I'm on a Bus

Megabus, actually.

Going on hour 11 right now.
Two more to go.
Ugh.

The first leg of the trip was a bit sketchy, but this 2nd one is pretty mellow, and I got my own set of seats for now which is very nice. It means I can spread out and watch True Blood on my laptop, which is a little dicey due to all the nudity (which I notice much more when I'm watching it in public!) but definitely makes the time go faster. Megabus has free WiFi, but it was barely enough to check email, no Hulu or even Pandora so that was a little disappointing, so I'm glad I brought TB4 to catch up on before tomorrow's season 5 premier.

Fingers crossed that I can carve out the time to watch it!

So far Megabus has been tolerable, at least for the price. It would not be my preferred method of travel, but it was a quarter of the price of rail and around and eighth of airfare, so I couldn't expect perfection. I'm hearding 7 high schoolers to a speech/debate tournament, and cost was a big hurdle.

First segment of bus travel was pretty crowded which was a bummer, we were all forced to scatter amongst the remaining open seats and share with strangers. Boo. It was also ridiculously cold, which was unexpected. Then it was really hot for the first hour of this leg of the trip, I guess on the way home layers will be my friend.

Super gross reality of bus travel: the windows are full of strange hair/face grease, especially in the sun, from all the people sleeping against it. Gag gag gag.

Missing my baby, hoping I can enjoy the chance to sleep through the night and take a long bubble bath all by myself (so far I'm just anxious about it).

Bringing Back "Brought Me Joy"

Now that I'm relaxing a bit, and able to realize and appreciate things around me more, I hope to have more time to share those things that are bringing me joy, such as:

Best Ink - a reality show competition in the vein of Shear Genius (hair cutting/styling competition I also loved), but with TATTOOS! I stumbled on to it on HULU and I'm hooked. Almost makes me want to start adding to my back piece...And then I remember how much it HURT, and how much it COST, and I am just happy to watch :)

 

Day 12 - delightfully dirty words from across the pond

I stumbled across this show on Hulu, and I'm hooked. Fun twist on the superhero genre, and excellent British cursing. Misfits:



NSFW! Or kids! Or wankers of any sort! This is actually the 2nd episode of the 2nd season (which I'm just starting to watch as I type this, so it's possible this episode could be awful, who knows), you should really start from the beginning, but I'm too lazy to find that code for you. The theme song is really fun - starts at about 3 minutes in

:)

Cupcakes & Corpses - the 7th day of fun

Remember my "book club?" At one point we actually read books and discussed them, and it was sorta like work even though it was fun to socialize and eat treats at everyone's houses, but then we got an even better idea and just started watching TV. Attendance is at an all time high, and I'd say our discussions are actually much deeper and more analytical now. Particularly since we're watching our "main" interest, TRUE BLOOD.

*swoon*

Season 4 is definitely not disappointing thus far, other than those damn Mickens (yay for dead Mickens!). So I always know that Tuesday nights will bring me joy.

And yesterday was double fun, as I brought some treats to celebrate Al's Bday:



Mmmm...Happiness accomplished!

Five Golden Rings

30 Days of Fun, #5:

Watching Big Love on HBOGO.com



I'm loving HBOGO.com right now - if you have an HBO subscription you log in with info from your provider (Comcast, Dish, Direct TV, etc.) and you can watch a whole host of amazing shows. Of course, there's my favorite - True Blood - episodes from season 4 are posted the day after they air, and episode 2 was posted even BEFORE it aired! There are a lot of movies and HBO original programming (I strongly recommend Hot Coffee, a documentary about the so-called "frivolous lawsuit" movement), and today in particular I'm enjoying:



The ENTIRE SERIES of Big Love is available! Now I'm finally piecing together the seasons I missed and making sense of it all. Well, in between cleaning up carrot puke and rice cereal :)

Raging at Ru...

Ryan tried to explain the awesomeness that is RuPaul's Drag Race to me a while back, but I didn't really get it till I caught an episode this season.



It's FABULOUS.

(duh).

