Russ the Rock Legend

LOL. I couldn't help it. I just had to tell all of you that Russ just beat Guitar Hero III on Hard. Go Russ!

Fido

If ever a movie was produced specifically for me, Fido would be it. It's got the '50s-style kitschy setting, the dark humor and zombies(!), all seemed aimed right at my weird-movie-loving heart.

The opening montage is fabulous. America has fought and won the Zombie Wars, and domesticated the undead, so that now the average citizen lives a lifestyle of relative ease, with tedious manual tasks relegated to rotting corpses with electric collars around their neck that keep their urge for flesh in check. Enter our hero, Timmy, a friendless runt of a kid with a father obsessed with death and terrified of zombies. (Dad is played by Dylan Baker, who I will always, unfortunately, associate with his creepy role as the child-raping dad in Happyness.) Timmy's mother buys the family a zombie, because they are the last family on the block who doesn't own one, and she hates to feel like she doesn't fit in. Lacking actual friends his age, Timmy names their new zombie Fido, and quickly develops a rapport with him.

Of course things can't stay that simple, and a la Dead Alive, Timmy's zombie breaks loose and kills a nasty old neighbor-lady. Rather than see his pet zombie destroyed, Timmy moves into damage-control mode and tries to cover up the crime, which of course results in a neighborhood-wide outbreak of zombies.

If you liked Ed and His Dead Mother, or Dead Alive, or Shaun of the Dead, this is a movie you'll probably enjoy. I loved it. It's been definitively entered into the "To Buy" list.

Not Panicky Under Pressure!

Who would have thought I'd actually have a reason to use the 'life threatening situations' tag so soon after Livvy created it?

Roy has had a runny nose for the past few days. Last night he slept poorly all night and when he woke up at 6am this morning, he had a fever. Tylenol brought it down for a little while, but he was breathing really fast, and the fever came right back up within a few hours. So I called the Dr. As luck would have it, the Dr's office closes early on Wednesdays, so all I got was the stupid answering service. I made them page Dr. Stonerock, and received a call back within a few minutes. Fever over 103, fast breathing, lethargic, not responding to Tylenol... Dr. says take him to emergency room just to be on the safe side.

So with less than ten minutes before I was supposed to give a presentation to the entire AOL Channels dev team on the project I'm leading, I had to IM my boss with "Can't do presentation. Have to go to emergency room. Tell them I'm sorry. Bye." And we were off.

Luckily, there wasn't anyone ahead of us when we arrived, and we were seen immediately. And that's where the fun began. Dose of Motrin to bring the fever down (BTW - I didn't know this, but you can mix Tylenol and Motrin together to get better fever control - just alternate the doses every 3 hours.) Probe in the butt to take Roy's temperature - 3 different times over the course of the visit, and boy he hated that! Tie a pulse sensor to his toe that I had to spend the next 3 hours trying to keep him from removing. Stick him with an IV to 'rehydrate' him, even though he'd already polished off 4 sippy cups that morning. X-Ray his chest - which Russ got to take him in for, and I could hear Roy screaming down the hall, since they had to strap him down to do it.

Finally, the verdict comes in, and Roy has pneumonia. Dose of antibiotics through the IV, and then wait another half hour after that for the nurse to come back and remove it, and the tape removal resulted in much screaming and crying as well. Four hours straight of keeping the kiddo from ripping out the IV or the pulse sensor and trying to keep him from full-on hysterics, which largely entailed pacing a two foot area and swaying with the kiddo in my arms. Damn but my back hurts now!

So now Roy is on both Tylenol and Motrin and antibiotics for the next ten days. I'm proud to say I didn't cry once. We'll be staying in and taking it easy for the next week or so, though.

Spoon!

Wow, but this has been just crazy times for me lately. Today was the first day I've had to even look at blogs or catch up on news... and I'm glad I did, because here is a real gem of an article for you: It's The Tick! (well, more like American Maid) In real life!

SO YOU'VE DECIDED to become a real-life superhero. Like Wolverine, you've chosen a secret identity and a uniform. But unlike the X-Man, you don't have retractable claws or a mutant healing factor. How do you make up the difference?

