If you think the title of this post sounds like a cheesy newspaper headline ... well, I get paid to think up cheesy newspaper headlines, so nyah.
I never got around to carving my Halloween pumpkin, so it has sat on the porch for several weeks as a more general "harvest" symbol. Its physical as well as symbolic longevity was improved by remaining intact, it seems, for it was still hale and hearty when I took it in this afternoon. Inspired by stories of Indians who would fill pumpkins with milk and spices and then roast them, I decided that I, too, would make something of my curcurbit.
So I cut it up into bits and stuck it in the oven at 375. When it's done, I'll puree it and ... I'm not sure what. Maybe I'll make cookies, or possibly muffins. Perhaps both; I think I'll wind up with quite a bit of pumpkin puree. After putting the pumpkin in the oven, I went to the store to pick up some ingredients that might go well with such things (chocolate chips, dried cranberries, apples, etc.), so I have several options. There's something appealing about making pumpkin apple walnut muffins. (Apples, "a-peel-ing"? Oh, dear - pun ABSOLUTELY not intended.) Anyway, if you have suggestions (requests?), do let me know.
11.20.2005
11.18.2005
Oh, bother.
Harry Potter = fun! I still think the third movie is the best, but even if I had despised the movie, the spectacle would have made it all worthwhile.
My group took up half a row in our theater. We got there THREE BLOODY HOURS early; once we had our coats on the seats we could pretty much come and go as we pleased, so we kept making small-group excursions to Barnes & Noble.
It turns out that our idea of making customized shirts was nowhere near unique; we expected a few costumes, but nearly everyone in the show was decked out in anything from a simple striped scarf to full Hogwarts regalia. (One kid dressed as a ninja. Um, OK.) Two guys dressed as Harry and Draco staged a duel in front of the screen.
I think our theater was the first (of eight screens!) to open for ticket sales, meaning all the superfans were in with us. These kids clapped when the lights dimmed and again when the black curtain rolled down to make the screen wider. They clapped for the previews (until it became abundantly clear that the previews sucked hardcore). They clapped for the Warner Bros. logo, and again 10 seconds later for the title screen.
They screamed when Harry took his shirt off.
When I got home I was too pumped up to go right to sleep. I should have curled up with The Inferno or something else that requires enough concentration to tire me out, but no. Instead, I stayed up until 5 sodding a.m. reading Harry Potter fan fiction! (A hex on you, emma blog, for planting the idea in my head!) I got four hours of sleep; if not for my cat's plaintative mewing outside my door, I might have drowsed all day to the tune of my CD alarm clock's current selection, the not-at-all-rousing Garden State soundtrack.
And here's the interesting thing. Cassie Claire's excellent fanfic left me feeling more satisfied than did the movie. Is this a testament to C.C.'s spot-on depiction and expansion of the Harry Potter universe – or even the triumph of written over audiovisual media? (Nah; I probably just like the bits with the snogging.)
Meanwhile, my cat looks just like Mrs. Norris - except for the red eyes. Anyone know of a good feline cantact lens dealer?
My group took up half a row in our theater. We got there THREE BLOODY HOURS early; once we had our coats on the seats we could pretty much come and go as we pleased, so we kept making small-group excursions to Barnes & Noble.
It turns out that our idea of making customized shirts was nowhere near unique; we expected a few costumes, but nearly everyone in the show was decked out in anything from a simple striped scarf to full Hogwarts regalia. (One kid dressed as a ninja. Um, OK.) Two guys dressed as Harry and Draco staged a duel in front of the screen.
I think our theater was the first (of eight screens!) to open for ticket sales, meaning all the superfans were in with us. These kids clapped when the lights dimmed and again when the black curtain rolled down to make the screen wider. They clapped for the previews (until it became abundantly clear that the previews sucked hardcore). They clapped for the Warner Bros. logo, and again 10 seconds later for the title screen.
They screamed when Harry took his shirt off.
When I got home I was too pumped up to go right to sleep. I should have curled up with The Inferno or something else that requires enough concentration to tire me out, but no. Instead, I stayed up until 5 sodding a.m. reading Harry Potter fan fiction! (A hex on you, emma blog, for planting the idea in my head!) I got four hours of sleep; if not for my cat's plaintative mewing outside my door, I might have drowsed all day to the tune of my CD alarm clock's current selection, the not-at-all-rousing Garden State soundtrack.
And here's the interesting thing. Cassie Claire's excellent fanfic left me feeling more satisfied than did the movie. Is this a testament to C.C.'s spot-on depiction and expansion of the Harry Potter universe – or even the triumph of written over audiovisual media? (Nah; I probably just like the bits with the snogging.)
