Hitting the Big Time

I have earned my place in Lori's advising family tree. I'm one of the few from 2007 listed so far. Sorry but you'll have to search the page to find me.

That Thing You Do!

Two Sundays ago, I watched That Thing You Do!, one of my favorite movies, for the first time in a long time. This was the first time either Frank or his mom saw it. That is one of those movies that you have to watch a few times because there is always new stuff to it, layers that you didn't see before. Not another layer, but this time, I realized that Bryan Cranston (the dad from Malcolm in the Middle) was the astronaut interviewed on the show-within-the-movie Hollywood Showcase.

Last week, Steve Zahn, who played Lenny in TTYD, interviewed on Preston & Steve. Preston asked Steve Zahn about if he sang on TTYD. I thought I had heard that Tom Hanks (the writer, director, and supporting actor) wanted the movie to be very realistic, so the actors in the band did everything. Steve Zahn said that Fountains of Wayne actually performed the songs. They said that Steve Zahn could have performed the song, but they went through a lot in preproduction, so FoW stayed.

Dad investigated more:

I was checking around on the web and found that Adam Schlesinger, bassist of FoW, wrote the title song from TTYD. There was like a writing contest and his take on the song won over about 2000 other entries. He said that FoW has never done the song live because it doesn't have anything to do with FoW. I haven't seen any mention of FoW playing on the soundtrack.

I have the TTYD soundtrack. Now that I think about it, it does sound like FoW.

I Thought I Knew Pop Culture

I'm making the revisions to my dissertation thesis (it gets shipped out tomorrow to my committee!) and watching the World Series of Pop Culture on VH1. I thought I knew pop culture, but I'd say I knew less than about 30% of the answers. Of course, I would study if I participated in that, but I still think I'd get smoked. I did better than the contestants on the SNL and Teen drama questions, though.

Sliding Tackle

Today, ultimate was not very fun. People were snippy and the play wasn't great. When I was trying to catch a throw, Peter was guarding me closely to my left, but the disc was going right. We started heading right, but I heard someone coming at me to the right, so I stopped and braced myself. Ben, my ex-boyfriend who happens to hate me, knocked me over with a sliding tackle. He didn't apologize but instead said, "The disc was already past her." Maybe he couldn't have stopped himself, but the fact that he didn't apologize and that he admits that he wasn't going after the disc (because the disc was past me) is really bugging me. My team lost possession, and the other team eventually scored.

I'm sure that was a foul. I checked the rules:

Reckless disregard for the safety of fellow players or other dangerously aggressive behavior (such as significantly colliding into a stationary opponent), regardless of whether or when the disc arrives or when contact occurs is considered dangerous play and is treated as a foul. This rule is not superseded by any other rule.

I don't know if he did it on purpose. Earlier in the game, I told him to be careful about travelling (picking up the pivot foot). I'm sure he was mad about that because he hates when I talk to him. We had had a spat earlier in the week about lab machines. Anyway, I'm not confident that he wasn't retaliating.

Sorry, but, periodically, I need to use the blog to rant.

So Badass

In my third trip to the Italian Festival, after getting a panzaratti (deep-fried pizza) the first time and pizza the second time, I got a gyro. The scandal!

I won three more frog stuffed animals (2 green and 1 blue), after winning three on Wednesday night (2 blue and 1 green). There are also red and dark green frogs, but for some reason, I'm not winning those. Frank played a game where you catapult frogs into a pond, and he won a stuffed gremlin. I made him hide the gremlin because it freaks me out.

My New Strategy

I have been known to forget my leftovers from restaurants. Even if you remember your leftovers after you left the restaurant, your leftovers may have already been tossed, depending on the busboys' efficiency, 'Tis a shame. I have a new strategy. Since I am going to focus on remembering my leftovers instead of my purse. Busboys need to toss out leftovers because of health regulations; however, they won't throw out my purse. As they say on the soaps, it's the only [strategy] that makes sense.

This May Be My Favorite

But, I do love the kitteh ones too.

Where I'll Be on the Net

I Can Has Cheezburger?

Phillies Approaching Bad Milestone

Dad always said that the Phillies were Lovable Losers--except for the Lovable part. The Phillies are approaching a record of 10,000 losses in franchise history. They stink but real phans love their losers.

Children's Sermon: Getting Ready

I decided to do something different this morning. I will put the Bible aside [I put the Bible aside] and teach you a math lesson [I showed them a math textbook].

But first I have to make sure you're ready for the math lesson. Can you count from 1 to 10? Good. Can you count from 1 to 100? Very good. Can you add numbers? Can you subtract numbers? Can you multiply numbers? Can you divide numbers? Can you figure out square roots? Can you do algebra? And can you read German, because this is a German textbook? Hmm, maybe you're not ready for this.

