Uh-Oh

Last year sometime, we bought a Wii, partly because it's cool and everyone has one, partly because it's more active than watching TV. We have a few games, but some of them are either too sedentary, or the family pretends they are. And Wii Sports can only go so far before you get bored, you know?

So this week we went and got Wii Sports Resort. And OMG.

1. I killed 2 hours today playing. What? Deadline? Yeah, I'm on track. Just have a little bit more to do today. What do you mean it's not today anymore?!

2. To use another definition of the verb, I kill at swordfighting. Not the platform. And not the speed slicing, though I love that. J just has faster reflexes than I do (but not faster than Number Two). No, I slice through my opponents on the swordmaster one like they're butter. My level is over 500 already, and I just started today.

3. While I suck rotten ostrich eggs at anything to do with frisbees and am only passable at basketball and archery, I am a MASTER at wakeboarding. Okay, not Master with a capital M. I'm 52 points behind Number Two. But it was gratifying to beat J at it after he slaughtered me on frisbee golf. It told me to give up. Srsly!

4. My right arm is going to fall off. It aches right now, shoulder to elbow, and it's that kind of crampy, deep-seated ache you know will mean when I get up in the morning it won't move. And if I force it, you'll hear the screams in Transylvania.

5. I wonder how good I am at left-handed swordfighting?

Five Things Make a Post

CE Murphy is always saying that on her blog, and I keep thinking of little things to post, and that sounded more interesting to put in the subject line than something generically random.

1. I have a vacation story I forgot to tell. It's not that unique, but still amazing. We were down in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, near the Great Smoky Mountains, right on the edge of the national park, and nearly 600 miles from home.

So on Wednesday night of last week, I was walking back to our cabin from the pool. There's a couple sitting on the porch of the cabin next to ours, and the guy calls out to me. A few questions about our hot tub, our grill, etc. I, cold and wet and anti-social, kept trying to escape into the cabin, but he kept calling out to me. Finally, he asked where we're from.

Me: "Pennsylvania."

Him: "Us, too!" Before I can ask, he adds, "Harrisburg area!"

Okay, that's freaky, so I stop and actually give him my attention. "So are we!"

Together: "Mechanicsburg!"

Turns out, they live literally about a block away from us. Their street is behind our house, on the other side of the parallel street. He had his granddaughters with him, and Number One had come outside when she heard me yelling across, so he asked how old my girls were. Turns out...his younger granddaughter and Number One hang out in the mornings before school.

I apologized to him for being so rude. I told him if I was never going to see him again I wouldn't care, but since I could run into him at the grocery store... He didn't really listen, so I don't think he even noticed my rudeness.

2. I'm going to say something I never thought I'd say. In fact, some of you may think this isn't me, that my blog's been hijacked.

Scratch that. Very few of you will have any idea what I'm talking about. Where's Kim W. when I need her?! Oh, well, I'll say it anyway.

Terrell Owens has earned my respect.

I know. Totally O.o and :o and whatever the emoticon is for "are you out of your freakin' mind?"

You may know I really, REALLY don't like reality TV. I don't watch any, and never have. But on vacation, the kids wanted to watch Super Stars, and I was reading in the same room (family togetherness, 24/7) and got...well, hooked. It's going to be a regular Tuesday-night family date now.

The premise of the show is that a celebrity gets paired with an athlete. The kids wanted to watch because their favorite dancer from DWTS, Maks, is one of the celebrities. And it's a really fun show, with fun personalities. All except one. And no, that one is not Terrell Owens.

T.O. is the most loudmouthed, obnoxious member of the NFL. He is arrogant, disruptive to every team he is on...and, unfortunately, talented enough to make them tolerate it. But on Super Stars, he's met his match.

His partner is some supermodel I've never heard of. She spends all her time pooching her lips and smoothing her hair off her face. She wore goggles in one of the events--the only person who did--so she wouldn't mess up her eye makeup. And she continuously harangued her partner.

EVERY other team was supportive of each other, no matter how poorly they did, and even of other teams. By last night's show, the second round of competition, there was true camaraderie among everyone--except her. She is so friggin' SNOTTY. They got eliminated in the first round, but due to injury were brought back. No matter how poorly she does, everything is T.O.'s fault. She drops non-stop F-bombs, says "you call yourself an athlete?" and "you're not worth the millions they pay you" and so on. She's HATEFUL.

And here's why I respect T.O. He's totally the kind of guy who can give as good as he gets. But it wasn't that kind of environment, and he NEVER said anything back to her. He tried, very hard, to be a good sport, to cheer her on, to be a team player. He took her crap and refrained from whacking her upside the head, which I, a non-violent person most of the time, felt was completely justified. The worst he did was say, "I feel sorry for your boyfriend" as they walked away and he probably thought they were off camera.

