SNL’s Kristen Wiig… Just Kidding

I posted an SNL recap a while back that included Kristen Wiig’s performance as Judy Grimes, the “Just Kidding” travel lady from Weekend Update. While I think Amy Poehler and Tina Fey are probably the funniest women around, Kristen Wiig needs some love, too. She steals every skit she is in.

Here are some links to some KW skits on SNL. (Sorry, I can’t embed this directly and there are commercials, too.) Sadly, I can’t seem to find my favorite skit with her and Justin Timberlake as Target employees. If you have a link to it, let me know.

Now that you are reading this, tell me. Who’s your favorite Kristen Wiig character? I like the Target lady.

Just Kidding
Suze Orman Show
Penelope – Traffic School

Read the Directions

If you’re like me, when you get directions for anything you follow them. That’s why they are there.

I’ve put together shelves, a little red wagon, and a host of other things while being a good girl and following the directions. When I’m given directions to someone’s house, I follow them. If I’m lost, I don’t mind asking for directions. If I’m about to mix chemicals in a beaker using a bunsen burner, I read all the directions first. That’s what my teacher told me to do.

Following directions is the key to success to most any activity.

I was surprised to discover recently that there are directions on the back of laundry detergent bottles. Not because they shouldn’t be there but because I’ve never read them! I’m not referring to how much detergent to use or what temperature the water should be. These are step one, do this. Step two, do that.

On the back of a bottle of Tide the following appears: Start washer, add detergent, then add clothes.

Here’s what’s on the back of a bottle of Woolite in a bulleted list: Select gentle or delicate cycle. Select cold water setting unless label instructs otherwise. Fill machine with water. Pour WOOLITE® (<– nice branding) with measure cap. Add clothes. Follow drying instructions on clothes.

OK, so here’s the thing. I never knew you were supposed to do things in that order. Water, detergent, then clothes? Really? Should the Woolite directions read, “Begin filling machine with water” or does it mean fill it to the “top” of the basin first? I don’t understand how you can put clothes in a washer with the water already in there. Don’t your hands get all wet? If you have to fill it, will the water spill out as you add more clothing?

I’m usually clothes, water, detergent. How could I have been doing this wrong this whole time?

And why hasn’t my washer protested? I didn’t follow the directions. Shouldn’t it have spit the detergent back out at me? Is this why I don’t have the whitest of whites? Is this why my black pants fade?

I Need a Warning

Yikeys! Am I getting old or what?

Just now on The View, the Chippendale dancers opened the show because the show is live from Las Vegas. They were dancing and gyrating around. And they busted their shirts open and danced some more. I felt like I needed some kind of warning about this and averted my eyes. It was a bit much.

Yesterday, I was flipping through a People Magazine (the one with Tim Russert on the cover) and there Mario Lopez was in all his glory. Seriously, look it up. Do a search for Mario Lopez nude on a bear skin rug. Whoa. Um. OK. That was a lot of flesh showing on that 2-page photo, a re-creation of Burt Reynolds in Cosmo in 1972. I didn’t need to see either of those photos.

A weekend ago, I went to a concert. It was a pretty big one with a well-known artist. Before the main act graced the stage, a slightly lesser-known performer took the stage. His performance was very theatrical and it essentially took us on a musical journey through a romantic relationship. Boy meets girl, they date, and they “get it on.” Yeah, they start to “get it on” in front of us (thankfully, the “completion” occurred backstage). At first I was thinking, “WTF is this? Is she supposed to be doing that? Is this what I think it is?” It was very… um… uncomfortable to witness this, so I didn’t. I leaned over to my friend and asked, “Is it me or do you feel like we’re watching something we shouldn’t be? I feel like a voyeur.” She nodded in agreement.

So I ask you, am I just getting old? Am I a prude? Or have we reached scandalously low levels of decency?

