive home, we were telling E we met this nice lady, etc, and it turns out E knows this woman her children, and apparently the girl twin is a complete monster, has bit J & E's daughter, etc. E had big stories to tell about this. It was hilarious and very ironic.

Saturday night we had dinner reservations at Tropicana, which is a nice steak restaurant in Cincy that has a Spanish flair. Dinner was excellent, but the best part was the after dinner "show." It turns out that this fine eatery turns into a somewhat trashy nightclub after 11, and since dinner was long and leisurely, we were present for this transformation. Oh, the people who walked through the door. It was everything from Kentucky trashy (this restaurant is actually in Newport, Kentucky, across the river from Cincy), to horrible 80's retro wear, including day-glo orange go-go boots, to your typical nightclub skankiness. But the best was this woman who came in by herself, and proceeded to dance by herself for the better part of an hour. She was wearing cargo-y pants and a cleavage showing red top. From a distance, she looked "interesting." The guys were so fascinated that they kept walking over there to investigate, while under the guise of checking the sports score. While standing by the bar, they briefly talked to two women who were also watching "the show." In the women's words, the lady in red was "definitely [there] to party." In the words of B, our dinner companion, she was "a cougar" and "mildly psychotic." (Up close, she was about 15 years older than I had originally thought.) As we all left, she was hitting on a bartender by the door, clearly looking to score. (And he was considerably younger than she, so B had the cougar thing right.)

So, that was the upshot of our fun trip to the Nasty. Thanks to J & E for having us all stay over, and we can't wait to come back to hang out at another bar for the night while marveling that we were never that stupid or that skanky.

My Latest Guilty Pleasures

As most of you probably know, I'm currently not working. Because I'm unemployed, I have a fairly good amount of time on my hands, time that I'm currently filling up reading, working out, bumming around my house, and watching an inordinate amount of daytime television. (FYI--I'm working with a new legal recruiter, let's hope she has more luck than I've had on my own!) I've been exercising almost everyday, mostly on the treadmill and Bowflex Brian and I have in the basement. (I have seen a bit of result, but not as much as I would if I would quit indulging my substantial sweet tooth. What can I say--I like dessert.) Anyway, we have a TV down there to watch while we work out. I've discovered two hilarious shows on a channel I never knew existed--BBC America. I watch said guilty pleasures while working out, and actually time my workout most days to coincide with these ridiculously entertaining, yet mindless, shows. For those of you who don't know, BBC is the British Broadcasting Corporation, so both of these shows are made in the UK.

The first show, which is on from 10-11 a.m. (two one-half hour episodes) is called "How Clean is Your House?" It features two middle aged British women named Kim and Aggie who go to a different house every episode and clean up the absolutely disgusting mess that the homeowner has allowed the home to get into. These people are living in some of the filthiest conditions you've ever seen. The beginning of the show is hilarious--the ladies always go inspect the home before the homeowner is there, and they always find a multitude of sins, from pans that haven't been washed in years, with food stuck on them, cat poo all over the place, bathrooms that look like science experiments, the list goes on and on. You name it, they've seen it. The funny part is their reactions. Kim always, and I mean every episode, says she's going to vomit, but never does. Then, the homeowner comes home, they rip the person a new one, and have a cleaning crew come in and clean up. Also, they give really good cleaning tips, using mostly natural, non-toxic methods, which is great. The homeowner always seems really shocked that their house or apartment can look that nice, to which I always think--weren't you ever taught what hot water and soap can do?

The second show is just as comical. It's on from 11-noon, again two one-half hour episodes. It's called "You Are What You Eat." It features a woman named Jillian McKeeth, who is this little tiny abrasive Scottish woman that calls herself a "holistic nutritionist." The whole premise is that people are fat and eat like garbage, and she's out to whip them into shape. Each episode features some very overweight, unhealthy person who actually signed up for, or was nominated, to take Jillian's abuse for 8 weeks and live by her program. Her program is basically veganism or very strict vegitarianism, but sometimes she does allow the person to eat fish. It is hilarious to watch these people whose entire lives have been centered around fish and chips takeaway or massive amounts of frozen pizza struggle to prepare and eat these meals. Jillian is very fond of quinoa (a South American whole grain), lentils, and porridge, all of which look completely tasteless on TV. Jillian is also, grossly enough, fond of examining her subjects' poo sample, and then she tells them how bad their poo is, how smelly, etc, and why it shouldn't be that way. I guess in the UK she's called TAPL ("The Awful Poo Lady") (BTW--they don't show the poo sample on TV, don't worry). Anyway, after the 8 week program, these folks always lose massive amounts of weight and feel so much better, and of course they're not going to go back to their old ways, etc. But I bet it's like the "Biggest Loser" and many of them probably gain the weight back. But it's still entertaining. FYI--if you watch this show, to really understand how much these people weigh, you must know that a "stone" is a British unit of measurement that is 14 pounds.

