hahahahahahahahaha

I was reading on webmd what the warning signs for a heart attack are:

"A sense of impending doom"

I have that feeling every morning on my way into work....

p.s. we're experiencing technical difficulties. please stand by.

Posted by jennj at 04:31 PM | Comments (3)

energy efficient homes

So, if you want to take a tour of a house in the Boston area where the owner has geothermal heating, this weekend is when you can do it. Dang. It's only tomorrow you can do this. I'm booked.

I love geothermal. We visited a geothermal plant when we went to Iceland.

For more information go here. One guy installed his own geothermal for $32,000....but he's a plumber and did all the work himself. Ouch. I'm also curious about how the geothermal heating "from a well dug in back" works....wouldn't you have to replenish the water somehow? How does that work in winter?

Posted by jennj at 09:57 AM | Comments (2)

polar fleece!

First of all, there's a review of Serenity in the free paper, Metro, and everywhere I looked on the train someone had their Metro turned to it so I had to avoid looking at my fellow passengers all morning.

Then, I get to South Station and start transferring to the subway and the subway is temporarily closed due to a medical emergency. So, they're bussing us, but I don't see any busses, except the one that was full when I got to the curb. I wait 10 minutes. Nothing on the horizon that even remotely looks like a bus (and it's bumper to bumper traffic in downtown boston), so I yell, "Anyone want to share a cab to Kendall Square?" $11 split by 3 of us and I only got to work about 25 minutes late....not bad.

And I finally had to break out the polar fleece this morning! I love polar fleece. Mmmmmmm.......

Posted by jennj at 09:16 AM | Comments (7)

almost there

So, as many of you know, I've had a countdown to the Firefly: Serenity movie on my blog for a couple of months. Well, this Saturday, we're gonna go see it (I hope it doesn't suck).

I've seen this on many blogs, so I'm asking here: What's your favorite line from the series? I'm not sure that I can quantify to that level cause there's so many...but...how bout:

Captain Reynolds: And Kaylee, what the hell's goin' on in the engine room? Were there monkeys? Some terrifying space monkeys maybe got loose?

Find a list here.

Posted by jennj at 07:44 PM | Comments (5)

arrrggghhh

You have GOT to be kidding me.

"Brown is still being paid as a consultant to help FEMA assess what went wrong."

Posted by jennj at 03:39 PM | Comments (2)

pre-nup

So, like, I never thought about a pre-nup before nbh and I got married. We don't have enough to make it worth our while, ya know? But I would in this case. Scroll down to read about the couple who have put a down payment for their honeymoon to be on Virgin Galactic. I'm jealous and amused all at the same time....:-)

Posted by jennj at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

anybody else..?

So, did anybody else almost get in an argument last night about the TiVo while watching the opening credits of The Simpsons? We almost did. Nbh was like, "I'm not touching anything." and I'm like, "What are you doing?" And then the realization hit us.....anyone know what I'm talking about? :-)

Posted by jennj at 03:55 PM | Comments (6)

huh

Summerblues is bored, so this post is for you.

Yesterday was freakin' georgous. A perfect day.

We went up to our friend Bill's parents lake house up in New Hampshire yesterday for his Oktoberfest event. There were 6 of us and it was a lot of fun. Lots of beer. Snacks during the day and for dinner Bill made a german potato salad, sauerbrauten and a tomato salad (I did not have any of that). Dessert was a bavarian creme cake made by a pastry chef friend of his. That was kick-ass. And then finally, a nice fire by the lake and we left around 9p.m. to drive home.

Other than that, just been recuperating today. I've got Waking Ned Devine on the telly right now and I'd forgotten just how funny the movie is. Other than that, I got nothing to post. Or at least nothing I want to post publicly. :-)

Update: oh, and Bill's friend Timmy was there, which of course, had us saying "Timmy!" like South Park all day long....poor guy.

Posted by jennj at 04:13 PM | Comments (1)

i'm flip-flopping

I'm not going to go to the advanced screening of Serenity. I woke up this morning with my gut telling me that it would be wrong to go after I had organized a group of fanatics,er,friends to go with me for the regular release and I really do love seeing things with friends and that whole energy around it. Love it.

Posted by jennj at 07:30 AM | Comments (4)

ebert and roeper, watch out!

Screw it. You only live once. I hope that our friends can forgive us for seeing the movie before them. But I signed us up to go do the blog review Serenity sneak peak thing.

Ah, now I can open myself up to ridicule by writing a "movie review" and posing at an "advanced screening" as a part of the "press".

Posted by jennj at 03:00 PM | Comments (5)

i need your help

Okay, thanks to Paul, I've got a dilmena on my hands and I need your help.

