Regular listeners of the
Big Red Podcast got to hear something that doesn't often make it to post-production. This week's episode features a
blooper. Remember those?
If I were making stuff on DVD instead of podcasts, I'd call it an extra feature.
For reasons that are clear now - I was hot and tired - I neglected to edit it out.
So
enjoy my blooper. It's not really hilarious. It's just there. I might have muttered under my breath in annoyance. But that's not really new, now is it?
Labels: 2007, filler
By: Alyssa | Tuesday, July 31, 2007 at Tuesday, July 31, 2007 | |
Other
podcasts may be cooler. They may say smarter things. They may even have an adorable baby who coos and gurgles during recording (I'm looking at you
Wicked Good Podcast). But we have something that is also about the size of a baby.
No - it isn't the cat. She's the
size of a toddler.
We have our very own
woodchuck (also known as a ground hog). I've spotted him a few mornings in a row. He hangs out in the back yard and munches on my mostly dead hostas. It has been dry, so I didn't think it was worth watering them once we moved beyond the "we could use a little rain" levels to "verge of drought".
Apparently the woodchuck, I call him Hoggy, isn't especially interested in my unripened tomatoes. And he ignored the jalapeno peppers I tossed his way. As long as my veggie patch is not destroyed and he doesn't eat my hydrangeas, I'm okay letting Hoggy have his way with the hostas.
Wait,
they can climb trees? If Hoggy jump out of a tree onto me, all bets are off.
I mentioned to Deeps that there is a groundhog. I'll skip telling him about their amazing climbing abilities. He's still scarred by that Easter I made him watch
Night of the Lepus.Labels: 2007, animals, podcast
By: Alyssa | Monday, July 30, 2007 at Monday, July 30, 2007 | |
This week Deeps and I talk about three very adult-oriented shows on cable:
Saving Grace starring Holly Hunter as a damaged cop dealing with the God,
Damages starring Glenn Close as a lawyer who will do anything to win, and
Mad Men. Keep the children away!
We also review
The Simpsons Movie. But the real news is that the theater we saw it in smelled a lot like a barn. I flashed back to my younger years working at a horse farm in Indiana. It's not a smell you expect to encounter in the mall.
Listen to this week's episode.Subscribe to the podcast with
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Labels: 2007, podcast
By: Alyssa | Sunday, July 29, 2007 at Sunday, July 29, 2007 | |
How do you know that you have a green light in Cambridge?
A
dummy in flip-flops jaywalks in front of your car!
Oh that's a good one.
The heat makes drivers enraged and pedestrians lethargic - everyone is making bad decisions. So hide in a cool, dry place and wait for the heat to break. I might also suggest listening to a podcast while drinking a delicious Corona.
And look, I have just such a podcast. I don't want to say it is our best podcast every but it's in the top...three? Yeah. Top three best podcasts ever. I can't name the other two.
Listen to this week's episode.Subscribe to the podcast with
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Labels: 2007, podcast, weather
By: Alyssa | Friday, July 27, 2007 at Friday, July 27, 2007 | |
Whenever it is hot, the best service you can hope for from the T is something that is not too hot. If you're lucky it isn't smelly either.
Tonight I skipped a packed train to wait for the next one. I threw a few elbows and made it aboard. Behind me a rather tall and attractive man climbed aboard. He stood near me and an amazing smell overwhelmed me.
Chicken McNuggets.
Then I looked over to see that he was indeed clutching a small McDonald's bag. He'd fished out a hot apple pie to snack on. I figured there were some McNuggets in the bag.
When he finished the first apple pie, he pulled out another and chowed down. Then he wadded up the empty bag.
Apple pies that smell like McNuggets. What will they think of next?
Labels: 2007, Boston, weird stuff
By: Alyssa | Wednesday, July 25, 2007 at Wednesday, July 25, 2007 | |
A lot of people on the T were reading the latest Harry Potter book. In fact, I didn't really hear any discussion of the book in public yesterday. Instead, you'd hear these hushed tones and see conspiratorial looks.