So, if you have BBC America on your TV, check out my new favorite shows! They are also on in the afternoon if you can't watch in the morning!

I Can't Believe We Missed the Tater!

So, I have to tell you the crazy, frustrating thing that happened to Brian and I on Saturday.

We bought the tickets 2 months ago. We were going to see Ron White, the comedian from the Blue Collar Comedy Tour (I think he's the funniest because he's the least redneck-y). For those who don't know, he's the rotund middle aged one that smokes a cigar and drinks scotch during his routine. Part of his bit is making a joke about having the alias of "Tater Salad." We were so excited. The show was at Wharton Center at Michigan State, at 10:30 pm, which only meant that Ron would be more liquored up and even dirtier. We even made reservations at Hershey's in East Lansing, which was a restaurant that Brian had always wanted to go to while he was in school, but couldn't afford it.

We left the house at about 7:15 on Saturday, with plenty of time to get where we were going. We had a great dinner, and proceeded over to Wharton. We parked the truck and went inside. All of a sudden we realize that the place was suspiciously empty. Brian tells me to pull out the tickets, which I do. I then realize, with horror, that we are there on the WRONG DAY. The show was the NIGHT BEFORE and we missed it. There are not enough expletives in the English language to express how PO'ed I was. We both had the show on our respective calendars for Saturday the 9th, when it was Friday the 8th, and we have no idea how we made the mistake. And neither of us caught it. Then, to top it all off, we had to drive home from East Lansing in absolute crap weather, all mad at each other, and we missed our Valentine's Day present to each other. Furthermore, we lost out on $90 worth of tickets!

I hope you all have a better Valentine's celebration than we did (although our dinner that night was superb).

The Wii Small Hours of the Morning...

So, Brian and I managed to get our hands on a Nintendo Wii. We got it several weeks ago, with methods that shall remain secret. It looked really fun, and had played it at a friends' house, so we decided we wanted one, and got it. Part of this deal was that if we got one, Brian would get rid of his PS2 and his games, even the newly acquired "Guitar Hero 3" (which he then has permission to buy for the Wii). I do not think it's necessary for two grown people who will have a family soon to have two different game systems. He agreed to the plan.

Okay, I thought I'd like the thing. I did not expect to LOVE the thing as much as I do. The Wii always comes with Wii Sports, where you can play Tennis, Bowling, Baseball, Golf and Boxing with up to 4 people at once. The package we got also had one other game thrown in the mix, and it was the luck of the draw as to what we got. We got the "Shrek 3" game, which is fun enough, I guess. Brian likes being Shrek and wrecking things. In it, you also have Ogre power and you can destroy massive amounts of things at once. So, that's fun.

Getting back to Wii Sports--it is awesome. I love bowling and tennis, and baseball and golf are growing on me. There is also a feature where you can train in the various sports, and then you are put through tests to check your "Wii Fitness Age." My fitness age is consistently lower than Brian's. He can hit the ball hard, but gosh darn it, I have a bit more finesse. I am playing this thing almost everyday for at least a few minutes, and last night after I turned off the light upstairs to go to sleep, I could here him down in the family room, still attempting to bowl strikes. It is wicked fun and awesome to do when you have friends over!

The only problem is that now I go to Best Buy and look at all the Wii accessories and other games that I want to buy. Arg! I do not need to be spending money like that! But the carrying case shaped like a bowling ball bag is awesome and too cute! We'll see what happens there...

Rapa Nui

So, I thought I'd share some pictures from our honeymoon. Granted, it was almost a year and a half ago, but it was way cool. We went to Chile and Easter Island (aka Rapa Nui). We saw the Moai statutes built by the Rapa Nuians hundreds of years ago (the "big heads," as Brian calls them). In case you don't know what the Moai are, one is depicted in the movie "Night at the Museum." It's the guy who says "Hey dum dum, me want gum gum," to Ben Stiller. If you don't know anything about Rapa Nui, check it out. It is an archeological wonder.