They are offering to put BLOGGERS who promise to review the movie Serenity on their blog to be put on the free press pass list for an advanced showing of Serenity.

I've already got plans to see it, Saturday night, October 1, with some close friends.

This would mean I would see it without even non-blogging husband. And in advance of my friends. On the one hand, it would be freakin' awesome to see it _as early as possible_. On the other, there's nothing like seeing a movie, for the first time, with good friends who are also fanatics.

What's a girl to do?

Update: I could have nbh come with me. It appears you can bring a second person. And another downside to seeing it first is that if it sucks, I'm going to have to watch it _again_ on Saturday with my friends. hehehe....

Posted by jennj at 02:39 PM | Comments (2)

my new look!!!!

What do you think of my new, snazzy look?

My wonderful nbh designed it. I loves it.

Posted by jennj at 08:23 AM | Comments (16)

moon shot

We need to lobby that a woman is on the crew (and walks the surface) of the first trip back to the moon since the Apollo missions.

Yeah. I'm tired of men getting to do all the cool shit first.

p.s. But first, we need to lobby Congress for funding, kiddos. Hmm. I may need to start an online petition. Hmm.

Posted by jennj at 07:59 PM | Comments (11)

words fail me....

So, Steve mentioned in my post from yesterday that there are, indeed, words to the Star Trek theme. I decided to investigate. Here ya go:

Beyond
The rim of the star-light
My love
Is wand'ring in star-flight
I know
He'll find in star-clustered reaches
Love,
Strange love a star woman teaches.
I know
His journey ends never
His star trek
Will go on forever.
But tell him
While he wanders his starry sea
Remember, remember me.

Posted by jennj at 01:18 PM | Comments (6)

"emmy idol"

I almost missed it. God, it was close. The biggest train wreck on television and I almost missed it.

But then I was surfing before family guy started and caught the words "emmy idol" and "William Shatner" and...good god, I had to surf the web to see what that was about.

I did. And I TiVo'd it. William Shatner and Frederica von Stade singing the "Star Trek" theme on the Emmys. Now. There's no words to this song. How were they going to manage this god-awful combination? I _had_ to watch.

oh.my.god. It was awful. But I couldn't stop laughing. I almost peed my pants. Oh man. That made my day. If you missed it, find it on the web, I'm sure someone will have it posted somewhere.

Posted by jennj at 10:06 PM | Comments (6)

i love nbh

Do you like my new logo? Non-blogging husband made it just for me to help lift my mood. And because he loves me. And because he rocks. I'm going to play around over the next week or so with style...maybe I'll even change my colors. Don't know. Just very happy with the cool "american chopper" style, baby.

Posted by jennj at 12:46 PM | Comments (12)

i don't know if i'll be posting over the next few days

I found out that a friend in L.A. had a seizure over labor day weekend, combined with 108F temperature for the past who knows how many days and then two days ago had another seizure and is now, officially from the doctor, declared brain dead. This is hard to write. They're removing the life support on Sunday. They have NO idea why this happened or what went wrong. Kelly is only 42 or so years old. He's young. This is freakin' horrible. I do not know if I'll be going out to the funeral when it happens, which I've been told will probably be end of next week. I don't think I'll be able to make it. My sister is crushed, as she was closer friends with him than I am. She's worried that they'll have the funeral after she leaves for our combined vacation (she and jason are leaving a week earlier than us for our Disneyworld trip) on September 30. I wish I could hug her right now. This is when I hate being so far away from family.

Posted by jennj at 10:18 PM | Comments (6)

it's not stupid, it's advanced

oh.my.god people can be stupid.

Can't.deal.with.stupid.coworker.want.to.maim.them.

Thanks for listening.

Posted by jennj at 04:02 PM | Comments (0)

hmm...

Is anybody else noticing that in most of the photos they show of John Roberts is either this stunned, open wide look or the stunned, open wide look with his mouth open?

Or is it just me?

See:
cnn
metro (pdf format, page 1)
and look at this one - does he have kidney stones?

I hope they get this done with soon. We could do worse. I accept that a conservative will be on the court (make that two), he doesn't seem like the worst choice to me.

Posted by jennj at 09:40 AM | Comments (5)

donna and bob's wedding

Saturday, my good friends Donna and Bob got married. Non-blogging husband (nbh) was one of the groomsmen. Donna is the first friend I made when I moved to MA (My friends Joe, Cindy and Paul I knew many, many years before I moved out here).

It was a perfect day for a wedding, with the sun shining brightly, scattered, fluffy white clouds and about 75 degrees.