Meanwhile, my cat looks just like Mrs. Norris - except for the red eyes. Anyone know of a good feline cantact lens dealer?
11.17.2005
Not that anyone will even read this tonight ...
... because just about everyone I know is going to the premiere of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire tonight. Yeah!
There is a large group of us. We will be wearing customized T-shirts and not causing a spectacle at all, oh no.
I think I heard Stacie pull up - gotta go!
There is a large group of us. We will be wearing customized T-shirts and not causing a spectacle at all, oh no.
I think I heard Stacie pull up - gotta go!
11.15.2005
A public service message
To whom it may concern:
DO NOT get your black-and-white photos processed at Meijer.
Meijer does not have the equipment to process B&W (gee, in my high school's darkroom you just had to make sure all the color dials were set to 0. Or 100. Whichever. It was like 8 years ago), so they send the photos off-site. This means they take like 10 days to come back - and when they do, you will be charged $15 for a single set of prints.
Learn from my mistakes.
DO NOT get your black-and-white photos processed at Meijer.
Meijer does not have the equipment to process B&W (gee, in my high school's darkroom you just had to make sure all the color dials were set to 0. Or 100. Whichever. It was like 8 years ago), so they send the photos off-site. This means they take like 10 days to come back - and when they do, you will be charged $15 for a single set of prints.
Learn from my mistakes.
11.09.2005
"Sponge-O Sponges: They taste damn spongy!" or, A backhanded compliment for THC
Popsugar reports that my beloved Thomas Haden Church is lookin' all buff for Spider-Man 3. (The movie's official site has a bigger version of the same photo - yay!) He certainly is looking better than he did in Sideways.
Of course, Popsugar also reports that she thought Church's mid-'90s sitcom Ned and Stacey was horrible. Gasp!
Of course it was horrible, dear Pop! All sitcoms are horrible - it's part of their nature. There are only so many witty observations you can tell about three to six people who hang out in one house, one restaurant and one office before the jokes become stale. The test of a sitcom's quality is if it can rise above its inherent predictability and genuinely surprise the audience.
Seinfeld did it with its almost stream-of-consciousness sensibility. Arrested Development does it with a complex, intertwining plot. And Ned and Stacey did it – albiet somewhat less consistently than the first two examples – with its absurdist humor. If the show had taken a chance and forgone the predictable "let's make ironic comments about extramarital sex" jokes in favor of the completely off-the-wall lines usually delivered by Church or seen in the closing credits, the show would have been an unqualified success.
Wow. It's way too early for Media Theory 101. Maybe I'll come back to this post later with some of my favorite lines from Ned and Stacey, or perhaps more THC love.
UPDATE: It's been brought to my attention that the letters THC, besides being the initials for, like, the bestest actor EVER*, are also the initials for a chemical found in something called "mari-juana." If you thought I was making a drug reference before - shame on you! My love for THC is pure and unsullied by any of your human addictions.
*OK, that was hyperbole, but he's still awesome.
Of course, Popsugar also reports that she thought Church's mid-'90s sitcom Ned and Stacey was horrible. Gasp!
Of course it was horrible, dear Pop! All sitcoms are horrible - it's part of their nature. There are only so many witty observations you can tell about three to six people who hang out in one house, one restaurant and one office before the jokes become stale. The test of a sitcom's quality is if it can rise above its inherent predictability and genuinely surprise the audience.
Seinfeld did it with its almost stream-of-consciousness sensibility. Arrested Development does it with a complex, intertwining plot. And Ned and Stacey did it – albiet somewhat less consistently than the first two examples – with its absurdist humor. If the show had taken a chance and forgone the predictable "let's make ironic comments about extramarital sex" jokes in favor of the completely off-the-wall lines usually delivered by Church or seen in the closing credits, the show would have been an unqualified success.
Wow. It's way too early for Media Theory 101. Maybe I'll come back to this post later with some of my favorite lines from Ned and Stacey, or perhaps more THC love.
UPDATE: It's been brought to my attention that the letters THC, besides being the initials for, like, the bestest actor EVER*, are also the initials for a chemical found in something called "mari-juana." If you thought I was making a drug reference before - shame on you! My love for THC is pure and unsullied by any of your human addictions.
*OK, that was hyperbole, but he's still awesome.
11.08.2005
Making time for video games
I walked into Electronics Boutique on Saturday.
I looked through the shelves for used copies of Beyond Good and Evil (did it even come out for the GameCube?) but didn't see it. I wondered if Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix comes bundled with the dance pads. I actually picked up Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.
And then I put it down. How can I spend even $20 on a video game when I've played maybe once in the last month? How can I start a new game when I have 8 or 9 unfinished ones?
