Menage à Trois Bingo

Yesterday was the fullest busiest day I have had in ... probably ever. I mean, I sang a Black Sabbath song to Ozzy motherfucking Osborne, and that was only the SECOND most important and exciting thing I did yesterday, because I also got MARRIED!

Obviously, I've got some 'splainin to do.

I posted here almost a month ago that Tammie and I had gotten a marriage license. We had not yet set a date or made plans, so over the course of the next couple of weeks we figured that all out, made a reservation for a small private room at a local restaurant and invited our selected witnesses, for 4 o'clock on March 10th.

A little more than a week ago, the president of Charis told us we had been invited to appear on an upcoming episode of Ozzy and Jack's World Detour, to be taped...at noon on March 10th. My first thought was that no way would I be able to do it, but after talking to Tammie and Chris we decided I could make it work.

So I got up early yesterday morning, did my hair and makeup, and went to the nail salon for a manicure. Then I bought breakfast for my family, ran home and ate it with them, and took off for the tv taping, which was held in the church where we normally rehearse.

They rented us choir robes. I'd never worn a choir robe in my life, despite having sung in church choirs in my youth: it just wasn't a thing that our church did. Nor is it a thing that Charis normally does, but the tv show wanted it so *shrug*. We sang Black Sabbath's "Changes" and another song that we did last concert, by one of our own singers who is also a songwriter. Over and over and over we sang them, while they took video from multiple angles and recorded the sound again and again. I doubt I'll ever forget the words to either one, at this point.

Then, at long last, Kelly Osborne came in holding her dog Pauline, talked briefly to our conductor and our current and incoming presidents, and she and the video directors confirmed the plans. We would start out singing our own song, and then after Ozzy came in we would immediately switch to "Changes". And that is what happened; we sang while they filmed Ozzy and fam reacting to our singing. She told us afterward that she cried, and that her dad did as well, that it is a song that is very meaningful to both of them. The audio engineers asked us to sing it a second time, they redid all the video, we got some group photos with Ozzy and Kelly (and the dog), and the whole thing was over before two p.m. The whole shtick is that he's being surprised at where they take him, and we were told that when they brought Ozzy to the church he was like, "Why am I in a church?" The episode is expected to air sometime in late June/July: you'll hear details as soon as I do.

Charis stayed behind for a little while and also recorded a video to be sent to Ellen Degeneres asking her to send us a congratulations video for our 25th anniversary concert (upcoming May 4 & 5), we sang Happy Birthday to the pastor of the church we were in, and I ran away before any of the cleanup. As my chorus sisters knew what was up, no one's going to upset about that.

I got home around two, and spent about an hour decompressing, just hanging out with Rose and playing iphone games. Then it was time to get dressed and ready for the wedding.

Chris married us, as he's ordained with the Universal Life Church, and we had our daughter Rose and Tammie's boyfriend (and my maybe-something-new) Sean as the two witnesses, while Chris's girlfriend Riley took the photos. I'm the one in the tiara, Tammie is the one in the veil.

Photo album here



I don't really feel much different today; the legal arrangements really aren't supposed to and hopefully really won't make any real difference to our family situation, but these few weeks are kind of a weird liminal space anyway. Just getting the license and making the plans changed something, saying the vows changed something else, but until the license is actually recorded with the state we can't make any paperwork changes, so until then it still feels weirdly pending.

After the ceremony and dinner, we went to see Black Panther, which: amazing! But still only the third most exciting thing of Saturday, so. However, I do recommend the film. Go see it. I appreciate it when a movie gives its antagonist(s) a valid and valuable viewpoint, even if their means are suspect.

Last week AJ invited me to a movie. "The Wall is playing at the Tivoli," he said. I said, "sure, why not," figuring it had been 25 years since I saw The Wall and I was pretty drunk at the time and barely remember it.

Last night we arrived at the theater, and the poster showed The Wall. Not quite the same thing at all. I was half glad I hadn't mentioned my thoughts out loud, for fear of sounding like an idiot, and half wished I had, so that we would have actually figured out we were talking about different movies.

We did watch it, though. It was a very bare-bones film, just one location and three characters, one of whom we never actually see. A psychological thriller viewed through the eyes of one man. My comment at the end was that despite the wide open desert of the set, it was oddly claustrophobic.

(Wow, there are some WEIRD reviews on that imdb listing.)

Last night was AJ's and my first ever actual sleepover--and all we did was sleep. Figures.

And now I need to locate my Pink Floyd CD's.