Does anyone here have a driver's license? Nobody? Good. We're going to practice driving this morning. So everybody, ask your parents for the car keys and meet me in the parking lot. Maybe you're not ready for that, either.

So that's two plans down the drain. So we can always go back to the Bible. That happens sometimes - you try to put the Bible aside and end up having to go back to it.

In today's scripture, Jesus tells his followers that he has told them many things, and he still has many things to tell them. But they aren't ready to hear those things. Not yet. What do we have to do to get ready? Sometimes we have to study and learn, like with the math lesson. When it comes to driving, we need to study, but we also need to do something else - we need to grow and experience life. Sometimes we get ourselves ready, and sometimes getting ready happens to us.

God has told us many things, but not everything that God has to tell us is in the Bible. This is what the United Church of Christ believes - God is still speaking. God is still speaking to many people and through many people. We need to get ourselves ready for the things God wants to tell us.

A Hodge Podge of Pictures

Dad sent me some pictures from Jessie's wedding and from my graduation, with a few pictures of Sydney thrown in. My favorite is the dangerous game Sydney likes to play on the "cat walk" with Frank at our house in Dallastown.

Happy Birthday Observed, Sydney!

Today is when we observe Sydney's birthday. She is seven observed.

Vanity Plate

When I move to VA and get a new license plate, if it's not already taken, I'm going to get

PLAYRH8R

It's Not Easy Being Green

< Sara steps on her soap box >

Everyone who knows me knows that I try to do good by the environment. I recycle, I conserve, I reduce, I reuse. Of course, people can always nitpick and find ways that I can do more (ride my bike to school, for example, instead of driving), but I do what I can.

I finally read the March issue of Glamour, which had a green theme. They interviewed celebrities about what they do for the environment, and they get pretty extreme, doing things that us normal folks can't do, like turning off the lights when we leave a room or turning off the water while we brush our teeth. If I were a celebrity, I would be ashamed to cite these as examples. They couldn't talk about reducing the heat/cooling in the unused parts of their mansion or that their personal chef carries groceries in canvas---rather than plastic---bags?

Since the University of Delaware only recycles paper, I recycle our lab's cans and plastic bottles. Sometimes, Housekeeping throws out our recyclables, but usually, they leave them for me to recycle. The 2007 Senior Class gift was $62K to support a recycling program. I am totally psyched by that gift. That is just awesome. After I start my job and start getting paychecks again, I'll see if I can support that fund.

I have been printing out lots of drafts of my thesis, so I print with 4 pages to a sheet of paper. In part, I do that to save paper and to make up for the dumb things I do--like printing out postscript or printing multiple copies of a paper to Lori's printer before I realize that I'm printing to the wrong printer. I try to build up a little environmental "credit" so when I screw up, I don't completely ruin the environment.

Wilmington has started a recycling program recently. I had read that Delaware only recycles about 10% of their garbage, where as neighboring PA and NJ recycle around 30%. Residents get credit for their recycling in the form of coupons for places like Happy Harry's (a local pharmacy chain). Frank's parents are trying to recycle, which I am very excited about, but they don't know what can and can't be recycled. Larry (Frank's brother), April (Larry's wife), and I all took turns going through their recycling and telling them what can't be recycled in Wilmington (paper towels, plastic bags, plastic wrapping). If they're representative of the people recycling, I hope this program doesn't fail. I think I finally got them to understand the difference between "can be recycled" and "recycled in Wilmington".

Today's environmentalism is yesterday's common sense. My grandma would tell you to turn out the lights and turn off the water. She unplugs appliances when they aren't in use. (Glamour said that 75% of an appliance's energy consumption happens when it isn't in use so you should unplug appliances. I need to look into that a little bit more to see how much extra energy they use--if it's just that these appliances use so little energy when they're used or what.)

< Sara steps off the soap box and finally goes to bed, content in having completed her blogging for June. >

Congrats, Dr. Shepherd

My buddy Dave passed his defense last Wednesday. It was probably the easiest defense I've ever attended. Everything--the talk, the questions, the closed-door questions, the committee discussion--took about 90 minutes.

Dave posted a great picture of his committee on his photoblog.

At ultimate the next day, some people congratulated Dave for becoming "Dr. Shepherd". I didn't hear that part of the conversation--just Anthony announcing, "It burns when I pee." Anthony explained that Dave was now a doctor and should be able to help with such things.

Disappointing Warning Labels

I admit, I am a little disappointed when I misuse a product and the ramifications aren't as bad as the product's warning. Today, I used a sugar scrub, and it warned that the bathtub may be slippery, and it wasn't. It made me feel overly cautious, a little wimpy.

Of course, other warning labels that I read after I misused the product were dead on---like the time that I got my thumb stuck in the Lysol wipes dispenser lid. That required Andy to perform MacGyver-style minor extraction surgery with pliers and a plastic spoon.