It's odd to think of having to "make time" for video games, as though they're an old friend or an improving activity. But it's a hobby I enjoy. I don't want to give it up, but I feel I can't justify continuing to invest in it when I devote so little of my time to it anymore.
So it's 12:30 a.m. I ought to go to bed. But I think I'll spend a few minutes doing odd jobs in Animal Crossing first. Maybe once I pay off my house, I can invest in Harvest Moon.
I looked through the shelves for used copies of Beyond Good and Evil (did it even come out for the GameCube?) but didn't see it. I wondered if Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix comes bundled with the dance pads. I actually picked up Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.
And then I put it down. How can I spend even $20 on a video game when I've played maybe once in the last month? How can I start a new game when I have 8 or 9 unfinished ones?
It's odd to think of having to "make time" for video games, as though they're an old friend or an improving activity. But it's a hobby I enjoy. I don't want to give it up, but I feel I can't justify continuing to invest in it when I devote so little of my time to it anymore.
So it's 12:30 a.m. I ought to go to bed. But I think I'll spend a few minutes doing odd jobs in Animal Crossing first. Maybe once I pay off my house, I can invest in Harvest Moon.
11.07.2005
In the van
"Guess what I found today, Curse Girl????"
My mother had twisted around in her captain's seat so she could look at me. Next to me, a block of dry ice was quickly chilling the three large pizzas we were bringing to Indiana; by the time we reached Bloomington, the pizza closest to the ice would have frozen solid.
My mind raced. Curse Girl? OK, so my mother found something where I curse. What was it??? She didn't sound mad - there was that over-the-top joke-yelling tone in her voice where I've done something she doesn't approve of but isn't truly upset, like if I stay out until 3 a.m. when I have to get up at 7 - so at least I wasn't in any real trouble ...
She answered her own question. "I found your blog!"
Whew. The image of some repository of filthy words attributed to me evaporated. "I've cursed, like, twice on there!" (Wow, I'm getting sick of saying the word "curse.") "How did you find my blog?"
"I Googled you, and there it was. There are a lot of Kelly Hudsons, but you're, like, the second result that comes up!"
"That's because I'm the most famous." Most of the other Kelly Hudsons in the world are college students. "Except for that Kelly Hudson who's a TV anchor in Columbus." Funny story; I attended an SPJ banquet where the other K.H. received an award. I almost stood up myself to collect it.
"I read about your trip to Kings Island, and I saw a picture of your cat."
So the cursing is bad, but the updates on my life are good! I'm starting to see where this is going.
The upshot is, my mom reads this now, so perhaps I'd better keep it down to a PG-rated roar. Hi, Mommy!
My mother had twisted around in her captain's seat so she could look at me. Next to me, a block of dry ice was quickly chilling the three large pizzas we were bringing to Indiana; by the time we reached Bloomington, the pizza closest to the ice would have frozen solid.
My mind raced. Curse Girl? OK, so my mother found something where I curse. What was it??? She didn't sound mad - there was that over-the-top joke-yelling tone in her voice where I've done something she doesn't approve of but isn't truly upset, like if I stay out until 3 a.m. when I have to get up at 7 - so at least I wasn't in any real trouble ...
She answered her own question. "I found your blog!"
Whew. The image of some repository of filthy words attributed to me evaporated. "I've cursed, like, twice on there!" (Wow, I'm getting sick of saying the word "curse.") "How did you find my blog?"
"I Googled you, and there it was. There are a lot of Kelly Hudsons, but you're, like, the second result that comes up!"
"That's because I'm the most famous." Most of the other Kelly Hudsons in the world are college students. "Except for that Kelly Hudson who's a TV anchor in Columbus." Funny story; I attended an SPJ banquet where the other K.H. received an award. I almost stood up myself to collect it.
"I read about your trip to Kings Island, and I saw a picture of your cat."
So the cursing is bad, but the updates on my life are good! I'm starting to see where this is going.
The upshot is, my mom reads this now, so perhaps I'd better keep it down to a PG-rated roar. Hi, Mommy!
10.30.2005
Remember, you have to shoot them in the head.
Prombie II (the prom for zombies, aka Mike's Halloween party) was super-fun, aside from the allergic reactions (to Mike's cat) suffered by poor Edmund. He was coughing so hard at times, I thought he was going to hyperventilate.
I said, "Do you want to go?"
"No -" *hack hack hack hack hack wheeze* "- I'm having fun!" *hack koff koff gasp*
Which, to me, was the best part of the evening - seeing that my delightful boyfriend likes my friends so much that he will brave poisonous dander-filled conditions to spend some time with them.
