Maybe we should call it "Six Feet Under" and get it over with
Tonight is the premiere of Dirty Sexy Money on ABC, starring my future ex-husband, Peter Krause.

It worries me a bit that I have had to go digging to find info on this show. My Entertainment Weekly that came last week had a spread several pages long on "Heroes" but the only mention of DSM was in the "What to Watch" section, and even then, it was only the name of the show listed for Wednesday. At least EW wants us to watch it.

I just have a bad feeling that this show is going to be like the other shows I started watching last fall, like "The Nine" and "Studio 60." It may be good, but probably won't get the viewership. It may be dead on arrival, in other words.

It's meme time!
(stolen from a myspace friend)
29 Unusual Lasts

1. To whom did you last give the finger?
Yesterday I gave the finger to my co-worker whom I hate, while she passed me in her car on the way home.

2. If you had 1,000 dollars what would you buy?:
$1000 less credit card debt

3. What was the last beverage you spilled on yourself?:
Water, in the dark, two nights ago while fumbling in the kitchen

4. Are you different now than you were 6 months ago?
A few pounds here or there, yes

5. Have you kissed a boy/girl in the last three days?:
yes

6. What was the last photograph you took?:
Either my kid or my cats

7. Where were you last night around 9:30?:
upstairs watching the BB8 finale *yawn*

8. What do you think of guys that wear eyeliner?:
not my type

9. How many hours did you last sleep?:
I didn't really sleep all that well last night... psuedophedrine is not my friend

10. Who was the last person to whom you spoke on the phone for over an
hour?
some crazy ass client who was bitching up a storm

11. 50 Cent shows up at your door, what do you do?:
how is this the "last" time I did anything? If Fiddy shows up at my door, there better be a damn good reason.

12. How was the last egg you ate prepared?
scrambled on a Sunday morning

13. Where did you last wear sunglasses?:
today? yesterday? i don't know.

14. Ever worn your underwear backwards?:
Ouch, and no.

15. What's your favorite scent?
laundry in the dryer

16. Does it bother you when people put && before every sentence and ;; after?
I have honestly never seen that before.

17. What animal did you last pet or hold?:
Uncle Dom aka "Unks"

18. What was the last law you broke?
speeding, jaywalking?

19. What are you wearing?:
black short skirt, black and blue lace top, black suit jacket, black sandals

20. What did you think of your last kiss?
it was from my son so it was sweet

21. What was the last newspaper you read or skimmed?:
the Plain Dealer but only the sports and arts and life section

22. What was the last thing you wrote on your hand?
it's been a long time since i've done that so I have no idea

23. What was the last hair product you used?:
hair spray this morning

24. What was the last text message you received?
"20 14 2" from my boss which referenced the Browns score against the Bengals on Sunday after 2 quarters

25. What was the last medication (Rx or OTC) you took?:
Mucinex about 10 minutes ago

26. Who was the last person to make you really laugh?:
my boss

27. To what song did you last sing along?
Little Brown Ant by the Wiggles

28. What was the last musical instrument played in your presence?:
I played the guitar yesterday to figure out the chords to "Little Brown Ant" by the Wiggles

29. What was the last superstitious thing you did?:
knocked on wood probably.

A matter of timing
Good thing I watched that final "24" episode... my DVR gave up the ghost tonight. Also a good thing that I discovered this prior to 9 p.m. so I didn't miss a certain season finale. That, to borrow a phrase, would have suuuuuuuucked.

Sick
Thursday night, it finally hit.

The Back To School cold that I knew would get me, eventually.

It could have come from multiple sources:
1) Doodle brought something home from daycare
2) M.I.L. and other family members have been sick
3) Spent the previous weekend at a large children's gym-type place that I'm sure was teeming with germs

Anyway, the weekend was miserable. I still managed to go to the Indians game on Saturday night, which I'm sure didn't help. Sunday, I got out my leftover cough syrup with codeine from the last time I had bronchitis and I took a tablespoon.

OOPS.

Had I read the label, I would have realized that the correct dosage was TEAspoon. This resulted in me falling dead asleep, on the couch, during the Browns game, with my husband and Doodle in the room. Doodle kept pounding on me, saying "Wake up, Mommy!" I would, but then I would immediately drift back into my comatose state.

Several hours later I woke up, sniffled and coughed for a few more hours, and then took ANOTHER tablespoon of the codeine stuff before bed. THEN I read the label. Night, night!

Yesterday I took the day off work and instead of dropping 25 bucks at my quack doctor, I went to the drugstore and bought the hard stuff. You know, the stuff you have to ask for and sign an affadavit and swear not to give it to a meth head. For one lousy box of nasal decongestant and expectorant. Heh. I was expectorating yesterday.

One nice thing about being sick yesterday was that I caught up on all my TV that had backlogged on the DVR. The only show I'm behind in now is Top Chef. I even watched the "24" finale -- I'm not kidding -- from November! That's how bad it was. Just in time for all the new shows I am planning on putting on there...
-Survivor:China
-Kitchen Nightmares
-Dirty Sexy Money (Peter Krause, I would have his babies)

And of course the shows I already watch:
-The Office
-Greys Anatomy (are new episodes starting?)

I'm not sure what I'm going to do after tonight when Doodle requests "Brother" ... I have been telling him that "Flipping Out" is Brother, but now that's over too.

