I did a bad, bad thing

Things have been quiet here lately in Melz World, and I'm a bit ashamed to admit why.

I'm LOST.

Well, not really. I don't know what has possessed me, but I've started watching Lost this week.

From the beginning.

Did y'all realize that this show is currently in its FIFTH season? That means I have FIVE seasons to catch up on. All my spare computer time this week has been taken up with watching past episodes online.

I'm more than halfway through the first season, y'all.

Now, Jason has mocked me. He's all, "You do realize they get off the island, and then they go back to the island, and …" (This is where I stick my fingers in my ear and I'm all "La la la I can't HEAR you!")

He's gleaned this bit of knowledge from an episode we caught the last few minutes of the other night. Yes, I know that they get off the island. Yes, I know they go back.

No, I don't need any more spoilers right now!

I know the plotlines are probably going to go from the ridiculous to the sublime. I don't care. It's good enough right now, and that's good enough for me.

It's just that sometimes, when I'm on a couple-hour marathon, I kind of wonder to myself, what have I gotten myself into?

I'm hooked, and I have to know what's going to happen to these characters next. It's hopeless. I'm a LOST cause.

Lost, I wish I could quit you!.

Y'all, I just had to blog about this.

Here I sit, my belly full of barbeque brought home from the auction, and a light dusting of snow (snow!) outside.

And I turn on the TV, and this is what greets me. Toddlers and Tiaras.

I watched it a few nights ago, and I thought maybe the folks I was seeing on it were flukes. Surely, there are only a handful of parents and kids out there like this, right?

Right?

Wrong.

Last time, one of the families was a black lesbian couple from Jackson, Miss., with three girls. The two older girls, who were about 4 and 7, were the ones competing.

They made all their own pageant clothes, and y'all, I watched the two moms (along with their fashion designer/stylist friend) spend more at Hobby Lobby on stuff to make a couple of dresses than I pay in rent each month! And not to be judgemental - but they were obviously living in public housing.

Another family from my last viewing had two girls, the older one a confirmed tomboy and the younger the classic girly-girl. I kind of wondered if the mom pushed the younger to compete because of some deep-seated, subconscious resentment that her older daughter wasn't "girly" enough.

(Because I know NOTHING about tomboy daughters, of course.)

*coughfightswithdaughtertowearadresscough*

I was disappointed mostly with the attitudes/actions of the parents. After all, the kids are just doing what they've been programmed to do.

Like, say, wear false teeth because it's obviously not acceptable for a six-year-old to have a gap where she's lost her tooth. Or, prance around on stage in skimpy outfits and shake what their mamas gave them just a few short years before.

Today, there is a two-year-old whose father makes her pageant wear and is obviously more interested in her winning than she is. There are also several mothers competing against their daughters for the grand prize.

There are hair pieces, and fake tans, and false eyelashes.

I honestly don't know how these folks afford their "hobby" - the grand prize is only about $1,000 - $5,000 cash, and they've got to be spending much more than that on lessons, and spray tans, and spangly dresses. Not to mention travel to the pageant, and staying the weekend at the hotel!

Just for the sake of argument, I asked Anna Marie what she'd do if I tried to dress her up and put her in a pageant.

"I'd run away," she answered, not missing a beat.

Yeah, I think I'd run away too. Far, far away.

I finally did it.

I joined Facebook last week.

Go on. Check if you don't believe me.

(Well, you can only check if you already have a Facebook account. But if you don't have one, you can get one, and then you can check.)

Back? Good.

I don't know what made me do it - I think it was all the people complaining about the "new" Facebook as opposed to the "old" Facebook. And quite honestly, I don't know the difference since I joined after the change, so it isn't a big deal to me.

(Another thing I joined several years late - Arrested Development. On Hulu. Why did I never watch this show when it was on?)

(Come to think of it, why did no one watch this show when it was on, causing it to be prematurely cancelled? And when did Jason Batemon get to be such a good actor? But I digress.)

Back to my point - I now have a Facebook. Complete with pictures. And friends. And Flair! Even some Flair that has Anna Marie's picture on it - how cool is that?

Is it wrong to admit that I'm actually kinda enjoying Facebook? That I wish that I'd made the plunge a long time ago, just like I wish I'd watched Arrested Development a long time ago.

If loving them is wrong, I don't want to be right.

You know what I'm doing tonight.

Bonding with the SciFi geek I've been married to for nearly 10 years now over the new season of Dr. Who.

Yeah, baby. You know it.

Lifetime, how could you?

How could you take a perfectly good book - nay, a great book, and butcher it so completely?

When I heard you'd made a movie of The Memory Keeper's Daughter, I was so excited! I ran into my office and told Cathy, who was listening to the book on CD at the same time I was reading it. We finished about the same time, and she was excited too.

I recorded it Saturday night, but waited an extra two days - two days - to make sure I had ample time to watch it uninterrupted.

Man, I don't know if Cathy saw your movie, but I bet if she did, she's as disappointed as I am.

Shame on you! I understand having to condense things - I did sit through all three installments of The Lord of the Rings - but really, you just started making stuff up there after a while.

And - and! Leaving out some very pivitol plot points to boot.

The ending? You took it from a bittersweet moment to a full-on sapfest.

Oh, Lifetime. I expect so much more from a group of folks who loves The Golden Girls nearly as much as I do.

I hope you've learned your lesson this time. Don't let me catch you doing this again.