But seriously folks, this show is like a hilarious mash up of Project Runway + America's Next Top Model, powered by drag queens. They start each show in their male personas (including Ru, who is looking rough as a man these days but still makes a FINE lady), do a couple challenges that are sometimes funny and sometimes fall flat, but then they have a larger challenge that so far has been pretty entertaining. The show wraps with a runway performance, where the queens show off their AMAZING self-styled makeup, wigs, and costumes, and of course a lot of attitude. The bottom two are singled out, "Lipsync for their Lives", and one is told to "sashay away." I'm in love.

Or, I was...

till they sent my favorite competitor home this week. Sniff.

Pandora Boxx has the BEST drag name of the bunch, hands down. She wasn't afraid to use humor:



...that's her doing a hilarious Carol Channing for celebrity challenge - while all the other girls chose young hot celebs like Britney, Beyonce, and Pink; Pandora wasn't afraid to sacrifice a little pretty for the laughs.

But speaking of pretty, DAMN! She does woman WAY better than I do (as I sit in my sweatshirt, jeans, and no makeup, eating cookies and swilling Dr. Pepper...).



I hate shaving my legs, let alone all the extra those fellas must be trimming...but I digress...Here's Pandora's alter ego, Michael Steck:



Pandora/Michael was sent home, and I may have yelled at my TV for a while, but I'm guessing she'll pop up again somewhere - possibly a show of her own? It appears Steck is also a writer, and I'd love to catch Pandora's live show. My interest in the rest of the contestants on Drag Race is sort of blah now, but I'll probably keep watching if only to complain and second guess...

It's not delivery...

Remember HouseParty.com? That's the site I won my Amazon Shopping Spree on, but the real purpose is to select "hosts" for various product parties. I've applied for a bunch - craft supplies, books, bacon - and I've finally "won" one! This Sunday we're hosting a "DiGiorno Game Day Believer Pizza Party!" My "party pack" just arrived this weekend:



Isn't that cute? It's not delivery...but it's in a pizza box :) Actually there isn't any pizza in there at all, just coupons for me to go and pick some up (6, in case you are wondering, and a bunch more $4 off coupons for guests), and some party favors:



Somewhere in there is a pizza wheel, magnet, potholder, and of course all those rally beads. The idea is that you throw a playoff party and gnosh on pizza between...innings? quarters? Clearly I care very little about football, so we're shaking our party up a bit. The "man cave", AKA basement will host the aforementioned playoff viewing - which I hear the home team is involved in. Some people care. Other people :)

But the real party is upstairs, where I shall finally be returning to my crafty roots! This is what motivated me to clear out the craft room last weekend. Last year around this time I hosted a Stampin' Up workshop where we made Valentine cards and had a lot of fun - this year I thought I'd do it again, but the timing doesn't work out with my other obligations, so I mashed these two ideas together - and invited non-football-fans over to craft with me. I have plenty of supplies to share, and having people over forces me to actually sit down and use it all. So voila, the football/crafting mash up was born!

This way we all get pizza - will it taste like delivery? I guess we'll find out...I don't usually buy DiGiorno since they're fairly expensive and we either go with super cheap frozen varieties, or actual delivery. I'm actually pretty excited to try a bunch of flavors. And I don't have to sit through football, win-win! I'm looking forward to making some cards, and hope to have a few good ones to show off along with my review of the pizzas next week.

Leprechaun Triathalon

I'm in absolute love with these Garmin commercials. I've watched them 10 times today and it still hasn't gotten old:

Squirrel Version



One for a Knight, off to a fight
Go slay a dragon in a station wagon
No time to lose, free traffic news
Trouble ahead, this way instead
For a leprechaun triathalon
Sight to behold, go for the gold
One for a Yeti, hikes with a teddy
Photo mark the site, come back tonight
One for a Scot, lines up a shot
Swing for the pin
Tiny mandolin
Give a give a give a
Give a garmin
Give a give a give a
Give a garmin

Nutcracker Version



LYRICS:

Turn off the light, closed for the night.
Go hit the town, real scary clown.
Boots to the gas, on over pass.
Nuvi on its perch, Google local search.
Find the cafe, opened yesterday.
There on the right, go grab a bite.
Local event, curling tournament.
Sweep til it burns, follow the turns.
Back to the store, a fuel efficent route.
Yikes there's the clown, on a round-a-bout.
Give a, Give a, Give a, Give a Garmin
Find local trips, at Finger tips.
Garmin (dot) com
Garmin (dot) com

Challenge: Horror Cakes

I love the "Challenge" series on Food Network. They usually center around cake or sugar artists creating huge extreme works of edible art on a theme ranging from baby showers to Christmas. Last night I was OVERJOYED to see the episode titled "HORROR CAKES" - is that not right up my alley?

