That Son of a B**** Ferris Buellered Me!

This weekend was full of much needed relaxation. Friday night we headed up to Tinseltown to see Little Miss Sunshine, which was very dark but very funny. Saturday we ordered a pizza, drank some beer and hung our heads as we watched the debacle that was the PSU/OSU game. We rounded out the weekend but renting Lucky Number Slevin (not bad) and heading to my parents' house for dinner.

With both of us being so busy lately, we haven't had time to do much besides work and do classwork, but we have managed to get in a little TV time to unwind. The only new shows we've caught have been Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Smith. Studio 60 is great and it is wonderful to have Aaron Sorkin's writing back on TV. Smith was pretty good, it's a drama about art thieves a la The Thomas Crown Affair, but without Renee Russo needlessly prancing around naked.

New for me this season is My Name Is Earl and The Office, both of which I just began watching over the summer and am now beginning the fall season as a new viewer. On another comedy note, Comedy Central is now showing Scrubs nightly with back-to-back episodes to which I say ROCK ON!

Is There Anybody Out There?

Hello...is there anybody out there? Just nod if you can hear me...is there anyone home? Sorry, brief Pink Floyd moment there. I haven't blogged in about eight hundred years and this was brought to my attention recently by one of probably about two people who ever come here. How does nine months pass by so quickly? Anyway...

Mike's 30th birthday was a couple of weeks ago and much fun was had by all (except for the part where he vomited). He partied like a 20 year old and was hungover like a 30 year old. Some friends and family came into town and we all had a nice dinner at the Pie in the Sky and then barhopped in a limo.

Last weekend, we went to the Penn State/Youngstown State game in Happy Valley. It was a great day for a game and it was fun to introduce my dad to the Penn State tailgating experience. A lot of my family attended the game, as my cousin plays for Youngstown State.

Hopefully this weekend was be pretty low key, I could use some down time and I have pages and pages of tax law to get through for my class. Woo Hoo!

A Few More Grey Hairs

After staying up waaaaaaaaaaaaaay past my bedtime to watch the Orange Bowl last night, I awoke this morning very tired and probably with a few more grey hairs as Penn State had me so anxious last night. Losing Tony Hunt to an injury in the first play of the game really hurt and kept the game neck and neck into triple OT. I was sick to my stomach the whole second half, probably partly due to eating too much spinach dip and shrimp cocktail, but mostly because I wasn't sure if we could pull it out.

Now it's on to the Rose Bowl tonight, which I'll probably either watch or at least flip to occasionally. I'm hoping USC trounces Texas, because I hate Texas. I'm also pleased that Ohio State beat Notre Dame, but because even more than Texas, I HATE NOTRE DAME! Besides the fact that I HATE NOTRE DAME, I was also happy about Ohio State's win because I always root for the Big Ten in the bowl games. Wins in bowl games by Big Ten schools lends our conference street cred and will hopefully give all Big Ten teams higher rankings next season in the various polls against Notre Dame's constantly inflated rankings.

Under The Sea

Who would have known that watching an uninhabited fish tank would be so exciting? One of my Christmas presents this year was a ten gallon aquarium from my husband. We spent last evening shopping for all the necessary fish accoutrements and setting up the aquarium. Now we are antsy because we have to wait a week for the tank's water to stabalize before we can introduce any fish to their new environment. We've been watching the filter process the water, the temperature rise on the exterior tank thermometer, and the live plants wave around. We're anxiously awaiting Thursday when we become official fish parents!

What Doesn't Kill You...

What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, right? That's usually my theory when it comes to spending the holidays in New Jersey with my in-laws (I'm kidding, Mike!...for the most part). New Jersey is actually my current blogging location, typing away in Mike's parents' house on Christmas night. It was a jammed-packed weekend, but we got to see most all of Mike's family on both sides, so what little time we had was efficiently spent.

The most relaxing part of the weekend was Christmas Eve afternoon. Mike, my brother-in-law Chris, and I headed down to the boardwalk in Ocean City for lunch to have some of the best pizza I've ever had at Mack and Mancos. I try to have at least two slices every time we're down at the shore and we always wash it down with Birch Root Beer...yummy yummy! You just can't get pizza this good in Erie. Afterwards, we walked the boardwalk in the sunshine and watched the surfers. We spent the rest of the afternoon pumping quarters into various games in one the arcades on the boardwalk. It was a good time had by all.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas with their loved ones! Happy Holidays!

Saturday Morning Sidenote

Just as a sidenote, I just wanted to say that I am uncomfortable with both the physical size of the scary-ass King in the new Burger King ads and also with the phrase "Kong-sized Whopper".

Even Better Than The Real Thing

Last night, Mike and I made the the 100 mile jaunt to nearby Cleveland, Ohio to see U2 for their stop on the Vertigo Tour at the Quicken (formerly the Gund) Arena. The last time I had the chance to see U2 was in May 1997, a day before my 18th birthday, in Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh when they were on their Popmart Tour. I was amazed then by their show and was blown away last night. They've only become better since the last time I saw them.

Their visual effects were incredible. In watching their setup, both Mike and I thought that their stage design seemed simple, but when the the lights came up, WOW! It was a blinding and colorful three song punch, with In The City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, and Elevation and the show just kept building from there to a fervent climax of Sunday Bloody Sunday, Love and Peace or Else, and Bullet the Blue Sky.

One of the highlights of the show was when they played Miss Sarajevo, a song that they had recorded with Luciano Pavarroti. Bono sang Pavarroti's operatic parts and I was really surprised he could sing those lower, stronger notes.

The show was also full of nods to John Lennon in honor of the 25 year anniversary of his death that was this past week. The band touched on Help!, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, Happy Xmas (War is Over), and an full performance of Instant Karma during one of the two encores. Overall, they played for 2 1/2 hours. It was well worth the money and the driving to see.