Valentine's Day was a busy one for the Rivendell household. lavendargrrl went to work at the yarn shop, and I logged in remotely and spent three hours or so working myself. Then I sneaked upstairs to wrap the supersecrets before ohari, the Baby and I took ourselves to Poly Munch.

But not directly. I was driving, and Chris doled out the directions for the side trip as we went.

Chris: Go north on Kingshighway.

Me: Is it okay if I pick it up at Chippewa, or are we going somewhere between?

Chris: No, that's fine.

*drive drive drive*

Chris: Turn right at Vandeventer; go .4 mile. Turn right at Shaw; go 264 feet.

Me: Are we going to Gringo Jones or the Bug Store? Cause that's all there is right there...

Gringo Jones it was. My big Valentine's present is a new pair of griffins for the front steps, to replace the ones that went walkies three years ago during the time this house was being rented out. (Tenants said, "We never saw them!" Yeah right. But I discovered their absence after I'd already returned their deposit.) They weren't in stock and will have to be ordered, so we'll probably get them in mid-March. This time they will be epoxied to the porch, TYVM.

Stopped by the String Store to check in on Tammie and see if we could extricate her for the rest of the afternoon. String Store was bouncy with puppies (a 12-week-old chocolate lab/shepherd/something mix that Sandy is fostering, as well as her own two dogs), but we got Tammie out of there anyway.

Off to Munch, where we ran into Modrid whom I haven't seen in quite a while, as well as most of the Usual Suspects and soraidh.

"Once you fall under the spell of Rivendell, forever shall it dominate your destiny..." - reannon (Correct the quote, ekd, if you remember, cause I don't think this is quite right at the beginning.)

After much eating of not-very-good pizza, Rosa had a date with Daddy. They had a Valentine's Day reservation at White Castle. Yeah, the idea boggled my mind too. But in any case we dropped her off and took ourselves to our next event: Coraline at Ronnies. Where we bumped into and sat next to tsita and her mystery date. *wink*

Before the movie, there was a text update from transplantmom...we decided to invite her to join us for our dinner reservation after the movie.

Movie was fantastic, in the original sense as well as the modern one. We, or some subset of us, will be going back to take the Baby. Not as creepy as it could have been, but plenty of satisfactory creepiness.

Then dinner at Onesto, where the Valentine's Day theme was "Lady and the Tramp". Tables had been re-dressed in red and white checked tablecloths, chianti bottles with candles, the whole bit. There was a photographer doing pictures with a backdrop from the movie and bits of spaghetti for posing; of course we had one taken. Tammie convinced them to give us the file, so when that arrives I will post it for your delectation. The chef had come up with some fabulous specials and desserts. Dinner was lovely, and it was great that Selena was able to join us. Tammie and I had wild mushroom spaghetti, Selena had lobster and goat cheese not-ravioli (they were stuffed pasta, but I can't remember the correct name), and Chris had a pizza.

Just now, Chris and I got home from breakfast and a quick grocery trip, just in time for Rosa to arrive back from Daddy's house. Daddy has a date (woohoo!) so we're "babysitting". Baby and I are going to decorate sugar cookie hearts for Valentine's Day. Maybe there will be pictures later.

And after that I have to work some more. Being on jury duty this week has put me quite a bit behind on my project due Monday.

Waitress: possibly the best movie about pies ever made.

Nathan Fillion and pies. How can you lose.

Also, "Baby Don't You Cry (The Pie Song)". SQUEE!

Short review: I generally agree with ohari. Better by far than
Ep.I or Ep.II, but not on a par with Ep.V or Ep.VI. I'm not sure I'd
give it equivalent rating to Ep.IV either. Lucas's dialog evinces a case
of terminal Tin Ear Syndrome. But lots of juicy explosions and much less
of the feeling I'd had watching Ep.I and Ep.II that he had created
nothing more than a pastiche of the other three movies. ( Spoileriffic comments follow )

I took Rosa to the company Kids' Holiday event Saturday: a private showing
of _The Polar Express_. For a basically sweet story that could be summed up
in a single sentence (Boy who is losing faith in Santa Claus gets a
faith-restoring trip to the North Pole), it's got a disturbing undercurrent
of creepy and scary. This may have been exacerbated by the fact that we were
sitting in the third row, at her request, but Rosa was frankly terrified in
parts, and kept asking to be taken home. I should have listened to her.