Random Person: Did you read it yet?Me: Yes.
Random Person: Do you want to talk about it?Me: Sure! But why are you acting so weird?
Random Person: I don't know who has read it yet!Me: Right. That's very thoughtful of you.
I could make a joke about how I've never seen such sensitivity and care displayed to fellow Bostonians in years. But that seems cheap.
Random Person: So, what did you think about .....?
And it would continue from there. You'd think we were plotting to overthrow something or - better yet - throw a surprise party or something.
As it is now, I'm trying to recruit some people for a special Harry Potter podcast,
per Jacki's suggestion. That way we can make a podcast that covers more and is easy to skip if you haven't read the books yet.
Labels: 2007, books, Boston, weird stuff
By: Alyssa | Tuesday, July 24, 2007 at Tuesday, July 24, 2007 | |
This week Derek returns to join me and Deeps for a rousing discussion of Emmy nominations, Flight of the Conchords (it is business time you know), Eureka and the law of unintended consequences, the new
AMC series Mad Men and cat people on Doctor Who.
Plus I say a few things about the final installment in the Harry Potter series - it's hard to review without revealing spoilers. So let's say it isn't a review so much as it is a vague discussion. That means no spoilers people.
Listen to this week's episode.Subscribe to the podcast with
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Labels: 2007, podcast
By: Alyssa | Sunday, July 22, 2007 at Sunday, July 22, 2007 | |
It's been tough to hang on the Internets the past couple of days. I have narrowly averted disaster a few times - Harry Potter spoilers are everywhere!
Sure, if you go to some HP specific sites you'd find stuff. No problem, but there I am casually browsing someone's blog about personal finance and suddenly... AVERT YOUR EYES! And the New York Times isn't safe. You can't read comments on blogs. It's going to be tough today.
For now, I've been able to avoid the spoilers. Usually I don't care, but since I only have to wait about 24 more hours, I thought I'd try to go spoiler free. Instead of avoiding HP spoilers, I'm catching up on TV for the podcast.
Did I mention this week's podcast? Everyone is talking about it - mostly because we crammed a lot of stuff in it and near the end I turned into a speedtalker.
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Labels: 2007, books, podcast
By: Alyssa | Friday, July 20, 2007 at Friday, July 20, 2007 | |
A few days ago I was walking back from the gym and stopped to pick up a sandwich. As I exited the local sandwich place near my office I noticed that a
guy wearing a blue t-shirt and holding a clipboard was canvassing the people sitting out at the patio tables.
This patio/courtyard area aren't affiliated with the restaurant, it's outdoor seating for the whole building. So plenty of people just bring their lunch out to enjoy the sunshine while somewhat shielded from the street. And I guess, they expect to be shielded from earnest kids with clipboards.
One woman threw out her arm in the classic "Talk to the hand" fu maneuver (I think Shaolin monks have practiced in for years). I didn't hear what she said to him, but I saw she was quite animated. Other people followed suit - the kid started to look a little shaky.
I didn't stick around to watch what happened. But I hope that kid had another plan for getting interest in in his cause - nobody in the courtyard was interested.
Labels: 2007, Boston
By: Alyssa | Thursday, July 19, 2007 at Thursday, July 19, 2007 | |
Earlier...
Me: You didn't turn the air conditioner on in the bedroom.
Deeps: But you did now?
Me: Yeah, it's really hot upstairs.
Deeps: It'll cool down soon.
Me: It is 85 degrees at 11:30!
Deeps: You'll be fine.
Me: It's too hot to sleep.
Deeps: It'll cool off soon enough.
Me: You make it hard for me, when you say stuff like that.
Later....
Me: How was your doctor's appointment?
Deeps: Fine.
Me: Did you ask her about your foot?
Deeps: No.
Me: You've been hobbling around and your toe is almost black.
Deeps: It's just a blood blister. It looks much better.
Me: You've been limping and complaining for two days.
Deeps: So?
Me: And you were at the doctor and you didn't ask her about it?
Deeps: No.
Me: I don't know what to do with you sometimes.
Even later....