They got married in a Catholic church and then the reception was at Sturbridge Village. Ceremony and reception were lovely.

More to report later. For now:
Wedding Photos

Posted by jennj at 02:05 PM | Comments (1)

*snort*

via mangoat

Posted by jennj at 02:05 PM | Comments (2)

on my mind

I finally watched Hotel Rwanda.

Spoilers in my "review", so I've done an extended entry.

Sometimes I stay away from emotional, political movies because I just fear that they're going to be a Political Statement and manipulate me to the point where I'm annoyed. Or, I just won't be able to handle it emotionally cause I'll just get so sad about what has happened and at the human race. So, I didn't go see this in the theatre and waited for netflix.

As I put the DVD into the player, I was emotionally steeling myself for a Political Statement. But this movie surprised me. Deeply surprised and moved me.

I actually sobbed and gasped out loud when Paul Rusesabagina puts his kids on the truck out and at the last minute stays behind to continue to help. I surprised myself and was secretly glad nobody was around to hear it. I knew he was going to stay, that was obvious, but I still sobbed.

The thing is, this movie was about a normal person. A reluctant hero. He didn't want this and avoided it at the beginning. He believed in his government. He thought they would be sane and take care of him. But as he kept having to bribe the Hutu to save these people, you could see his faith eroding. He quietly led everyone. He didn't provide inspiring speeches that took up 10 minutes in the movie (you know what I'm talking about). He was clever. He looked the rebels with guns in their hands in the eye and lied to them in order to save these people. Each time, I kept thinking: will they shoot him dead?

Yet, even though his faith was eroding in his government and the UN, he still believed that there was good out there. That the UN may help. That the owners of the hotel would help (and they did...that was lovely). That as the refugees called family and friends in other countries that someone, somewhere would take them in. And they did.

I also felt that the movie did a good job of portraying just how horrible things were. When Rusesabagina and one of his staff are driving in the fog and then find out that the bumps they were encountering on the road was them driving over dead Tutsi, it made me ill. I have not read any books about what happened in Rwanda. Only memories of the news stories when these events occurred. So I can't speak to fact or fiction in the movie. I don't care, because at least two things are true: this guy helped these people and about 1 million Tutsi's were killed. For the most part, again, this movie is about Rusesabagina and his refugees. And people rising to the occasion.

This is a good film and I highly recommend it. I cried during most of it. Have a box of tissues ready.

Posted by jennj at 12:26 PM | Comments (5)

hell is...

Hell is sitting on a plane next to two insurance agents/adjusters talking about insurance claims for katrina. My god what a boring industry. My god what a cold, cruel industry.

Yes, at 4p.m EST yesterday, I had to book a last-minute flight to San Antonio for a meeting tomorrow, Thursday. I come back around 11pm tomorrow night. Yeah. Jeebus.

Posted by jennj at 08:18 PM | Comments (7)

i mostly know what to say. mostly.

This weekend. Where does one begin? Devo, Jen, Iwan, Deb, nbh and I headed to Mess and Annie's house for base camp. A day trip to Nantucket and then much gaming and drinking for the rest of the weekend.

I really liked the beer, spirits and wine tasting on Nantucket at Cisco Brewery. Worth every cent, as the French say. Thank god we didn't rent those scooters. And I still say that nasty stench was Child Stink(tm). I'm just sayin'. 6 out of 8 of us had never been to Nantucket, which was kinda cool and to make it an even better trip, the weather was perfect. It's a lovely place and I wouldn't mind going again.

Sunday, those of us who didn't go to the Farrell's for bbq hanging out, had margaritas for lunch. I think mess is right, we did not use enough Tequila. However, I was definitely feeling a buzz.

The Clear Flour Bread Bakery is freakin' amazing. It's tiny, you need to get there when they open and make sure you try their Pain au Chocolat. We got there at 9:07 (they open at 9) and there was already a line.

And I'm still not sure that I know what the appropriate amount of male crotch violence (don't worry, work safe) in a movie should be for a PG-13 versus an R rating. I believe we left that as an open debate as we all departed today.

Posted by jennj at 07:11 PM | Comments (3)

all the news that's fit to print

So, the latest banter with Paul has got me wondering: Where do YOU go to get your news? Cause my list keeps dwindling....

NOTE: I will not tolerate attacks on people's choices (assuming anyone shares...:-). If you want to laugh at their "stupidity for trusting x", then laugh alone, not here.

I'm genuinely interested in trying to get more on my list. Thanks for sharing!

Some of mine: BBC News, CNN/Money, NPR.....

Posted by jennj at 08:39 PM | Comments (17)