I just could not resist this

And by "this" I mean "showing what a huge Sci-Fi geek my husband has transformed me into in just 10 short years."


see more crazy cat pics

Just 10 more days!

(For those of you not fortunate enough to have a Dr. Who-obsessed husband, that little thing is a Dalek - one of the worst things you'd ever hope to meet in a dark alley.)

(Oh, and that's the joke - they aren't that small in the show - they're about seven feet tall.)

(Dude. I just totally overexplained this thing.)

My desperate attempt

To convince you to watch this show.



(Not you, Linda!)

It was love at first sight

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm hooked.

On Pushing Daisies.

Really. No joke.

I was flipping through last night, and came upon it, and I thought, "Hmm. This looks interesting. I think Linda (a.k.a. Doodlebugmom) thinks it's cool. I should check it out!"

(Alright, so that "a.k.a." stuff was for your benefit. I didn't really think that part last night.)

And it really was Linda's recommendation that made me think to watch - I was skeptical before her endorsement.

And somehow, even though we spent the few minutes we watched laughing out loud, Jason turned it off and started watching something on the DVR.

How dare he?

Anyway, I watched on abc.com this morning. I think that network is becoming my favorite for its quirky "dramadies." First Ugly Betty and now this. What will they think of next?

I've just watched this one episode, but it was pretty easy to figure out what's going on. I'll go back and watch the others when I get a chance.

For now, let me leave you with the tidbit that sealed the deal with my devotion to this show:



They Might Be Giants! Can you stand it? I can't - I love that song!

I'm so looking forward to getting a chance to watch the rest.

And then pray to the good Lord that no one gets a wild hare and decides to cancel this show.

Andy Samburg is a genius.

Or at least, whoever came up with this is a genius.

I just about fell off my bed laughing last night at this.

Frustration

Do you know what frustration is?

Do you?

You might think it's trying to get a nearly-six-year-old ready for school.

Nope. I can handle that.

You might think it's working on a newspaper page, have it nearly done, and then having Quark explode just before you hit save, causing you to lose all your work.

Uh uh. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

After last night's disasterous weigh-in, you might think it was losing and then regaining the same two pounds for two months straight.

I'm kind of getting used to that, folks.

This is frustration:



Frustration is knowing that your DVR contains part two in a three-part series of what has become one of your favorite shows, and yet your husband, the ONE WHO GOT YOU HOOKED IN THE FIRST PLACE, refuses to let you watch it.

Because he wants to wait until next week, and watch the next two episodes together.

Who knows if I'll have two whole hours (or, in DVR time, 1.5 hours) to devote to this next week?

My head may just very well explode if I have to watch these last two installments at once.

I've been hanging on the edge of my seat all week, reading the message boards at SciFi.com (did I just admit that?) I have discovered that my obsession is not like that of other "Whovians."

I think I've just got a crush on David Tennant. And I think my husband has figured it out.

And I think he's trying to keep us apart.

Cheeky monkey.

Man, I love having Amanda back in my office!

Amanda has been working up here at the paper for the past couple of weeks, filling in for her replacement who is out on maternity leave.

And she's (if you read her comment on my Dr. Who post, you know this) a huge David Tennant fan.

And even if you don't watch the show, I think you'll find this little clip funny.



At least I hope you will.

My husband has turned me into a SciFi geek.

And I'm not afraid to admit it.

Well, maybe I am. Just a little.

While we were dating and first married, he would talk on and on about a show called "Doctor Who." It came on his local PBS affiliate when he was growing up, and he thought it was the best show EVER.

So, after we got married, I got him a gift certificate to ebay for some occasion (which I'd forgotten and needed something quickfastinahurry) and he used it to buy a DVD.

A Doctor Who DVD.

He explained that there had been many, many Doctors over the last 40 years or so. This disk starred Tom Baker, who was Jason's favorite.

I didn't really see the appeal. It was cheesy. It was lame. It had poor production values.

He continued to build his Tom Baker collection through different DVD clubs.

Then, the BBC brought it back. In England. Not here.

Jason actually wrote the BBC, to ask why we couldn't get any of their channels on our satellite service. They (the cheeky monkeys) responded that they gave us BBC America. Wasn't that good enough?

No, apparently. Not for my husband. He was distraught.

Then, the SciFi channel (maybe one of Jason's favorite channels, beloved for their movies about overgrown insects and lab-mistake reptiles) started showing the new series.

I was marginally interested. It starred Christopher Eccleston.

I thought he was the best. I hoped they'd keep him for a while.

Then, there was a situation and they needed a new doctor. Enter David Tennant.

I am now officially hooked.

SciFi has just started showing the second season with him as The Doctor. I hadn't seen the season finale, so I was unsure what had happened to his companion Rose.

(Oh, did I mention her? She was delightful too. Apparently one in a long line of female companions. Possibly there for the 45-year-old men who live in their mom's basement and attend SciFi conventions.)

So, Netflix to the rescue. I just finished the two-part season finale. (Yes, I'm at work. I can multi-task. Just don't tell The Man.)

Ohmanohmanohman. Those are probably two of the best written episodes of television I've ever seen.

Keep in mind, I'm not a big devotee of any particular show. Except The Office. And My Name is Earl. And Ugly Betty.

(Good thing we have a DVR, as all three of my favorite shows are on simultaneously.)

And now, apparently, Doctor Who.

I hear that BBC America is now showing last season (Tennant's first). I highly recommend watching. (Did I just do that? Did I just tell someone to watch a science fiction show?)

What hath Jason wrought?