I was putting away the groceries when I found a little carton of hand-packed Strawberry-Kiwi sorbet.
Me: Where'd you find this? I thought they were out.
Deeps: I asked someone for it.
Me: Aww, thanks.
Deeps: I know it's your favorite.
Labels: 2007, marriage
By: Alyssa | Wednesday, July 18, 2007 at Wednesday, July 18, 2007 | |
We finally did it! This week Deeps and I discuss the magic of television, movies, books (okay - a book) and video games. Woot!
Thanks to our recording delay we chatted as fast as we could about Laurie Notaro's first novel called "
There's A Slight Chance I Might Be Going To Hell", the latest
Harry Potter movie, John from Cincinnati, Flight of the Conchords, Doctor Who, Eureka,
Ice Road Truckers and
Rampage: Total Destruction for the Wii.
We were trying to make up for lost time.
By the way, if you need even more of a fall TV fix - check out the summer press tour blog coverage from
Uncle Barky,
Alan Sepinwall,
Tim Goodman or
Michael Ausiello. They are my favorites.
Listen to this week's episode.Subscribe to the podcast with
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Labels: 2007, podcast
By: Alyssa | Tuesday, July 17, 2007 at Tuesday, July 17, 2007 | |
We had a small problem with our counters, which became apparent when the counter guy came to do a final inspection of the installation. So more work happened. We took plumbing apart. More epoxy. Then
more fumes.
So the house smells, it's kind of hot and we're in various stages of disorder. Unfortunately, this also means no podcast tonight because the heat and the smell have made me crazy. But the counters are done and when I stop trying to convince myself that $1 bills are in fact $20 bills - sometime tomorrow -
we'll record again.
Again, my apologies for the delay. And keep your fingers crossed we re-connected the dishwasher correctly. I'm hoping I don't find a flood in the morning.
Labels: 2007, house, podcast
By: Alyssa | Monday, July 16, 2007 at Monday, July 16, 2007 | |
Attention fans of the Big Red Podcast, we'll be recording and (if all goes well) posting our podcast tonight. Huzzah!
If you're not a fan of the Big Red Podcast, but you're a reader of the blog you might want to give us a listen. Every week I lure over unsuspecting guests (the promise of fresh pancakes and sausage is too much to resist) and we chat about pop culture for about 30 minutes. I like to think it's a good time.
Listen to the latest episode.Subscribe to the podcast with
iTunes or your favorite
podcatcher. Don't forget to leave us some iTunes feedback.
In other news, we might get some rain which would be good for my exploding tomato plants. We're not having a hardcore drought like parts of the South and Midwest, but everything is pretty brown around here.
I was chatting with my neighbor last night as it started to drizzle. He'd hoped for some serious rain, but we just got this little faint misty stuff.
I don't really care for grass. It requires a lot of resources. But, when I have it - I feel like it should be green and not brown. In the fall, I'm planting clover.
Labels: 2007, podcast, weather
By: Alyssa | at Monday, July 16, 2007 | |
Friday afternoon I got a call from our counter guy. He offered to come by our house to install counters - they'd just come in from the factory.
I figured, hey let's get this over with. Hours later, I was in a haze, listening to men talk in hushed tones in the kitchen. I had no idea counter installation would stink quite so much.
Epoxy is smelly. On Saturday morning, after a good fume-induced slumber, (don't worry - I'm not going to become a huffer) I awoke to plumbing duty. More fumes.
Deeps and I successfully installed drains, faucets and made connections. So far, no leaks.
And tonight I have a new sink, swanky counters and a flashy new faucet. I feel like I could conquer the world.
That may be the fumes talking.
Labels: 2007, house
By: Alyssa | Sunday, July 15, 2007 at Sunday, July 15, 2007 | |
Counters have been delayed until Saturday - we think. Someone else got ahead of us in line by accident. Horrors!
So I'll offer up this little tidbit of scoopage - we're pulling together our list of topics for this week's podcast including the return of Eureka,
Ice Road Truckers,
Laurie Notaro's first novel, maybe the Harry Potter movie, and another video game. Plus all the usual suspects like Dirty Jobs, Flight of the Conchords, Burn Notice, and Doctor Who.