Most Reals use a combination of martial arts and weaponry. The Eye is a 49-year-old crimebuster from Mountain View, California, who wears a Green Hornet-inspired fedora and trench coat. Though he focuses mainly on detective work and crime-tip reporting, he prepares himself for hand-to-hand combat by studying kung fu and wielding an arsenal of light-based weapons designed to dazzle enemies. ...

Once you've honed your body and strapped on your utility belt, it's time to decide how to focus your heroic efforts. Within the community of Reals, there's a buffet of choices. Some choose mundane tasks—The Cleanser strolls around picking up trash, while Direction Man helps lost tourists find where they're going. Most Reals also lend their personages to charities, donating to food banks or organizing clothing drives.

So... if YOU were going to don a costume and be a REAL, who would you be?

New Years Resolutions!!

Everybody else has to do it too :). So here they are. My 2008 New Years Resolutions (in order of importance to me):

1. To not talk bad (or even think bad and if I do to stop it immediately) about people and especially not to hate on them.
2. To exercise consistently and get a Jessica Beal like body.
3. To pay off my credit card AGAIN (guh), and then start large payments on my student loans.
4. To graduate from College :). FINALLY!! This is actually really important to me, but I put it farther down on the list because it's pretty much a given.
5. To buy a house. Again, it's farther down on the list because I WILL BUY A HOUSE THIS YEAR!!!

K. Toodles :)!!

Panicky under pressure!!

So, I had an interesting weekend. I experienced something that I've never experienced before. I was rudely awakened at 8am on Saturday, after only 4 hours of sleep to an extremely loud buzzing noise. After about 30 seconds of it going off, I go "Nick, what the hell is that?" He mumbles, "I dunno." 30 more seconds pass by and I "NICK!! What the fuck?" At this point I thought he was pulling some mean prank on me, but he just mumbles "It's probably them." I'm thinking to myself "them who?" But, slowly I become more sensible and realize that the noise isn't just coming from only my apartment, but is surrounding us. So I go to the window, wondering if there's anything outside, like construction or something. Low and behold, I peak through the blinds and the entire building is on fire. Flames are licking up the whole outside of the apartments catty corner to mine and all I can see is FIRE and black smoke. With my over active imagination, I automatically think, "oh my god, the building is on fire, it's going to crumble, maybe explode (what with the oil tank being RIGHT next to where the fire is)! Then I launch into motion. I go "Nick, the buildings on fire, we have to get out of here." He launches out of bed and goes "What!?!" I'm stumbling around pulling on jeans and a robe. When I can't find the tie for the robe, I pull my coat on over it to secure it and then I go get the cat carrier. We only have one though which I see as a problem. Nick's just standing in the room staring at the clock (from my view point anyways) and I go "Nick what are you doing?!" We have to get the cats!!" Nick goes "I'm trying to get ready" And I go, "Oh my god, where's Pinky? Where's Stabby? I think I'm going to have a heart-attack..." So, Nick start looking for Pinky and I do too, without any success, but Nick finds them both behind the couch. Pinky, being spotted, runs for the room, and I trap him behind the hamper and grab him up to my chest in a grip that he was NOT getting away from. Nick's putting his shoes on in the living room and I go "Nick, why don't you have Sebastian? Wah!!" Nick goes, "I'll get him, I just need to get my shoes on..." I go "leave it and get the cat!" I guess Nick does what he wants anyways because he was definitely wearing shoes and socks when we got outside, but in my panicked state he did what I wanted and we trapped Stabby in the bathroom where Nick picked him up. He goes over to the one carrier and goes, "let's put them both in here," but I'm like..."No! I can smell the smoke! We have leave now." Nick goes..."this is how we lose our cats." But, we both head out the door and to the stairwell, where much more calmer individuals are walking down the steps. I guess they didn't have the vantage of the fire that I did, since it was directly in front of our apartment.

By the time we got outside, the fire department had it under control and pretty much put out. But, man was I scared!! Nick was definitely more in control than I was. You never know what you'll do in those situations, but now I know that I panic and definitely would've stayed in the apartment until I got our cats, fire or no! They kept us outside for 3 hours and then let most everyone else go back inside. 4 or 5 apartments were completely ruined by the fire, but ours was ok. It's scary to think about, but living in an apartment/condo building definitely has its risks. Like, anyone could burn down your house and ruin your life... I am much more motivated to buy my own house now. At least then if anything happened it would be my own damn fault.

I have a picture, post fire, but can't upload it right now. If I remember I will!