Anyhow, I'm back at work now, in kind of a daze, but it may be just what I need to stomach a Donato victory tonight. KWIS?

At least he's modest
A few nights ago, when we were trying to get Doodle to GO TO BED ALREADY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!!!, he was using his usual delaying tactics of a) getting us to read to him -- how could we deny a child who wants to read? b) pleading to not watch Wiggles or Doodlebops or one of his shows, but rather to watch "Brother" which has become his word for all shows Mommy likes to watch. But instead, we were watching the Indians game, or as he calls it, "Daddy's Baseball."

Doodle was sitting next to me on the couch, and would point out the various numbers he recognized on the screen. In the score box, he saw the number 4. He pointed to the number 3 on a player's jersey.

My hubby looked at Doodle and said, "Wow, Doodle, you're getting really good at counting!"

Before the word "counting" was out of his mouth, Doodle replied, "Yeah, I know."

Which sent us into fits of laughter. And delayed bedtime for another few minutes.

1000 words (these don't count)


They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Unfortunately, a picture taken from a crappy disposable camera isn’t.

So instead, here are a thousand words about this pic.

What you see here is my best furtive shot of Pete Yorn while performing at Blossom Music Center on August 20, 2007. I say “furtive” because I smuggled the camera into the venue in the waistband of my pants. I knew we had pavilion seats so there was a chance we’d be close enough to the stage where I could take a decent shot.

I had looked forward to this show all summer. Pete Yorn, one of my favorite musicians, opening for the inimitable Dave Matthews Band, whom I had never seen in concert. August 20, right smack dab in the heat of summer – what could be better?

Anyone from the Midwest recall the weather that week?

Yeah. It rained. And rained. And then poured. And it was cold enough to break out the jeans and long sleeves. Not to mention, the concert was on a Monday, so I took the day off, as well as Tuesday, thinking that I’d be able to enjoy some time in my backyard, lay out in the sun, get some yard work done. Mmm hmm. That didn’t happen.

I wasn’t too concerned about the rain impacting the concert, because I knew we’d stay relatively dry under the pavilion roof. Though, I was having flashbacks to my teen years, when I was in the last row of the pavilion for Lollapalooza (the year Pearl Jam, Nirvana, etc. were there) and it rained that day, and all the people from the grass behind us surged through the gate and suddenly we had 100 extra people in our row. But I digress.

We got there just in time to see Pete take the stage, and by some chance occurrence, the usher seated us one whole section in front of where we were supposed to be. We didn’t realize this until after he was done and we got up to get drinks in between Pete and Dave’s set, but it worked out great for me because I was really there to see him. He went on right at 7, and so not that many people had taken their seats. I felt kind of weird applauding loudly after each of his songs since no one else around us knew who the hell he was, but I saw some other fans sprinkled around the pavilion, too.

Since he was the opening act, he did an abbreviated version of his usual set, and included some cover songs. He opened with a Dead cover, “Friend of the Devil” that I’m sure a lot of the crowd recognized, and he ended with “Suspicious Minds” in homage to the late great Elvis Presley. And in between he did his classics, including my two favorites, “Strange Condition” and “Crystal Village.”

I should mention at this point that I had a vibe even before I got to the show that I was somehow going to meet Pete. I have seen some of Blossom’s opening acts set up a merch booth and sign autographs during the main show so I was kind of hoping for that.

Anyhoo. You will notice in the photo above that I have pointed out a fellow henceforth known as “Douchebag.” He came in the middle of Pete’s set and was about 6 or 7 rows in front of us. However, his friends had seats right next to us. For the entire set he kept turning around and yelling stuff to his friends. It was tres irritating especially when I was trying to hear “Strange Condition” and had to also have the Douchebag in my line of sight. I was actually glad when we found out our seats were farther back and thus away from the Douchebag and his Merry Marauders.

Pete finished his set and of course I was disappointed that it was over, but also excited to see Dave. I have heard that he just puts on a phenomenal live show. Admittedly, my knowledge of the DMB library ends at “Before These Crowded Streets” (the one that has “Crush” on it.) The first song he played, I believe, actually came from that CD, but after that I was kind of lost. Even my hubby, who is less of a DMB fan than me, knew more songs than I did.

OK, so this whole “meeting Pete” thing. Our seats were to the right of the stage and it just so happened that we could see into the artists’ parking lot when they came off stage. Immediately when Dave took the stage I noticed a member of Pete’s band come out and stand maybe two sections in front of where we were, and watch a couple of songs. I had the eagle eye out for Pete.

Sure enough, maybe 3-4 songs into it, here comes Pete out of the parking lot, through the VIP section, and into the crowd. He’s being led by a cute girl and it looks like he is going to sit down.

Here is the point in the story when I choke.

Even though I had a BB8 Amber-like vision that I was going to meet Pete, when it came down to Go Time, I was paralyzed. Also probably because I realized that I really had nothing to say and I also had my husband with me. I’ve been in situations before where I’ve met someone that I semi-idolized (former Indians player Jim Thome comes to mind) and I haven’t been able to properly craft a complete sentence.

We decided to leave early to avoid the traffic, and thanks to mother nature, the grass parking lot was now a mud pit. My little Corolla almost didn’t make it out. We heard later that many cars were stuck until the wee hours of the morning waiting for a tow.

Not quite the experience I had dreamed of, but an adventure nonetheless.