If the installation of the counters and sink happens on Saturday we'll probably have to delay our usual recording by an extra day to install the faucet and update the plumbing. Oh and I'm throwing somebody a baby shower, so there's that.
But there will be a podcast. It might be a little late.
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Labels: 2007, podcast
By: Alyssa | Thursday, July 12, 2007 at Thursday, July 12, 2007 | |
So the granite wasn't ready in time for installation today. But we'll get it tomorrow - that's cool. Still less than 2 weeks going end to end on the project and I find that to be totally acceptable.
In other news, I saw an evil blue jay attack a little tabby cat from down the street. We were walking around and spotted the cat in the street - she looked kind of alarmed. Then I noticed the small family of jays circling about. A particularly brave (and vicious) one buzzed very closely to the cat and she flipped out.
I believe that bird attack might have triggered a cat attack later - Poopus was in the window and freaked out about something. She turned on me and I thwarted her attempts at murdering me with a throw and a pillow.
I can feel it coming in the air tonight. Hold on. Or something like that.
Labels: 2007, evil bird, weird stuff
By: Alyssa | Wednesday, July 11, 2007 at Wednesday, July 11, 2007 | |
We usually do one kind of large (well, large for us) project every year. Last year we did crown molding. It wasn't especially expensive but it was incredibly time consuming (for us). Our skills are kind of lame.
This year I thought we should branch out and upgrade the kitchen counters. I got a good referral from our friend Sparky for a guy. And now we're set to get new counters tomorrow which is extremely exciting (for us).
The only downside in this process is that we'll get a new stink installed (undermount) but that it won't be connected to the plumbing. So certain members of the family, fresh off a victory over the toilet in the master bath, believe that they can make a couple of connections.
I've offered that I'm willing to go two days without a working kitchen sink - but after that we hire somebody.
So time will tell how this little adventure works out. I can only hope it goes better than the crown molding. I was patching nail holes and touching up paint for months afterward.
Labels: 2007, house
By: Alyssa | Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at Tuesday, July 10, 2007 | |
Summer means a lot of things to people - sun, sand, ice cream, and relaxation. For others, it means
white pants.
I like white pants as much as the next person, but they can be a little problematic. I think we all understand that white is unforgiving.
We've all been there, new white shirts seem to attract bits of food and drips of coffee faster than anything. Where'd this ketchup come from, you might ask? I haven't eaten ketchup since 2003 - and yet there it is on your shirt.
Today I walked behind lovely woman. As she climbed the stairs in front of me I noticed that her lovely white pants revealed more than she probably wanted to share with strangers. Apparently she forgot that when wearing white pants you should make sure not to wear blue polka dot drawers.
I guess it's not her little secret anymore.
Labels: 2007, filler
By: Alyssa | Monday, July 09, 2007 at Monday, July 09, 2007 | |
This week Deeps, Derek and I tackle the latest and greatest on television including problems in the workplace on Rescue Me, problems with lipstick (and fashion) on The Closer, problems with roommates on Flight of the Conchords, and problems with your momma on Burn Notice.
Plus we discuss the return of
Doctor Who and we admire a certain new companion - she's feisty and fun. And I review a video game -
Wario Ware Smooth Moves for the Wii. I can hardly believe it myself.
Listen to this week's episode.Subscribe to the podcast with
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Labels: 2007, podcast
By: Alyssa | Sunday, July 08, 2007 at Sunday, July 08, 2007 | |
I went to get my hair dealt with last night. In hindsight I should have gotten more done, but I was tired and couldn't hang around for hours and hours.
Well - I ended up hanging around for hours, but that wasn't how I planned it.
I arrived after work for my appointment and noticed that my hair person was working on another client. But she was still cutting and her client had a lot of hair. I popped in my earbuds, grabbed a magazine and settled in for a good long wait. About forty minutes later she apologized and got going on my color.