I watched it in my favorite way - on DVR, so I could buzz through the commercials and all the "coming up next" repetitive nonsense, and I absolutely fell in love with the cake that The White Flower Cake Shoppe created:



Evil killer cupcakes and donuts, and a zombie wedding cake?!?!? I'm in love!!!

The little cupcakes and donutes actually moved too.

Sadly, the judges were against them from the start, they kept saying the cake was too "Dr. Seuss" and "not really horror" which I'm irritated at. Who said Horror = Gore? and who wants to eat a gory cake anyways? I thought White Flower did an amazing job actually making their characters fairly scary, while still appetizing and really well crafted.

In the end a grim reaper riding a chopper won, which is appalling - they admitted it wasn't enough cake to fulfill the rules AND you could see the metal armatures, both violations should have DQ'd the entry let alone kept it from winning.

Miscarriage of justice.

End rant.

If you're lucky enough to live in Ohio, they're selling evil monster cupcakes this week in honor of the show - wish I were close enough to nab one! They also have a blog here.

AWARD WINNING True Blood Paper Doll Cupcake Smackdown

I think I was waiting to crop photos for this post (which I never did), and then forgot about it completely - but now that they were featured on CampBlood, I just had to share one of my "book club" member's craftastic creation: True Blood Paper Doll Cupcake Smackdown!

Confused?

You know I used to be in a book club, and that book club reorganized as a TV watching club ("art film night") watching - True Blood in particular. Each week we'd gather for deep discussions and half naked Ryan Kwanten, cheering of Eric and contemplation of Bill's awful hair.

CampBlood is a website that looks at horror movies and culture, and one of their features is a video blog (or vlog, if you prefer) called "Blood Work" where two hilarious dudes comment on each True Blood episode, and one of said dudes created a line of PAPER DOLLS based on characters of the show.

The paper dolls are fantabulous, and available here. They've even added the long awaited Eric now!

On finale night, Carin brought our group yummy Byerly's cupcakes each decorated with a TB paper doll! She actually colored them by hand when her printer died, how's that for dedication? She mounted each one on a straw like a stick puppet.


To determine which cupcake you got, you drew a "speech bubble" with an excellent quote from the series, and matched them up. We then spent an inordinate amount of time dressing our characters


Well, we dressed SOME of them... like Jason got his boots...


But Sam was just too cute in his "I just shifted back into human form and haven't found my clothes yet" get up:


You can click on the photos for a larger version to read the quotes - which of course we were spouting and impersonating the whole time. More quotes also listed on today's LovingTrueBloodinDallas, and seriously these run through my head all the time as my silent yet hilarious commentary on the world.


She even added an extra character, the "Big-Ass-motha-fucking-Paul-Bunyan-Pig!" and that's the one I got :) He's now chillin' his bacon in my car, and we scream at bad drivers together.


Anyways, as if that wasn't enough, CampBlood also hosted a "cubicle puppet show contest" which Carin entered as well as sent a photo of the "book club" cupcakes, and she was featured on the site today! She didn't win the grand prize, but what an awesome shout out. Carin, you rock! So glad you joined our "book club."

Retro Fun for Everyone

Hello, Internet, sorry I skipped yesterday - it's not that I'm not working on projects - I am knee deep in Halloween actually - but I'm not ready to blow any surprises quite yet ;) So instead here is another diversion: MadMen Yourself!

I love these generators that don't even make you sign in or create a dumb account (and consequently get spammed forever)and this one is adorable! Here I am hanging with the gang at Sterling Cooper. You can also choose a scene from a swingin' bar, an advertising presentation, a torrid mid-day affair, or any number of other backgrounds. Quite fun.

I want to love MadMen, but so far I'm still on the fence. My inner hipster loves the aesthetic, but the storylines are still kind of stunted. There's a big premier party in MN that looks like uber retro fun - viewing, cocktails, prizes - and really isn't everything more fun in costume?. Sadly it's the day after the next bachelorette party and that's hardly ideal...Let's just say I couldn't have survived the era of 3 martini lunches.