No one actually gets hurt in any way, but there are a number of near-miss
disasters involving the eponymous train: a frozen lake over the tracks, the
calamitous cracking of that same ice, a very steep rollercoasterish decline,
rocking back and forth of the locomotive with small children on it. The
central character spends much of the trip on the outside of the
snow-and-ice-covered train. I was scared myself.

Also, most of the adult characters from the train conductor to a ghostly
hobo to the engineer and stoker to the North Pole denizen elves, are
slightly creepy in either appearance or behavior. It's mostly the tones of
voice, I guess, but I kept reading anger and threat into their words and
postures. While one elf encourages a boy to trust him, his body language
says "I'm going to steal your present."

On the other hand, the animation is gorgeous and, as I said at the
beginning, the basic story is awfully sweet. Maybe the problem was that the
movie is directed to older children who are at the end of the Santa
Claus stage, say eight or nine, rather than Rosa's five, and someone thinks
older children need more "suspense". I felt cheated, though; I had expected
sweet and cuddly, and I got creepy and nerve-jangling.

Ray apparently has a copy of the original book. I've never read it; I'm
interested to see whether the creepiness is in the book, too, or whether it
was introduced by the filmmakers. Rosa told me he had put it away somewhere
because "it was too long".

She's never believed in Santa Claus, actually; she's scared of mall santas.
I ask her every year, but she always refuses to go visit Santa. After the
movie, I asked her if Santa was real. She said something interesting. She
said, "He's real but it's just a man in a costume." I'm not sure whether
that meant that a) obviously there's a real man in that costume, or b)
there's a real "santa spirit" but Santa himself isn't real or c) who knows
what.

I wanted to see Death to Smoochy at the discount theatre near work. It turned out to be showing only at 9:15, so I wasted the intervening three hours by going shopping at the mall. On a whim I went to Wilson's Leathers, and found a clearance sale: 50% off the lowest marked price. The selection was very picked over, and there were very few sizes available, but I got a black leather miniskirt and a blood-red leather bodice for a total of $40 (original price would have been closer to $200). Then I went to Hot Topic looking for shoes. They only had two pairs even close to my size, but one was too small and the other too big. I went to Supermarket of Shoes instead and found a pair of shoes and a pair of boots, again both on sale. After that I went and splurged all the savings and then some, buying Rosa the beginnings of a summer wardrobe. Doorknobs for my new doors, which are due to be installed tomorrow and Friday, a frozen custard sundae, and it was time to go to the movie.

I quite enjoyed it. It had that dark comedy vibe that amuses me more than straight comedy. Like Heathers, people were getting killed all over the place, but it was funny. And the whole premise was so completely absurd: jealousy over the kids' show crown.

Went to see Lord of the Rings again: this makes the fourth time. I was surprised to find that I didn't cry, even though I had every time before. And I got to see the Two Towers preview, yay! It appeared to feature Arwen, and for the life of me I can't figure out how they'll bring her into it, unless in a flashback.

The theater was nearly deserted: there were three other people, perhaps four, in the whole auditorium, and I saw no one else in the lobby either.

I finally got my dvd player hooked up to my new TV last night, after going to Radio Shack on Sunday and buying a component-video cable. Neither the player nor the TV came with cables--and after buying one, I knew why. The cable cost forty dollars! Hard to sell a dvd player for under a hundred dollars if you've included a forty-dollar cable. Anyway, I hooked it all up, and put in a disk, which I had also bought Sunday.

It displayed in black and white. That wasn't good. I looked through both user manuals and discovered that if I was getting component video input the TV would display "Component". It was displaying "Video" instead. Hmmm, maybe my cables weren't connected quite right. I crawled back behind the TV and found that the green cable was not fully attached. Aha! This time when I turned the TV back on, I had beautiful color.

The movie was Drop Dead Gorgeous which was recommended by aliciar. I didn't find it quite as laugh-out-loud funny as she did, but then I rarely laugh out loud when I'm alone. It always seems to take a feedback loop with at least one other person to get me to do that. It did however remind me very much of Heathers, which is one of my all-time favorite movies, and I think I'll be watching it again. Now to find But I'm a Cheerleader, which Al also recommended and I had been wanting to see anyway.

Time to start a Movies I Must See list, and/or a Movies I Must Own list.

Also time to connect the VCR so I can watch Heathers again.

I stayed up late last night to watch this on video. But I can't quite decide what I thought of it. I didn't find it "hilarious" or "in the tradition of Rocky Horror" as the blurbs on the package said. Quite to the contrary. It made me feel sad, and I'm still not quite sure what even happened in the end.