Maybe four or five minutes into my session a receptionist appeared to inform my hair lady that Doctor So-and-so was here for her appointment. I giggled. Hair lady said she'd just be another few minutes. The receptionist replied that Dr. So-and-So said she could reschedule if the wait would be long.
Hair lady looked very annoyed and I raised an eyebrow. Hair lady said that she'd just be a few minutes. The receptionist scurried back to the front to face the Doctor.
Me: If you can find someone else to finish my color, that's fine with me. I would hate for there to be an incident.
Hair lady considered this for a moment before finding someone to finish up my color. She apologized profusely for running late and for ditching me for an annoying client. Hair lady thought it was weird that Doctor So-and-So insists on making appointments as Doctor So-And-So.
Being a doctor might help you pull rank at the hospital or maybe a fancy restaurant. But at the ol' neighborhood salon it doesn't mean much.
I giggled at the irony of a doctor being annoyed with a wait. I guess Doctor Whatsherface doesn't have a sense of humor.
Labels: 2007, hair
By: Alyssa | Friday, July 06, 2007 at Friday, July 06, 2007 | |
We're in the early part of a long thunderstorm - so I'm not sure if that means fireworks are a wash or not. Regardless, it's cool and stormy this 4th of July.
Last night we went to a big Independence day barbecue complete with oceanfront fireworks. We ate hot dogs, drank beer and oohed and ahhed like champs. Today we are reflective and relaxed. Some members of the family might have napped while others lounged on the front porch.
Tonight we'll watch some stuff for the podcast and hope for clear skies for fireworks. The cat is hoping for rain - not a fan of loud noises.
Looking for something to help you through the rest of the week? Hit the
podcast page and check out the giant library of 37 episodes. Better still, subscribe to the podcast with
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Labels: 2007, filler, weather
By: Alyssa | Wednesday, July 04, 2007 at Wednesday, July 04, 2007 | |
I don't usually have a case of the Mondays, but yesterday I was a little crabby.
I realized that as I waited behind a particularly slow woman at the coffee shop. She took forever to order and then spent a lot of time chatting with the other slow customer while stirring and sipping her coffee.
When you become completely enraged for very tiny infractions like say - taking too long with the cream and sugar at the coffee kiosk you probably need to reevaluate your relationship with caffeine. And you might need a vacation.
I'm going to spend out some exciting times on the Internet today. Browsing is the first step on the road to recovery.
Labels: 2007, filler
By: Alyssa | Tuesday, July 03, 2007 at Tuesday, July 03, 2007 | |
I often volunteer to help friends with their home improvement projects. I'm not really skilled in many ways, but I am more than willing and able to do stuff like clean and paint.
A few weeks ago I was part of a small, elite team of painters who tackled a vicious baby nursery project. Okay - it was just a little room that we painted a soft green, but that version is boring.
I guess stories about painting, in general, are boring.
I'm also good at demolition.
Yesterday I arrived at Sparky and Electra's house for what they described as "light demo". If you ever get the opportunity to rip something apart and then build it back up, especially at someone else's house, you should take it.
So I borrowed the pry bar and put my hammer to good work. We made quick work of their old screened porch and have left the main structure in tact to rebuild in the future.
At one point Electra and I were wailing on the a post - wood and dirt was flying - when Sparky noted that we were a deadly force to be reckoned with. But only on structures below five and half feet.
"Yeah, we'll need a ladder," Electra agreed.
"I like the idea that we're agents of destruction for cities and towns under six feet tall," I replied. "Like tiny Godzillas."
Labels: 2007, filler
By: Alyssa | Monday, July 02, 2007 at Monday, July 02, 2007 | |
This week Derek, Deeps and I talk about TV and video games - that's right we branched out!
We talk about
Age of Love (hideous!),
Burn Notice (pretty okay), and The 4400 (dripping with mythology!). Plus we discuss the finer points of
Lego Star Wars and
Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz.
*
We did get this wrong - but we kind of knew it.
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Labels: 2007, podcast
By: Alyssa | Sunday, July 01, 2007 at Sunday, July 01, 2007 | |
