Break It Down Again

Having recovered from that awful illness I had last month, life is back to its good, busy self. Besides the fact that I've had a headache since last Thursday, things are okay. A few highlights from the past week or so:

• I already wrote about This American Life Live. I need to download this weekend's radio show, which will include bits of the entire six-city tour. Listen if you get a chance.
  

• There was a new member at my book club meeting and I don't think he got the idea that most of us just hadn't finished (or even read, in my case) the book we were supposed to be discussing. He kept wanting to steer the conversation back to the book, which made some of us giggle. We aren't always so lazy, I swear, but it has been known to happen.
  

• We attended the last night of the 2007 William S. Paley TV Fest, which was a panel on The Simpsons. I usually attend several of the events, but only went to three this year, which I suppose I was lucky to do. There were major ticketing issues this year and many of us loyal members got royally screwed. The MT&R did what they could to make it up to some folks, but not others. We did get comped in to The Office panel, which was lots of fun. Click here for a review of that night. We barely got into Heroes. I'm pretty sure a friend of mine didn't and ended up leaving. I haven't told her yet that there were four empty seats in my row, right in the center for entire night. Yet, E and I couldn't even sit together. Hmm. Hopefully, they will get their act together for 2008.
  

• I was pleasantly surprised to actually have a nice meal of corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes on St. Patrick's Day. I found out with a bit of short notice that we'd been invited to a birthday party that afternoon. I was under the impression it was a barbecue and was fantasizing about having a grilled hot dog or burger. So, it was a nice treat to have the other, which was delicious.
  

• We followed up the afternoon birthday party with a bowling birthday party, which turned out to be much more fun than I had anticipated. (You should have come, Ren!) It also made me realize how much I miss one of my friends who I rarely see anymore.
  

• There has also been a lot of time spent parked in front of the tv to catch up on The Office. We completed the Season 1 and 2 DVDs, including most of the special features (we skipped a few commentary tracks). We've watched the first four or five shows of the current season (gotta love the internets) and if all goes as planned, I'll be completely caught up by Tuesday April 5th. E and I are both obsessed!

• E and I ventured out with Rusty The Dog today. First, we went to the Best Friends Pet Adoption in Burbank. No, we aren't getting another pet, anytime soon, but it's fun to check out the animals and some of the vendors. The rabbits were really adorable. I swear, if I didn't have to work full time, I would have a menagerie. After the pet fair, we thought it'd be nice to go for a drive and take Rusty to the Hydrant Cafe, which we'd been to before in Venice. Well, apparently it has been a long time since we went because it turns out that it is gone. Bummer, but we decided to walk along the Venice Beach Boardwalk instead, which is always entertaining. Rusty certainly had a great day and is snoring now.

Rusty hanging out at Venice Beach.

The First Rule Of Book Club Is...

....you do not talk about Book Club. Well, that's just according to a silly t-shirt I have, so I'm going to talk, at least a little bit, about my book club. I really enjoy the group of people that get together on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. Something that may be somewhat unique is that we are a mixed gender group, often 50/50. Tonight we had 7 men and 5 women.

Our reading selections vary and often involve topics such as religion, science, or philosophy. As I mentioned before, not everyone in the group finishes the book before we meet. Sometimes what we pick is not as good as we thought or had heard. Other times, people are just too busy in their lives to complete it. My problem is that I'm often reading more than one thing at a time. And I'm a slow reader.

As I've heard is true with other book clubs, we start our discussion based around the current read. The conversation then drifts from there onto various other topics of interest. This evening we talked about all kinds of things from the recent elections to population growth in America to the past and current social and economic climate in Cuba.

Our meeting wraps up with future selections. Various members make suggestions and we vote. I've dubbed our club "The Laziest Book Club Ever," as someone will ask,"Well, how thick is that book?", "Is there a movie we can watch?" (yes, we've done that!), or the snarky question I asked tonight, "Yeah, well how big is the font?"

One member summed it up best though when he said, "It's like picking what we're not going to read next." I am making a solemn effort to read ALL of the next one though, as the author is coming to our December gathering and I'll be really embarrassed if I haven't finished!

I Am A Dork--Reason #87

Not only do I own a "Book Club" t-shirt, but I wore it to my book club tonight.

All's Well That Ends Well

It turns out I was not the only one in my book club who had trouble getting through the selection we've been working on for the last couple of months. We discussed what we could and are putting it aside. We were reading Collapse by Jared Diamond, which has some very interesting things to say, but needs to be edited down severely. For all of his talk of societies destroying the environment, he sure did kill a lot of trees for this book!

Anyway, I've ordered a used copy of our next couple of choices, so while I await their arrivals, I can dive into Duran Duran: Notorious without guilt. I got it for Christmas and have really wanted to get going on it, but felt obligated to finish the book club one first. So much for that.

Before I get into the history of The Fab Five though, I must watch the final episode of Battlestar Galactica from the first season and then start hunting down the episodes from this season I've missed. We either have them sitting on the Tivo or unmarked dvd's.

Good hunting.

Oh Frack!

I really need to stop watching Battlestar Galactica! I just remembered I have my book club meeting tomorrow night.

I'm really, really behind in the reading.

And, I read slowly.

But I only have one-and-a-half episodes from the first season left to watch.

Frackity frack frack!!!