I would also like to point out that the highlight of Eileen's evening was - yeah, baby! - meeting my man. That makes me happy. So happy, in fact, that I'm allowing some chicken that's sauteing in the kitchen to burn because it's way more interesting to type this than go turn it over.
Aw, crud, I can smell it burning. Be right back.
...
OK.
I can tell you without even asking that the highlight of Edmund's evening was Anne Elisabeth telling him how much she likes the Web site he writes for. He couldn't stop grinning the whole way home.
Would you like to see pictures of the zombie party, taken by my very own boss-man Beryl? Of course you would. If you have questions about the you-had-to-be-there captions, do ask.
(Oh, yeah - did I mention? I have a boyfriend now. More on this story as events warrant.)
I said, "Do you want to go?"
"No -" *hack hack hack hack hack wheeze* "- I'm having fun!" *hack koff koff gasp*
Which, to me, was the best part of the evening - seeing that my delightful boyfriend likes my friends so much that he will brave poisonous dander-filled conditions to spend some time with them.
I would also like to point out that the highlight of Eileen's evening was - yeah, baby! - meeting my man. That makes me happy. So happy, in fact, that I'm allowing some chicken that's sauteing in the kitchen to burn because it's way more interesting to type this than go turn it over.
Aw, crud, I can smell it burning. Be right back.
...
OK.
I can tell you without even asking that the highlight of Edmund's evening was Anne Elisabeth telling him how much she likes the Web site he writes for. He couldn't stop grinning the whole way home.
Would you like to see pictures of the zombie party, taken by my very own boss-man Beryl? Of course you would. If you have questions about the you-had-to-be-there captions, do ask.
(Oh, yeah - did I mention? I have a boyfriend now. More on this story as events warrant.)
10.16.2005
Greetings from Cleveland!
The Holiday Inn Select has free Wi-Fi!
... and a $15-per-night charge to park in its garage.
Oh, well. Nothing's perfect.
Kari and I are heading to the American Copy Editors Society's Ohio workshop today. We'll learn about cutlines, headlines and the problems small papers face - and I'll be participating in something called Grammar Smackdown! (The exclamation point is part of the title, not an expression of my excitememt over the workshop.)
But I am excited. I've been feeling kinda burnt out lately, and ACES events tend to recharge my copy-editing batteries and get me excited about my job again.
Also, Ohio's foliage is at its peak, so the drive back should be purty.
... and a $15-per-night charge to park in its garage.
Oh, well. Nothing's perfect.
Kari and I are heading to the American Copy Editors Society's Ohio workshop today. We'll learn about cutlines, headlines and the problems small papers face - and I'll be participating in something called Grammar Smackdown! (The exclamation point is part of the title, not an expression of my excitememt over the workshop.)
But I am excited. I've been feeling kinda burnt out lately, and ACES events tend to recharge my copy-editing batteries and get me excited about my job again.
Also, Ohio's foliage is at its peak, so the drive back should be purty.
10.11.2005
The masses clamor for updates ...
Seriously, I've got like three Friendster testimonials that just say, "Update your blog already!"
Well, just a little one, to get back in the swing of things.
DVDs in my big damn "To Watch" pile:
- Ned & Stacey
- Gilmore Girls
- Firefly
- Sex and the City
- Arrested Development
- Jesus, don't I watch any movies anymore?
Modern doodads I'm thinking of getting (advice, please!):
- TiVo/DVR
- Netflix
Things on my mind lately:
- Calling 80 restaurants in three days for our dining guide (half of them think you're selling something and hang up on you)
- The American Copy Editors Society's Ohio workshop this weekend (gotta make that hotel reservation)
- Looking for an apartment (why an application fee? shouldn't they be courting me and not the other way around?)
- The OSU/Indiana game next weekend
- Flag football schedules
- Halloween costumes
- Considering taking a few days off and just relaxing for a while
Well, just a little one, to get back in the swing of things.
DVDs in my big damn "To Watch" pile:
- Ned & Stacey
- Gilmore Girls
- Firefly
- Sex and the City
- Arrested Development
- Jesus, don't I watch any movies anymore?
Modern doodads I'm thinking of getting (advice, please!):
- TiVo/DVR
- Netflix
Things on my mind lately:
- Calling 80 restaurants in three days for our dining guide (half of them think you're selling something and hang up on you)
- The American Copy Editors Society's Ohio workshop this weekend (gotta make that hotel reservation)
- Looking for an apartment (why an application fee? shouldn't they be courting me and not the other way around?)
- The OSU/Indiana game next weekend
- Flag football schedules
- Halloween costumes
- Considering taking a few days off and just relaxing for a while
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