Good for you, T.O. Impressive stuff.

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Okay, well, 5 things can't make a post when you're this long-winded. Plus, I can't remember what else I was going to post about. Hope I wasn't too boring--I promise, tomorrow I'll be shorter and more interesting. I think.

Latsa Stuff

Number Two has become something of a sports addict. Instead of turning on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, she flips to the Big Ten Network. I hit the "Now Playing" menu of the TiVo, and find college softball, NBA playoffs, and tennis.

And now, she has truly gone over to the dark side.

She's watching hockey.

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Speaking of sports...

I've just read a bunch of stuff about the Patriots, and the transcript of Belichick's interview, and reports about Matt Walsh and the absolutely ridiculous assertion by Arlen Specter (a senator for my current state) that Congress should get involved in the whole investigation. I agree 110% with Kennedy (a senator for my former state) that we have a few more important things for Congress to be doing right now.

(For the record, I never felt Congress should be spending so much time on the baseball thing, either.)

This is the thing that impressed me the most, however. It's common to see a simple, unemotional retraction or regret for a journalism error. It's really rare to see something this complete and heartfelt. Kudos to Tomase. I wish him luck recovering.

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Number Two had a soccer tournament today. She came home soaking wet and shuddering with cold, due to 50-degree weather and pouring rain. She took a long, hot shower and put on wintery fleece PJs. Two hours later she was in shorts and a T-shirt while we played catch in the sun and 70 degrees.

Welcome to April May in Pennsylvania.

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I am home from retreat. I might post some pictures this week, once I get them uploaded, but a lot are not for public viewing.

We had tons of fun, laughed our a$$es off, ate too much great food we didn't have to cook or clean up, and were very productive.

Due to some editing of my novella and talking far too much too my roommate, I didn't have the most output this year. But I did get around 22/23,000 words written and wrote an entire novella in a day and a half. We did a cemetery run and had ghost cats in our room. Last year Megan dreamed someone was trying to shove her out of bed. This year it succeeded (in the dream) by pulling her big pillow out and dragging her with it.

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I also would have likely gotten more writing done if we hadn't watched the season finale of Supernatural. Twice. Megan recorded it for us, and we watched it when she arrived Friday afternoon, and again after we went out for drinks Friday night.

Oh, my thoughts on it? How kind of you to ask!

In stream-of-consciousness order:

1. You could tell Kripke wrote it. There are a lot of really good writers on the show, and I know every script has some collaboration to it, but there was just the perfect combination of awesome lines (Antichrist superstar...Hell's other bitches...shut your piehole...totally should have been rocking "Eye of the Tiger" right there...and several more) and heartfelt emotion and violence and gore and creepiness and saving people, hunting things...I could go on and on but I'm getting tedious, I think.

2. You could tell Kim Manners directed it. Of course, there are also many good directors who have done the show. But Kim Manners just seems to get Kripke's vision, and he pulls the best performances from the guys and the guests, and he sets up great shots and times everything really well.

3. That little girl has a great future, if she wants it. MAN was she creepy! Her switches from dark to normal little girl were spot on.

4. It looks like we might be done with Ruby, or at least done with Cassidy playing Ruby. I mean, Bobby did shoot her in the chest.

5. I loved every minute of the show and can't wait to see it again tonight. DH hasn't watched yet, so I get an excuse. Not that I need one. :)

6. Dean getting shredded by an invisible hellhound was worse than seeing him impaled on a meathook, but not worse than seeing him crying for Sammy to help him.

7. Sam being able to block or withstand Lilith's power was AWESOME. I hope when Dean comes back from Hell, he had just enough time there to have some power of his own. That would be even awesomer!

8. Leave it to Kripke to turn something as piercingly exciting as Dean and Sam singing Bon Jovi into something piercingly painful. God, it hurt to hear Sam obliviously singing along, having reluctantly bought in to the abandonment of the song, as the lyrics hit home for Dean. Gah. *iz ded*

9. Watching with five other people is SO MUCH FUN. We screamed and squealed and moaned, and Megan pointed out yet again how freakishly often Sam says Dean's name, and they giggled over the bush in the middle of nowhere, the one with side mirrors, that no one would ever be suspicious of. (I wonder if that was a tribute to something? I mean, why bother hiding it? They were in a town. They could just park it in a 7/11 lot or something.)

10. Eighteen weeks is far, far too long to go without the boys. All I can say is that an actor's strike had really, REALLY better not happen. Suck it up, AMPTP!