Sweep the Leg

Ever listen to the songs that are on video games? Neither do I. haha. Actually, there was a really catchy song on some game the husband was playing with the other day. It was so catchy in fact, that I had to go to iTunes to try to find it. It’s called Sweep the Leg by No More Kings. I’m going to guess I’m a little behind in knowing who this group is since I’m not an avid MTV watcher. (Shah…as if they show videos any more.)

I like the pop culture overtones to this song. “Sweep the leg, Johnny.” Remember that from The Karate Kid was back in the ’80s? Yeah, awesome, right? Here’s a look at the video. Give it a chance. Though it takes a moment to get going, there are some great scenes in it. It’s directed by Johnny himself, Billy Zabka. Also, look out for cameos.

more about “Sweep the Leg“, posted with vodpod

Saving Sanity… and Gas

This month I will have traveled by car every weekend. (One more trip next weekend.) Trips are anywhere from 150-300 miles one way. As I plug along, I, of course, notice the price of gas. It can range from 5 cents higher to 25 cents higher than where I live. It blows my mind. I’m spending money that I could use to buy shoes… or groceries. haha. Thankfully we seem to be in a location where our price per gallon is lower than the national average.

During the last trip I took in my car (2000 VW Jetta, stick shift, 4 cylinder? 6 cylinder? I don’t remember!) I went about 450 mostly highway miles on a full 13-gallon tank, using the AC. That’s about 35 mpg. Pretty good if you ask me. Now, keep in mind, most of the driving is just me in the car. I rarely have passengers, not that I mind that or won’t carpool. It’s just the way it seems to be. Also, the SUV we have is gas-guzzler in comparison, but with all the stuff we had to tote this weekend, sometimes it’s necessary to drive it. Next weekend, we are taking my car.

Anyway, there are a few things I’ve been doing for a while just because, but I now realize that it’s probably made a difference in my fuel-efficiency during everyday driving. First, I always park the car in the garage when I’m home. I know some people don’t have the luxury, so if you don’t, maybe under a tree would work. I don’t really know. To me, parking in the garage helps a lot because it keeps the car cool. When I go to work, I don’t have to turn on the AC because the cool air in the car lasts until I get there, which is a about 15-minute commute on mostly highway. Lucky, I know.

I always use cruise control, even when I’m only going 35-45 mph. I’ve been doing that for years so I wonder if that’s going to go kaput some time soon. Regardless, I heard a while back that using cruise control is good for your fuel-efficiency. I like it because I’m not always good at keeping a constant speed. This is also good for those who have lead-foot issues. Because I use the cruise control and am so used to it, I coast a lot and only use the brakes when I have to. Again, I’ve heard that’s a good way to reduce fuel consumption.

I drive us around town more. We used to always take the SUV when we went to dinner, to the store, whatever, but now I drive us in the VW more.

Something new that I’ve started to do the last few months is avoiding stop-and-go driving. Where we live, getting around is pretty easy. On our way to our usual places, we typically have the choice between the highway and the lights. Distance-wise, the lights are probably shorter, but there are a lot of them. So now I avoid as many lights as I can. In fact I now take a different route to work so that I don’t have to drive through town. There are a ton of stop lights in downtown. If only I had thought of this 8 years ago!

Thirsty?

I picked up some more Sobe today and the colors of the drink inspired me to try some food styling photography, or in this case, drink styling. I’ve wanted to improve my portrait photography for some time but I don’t have any willing models just yet, so I have come back to the idea of taking photos of food. (Remember rule #2 of the blog. This is where you read my mind because I’ve never talked about this topic before.)

So this afternoon, I hit the backyard with my bottles of Sobe. This picture is my favorite. Does it make you thirsty? I hope so.

This was actually the second set of shots for the afternoon. The first set just didn’t cut it. There was no pop to the images.

My thought behind this image was that these drinks were just pulled out of a cooler on the patio of someone’s house. In actuality, however, the drinks were cold, but they didn’t sweat on their own. I spritzed them throughout the photoshoot. If you look at any picture of a drink, it’s almost always wet looking. I personally don’t like it when my drink sweats, but for photography, it works.

I love the natural sunlight. It’s the best source of lighting for something like this. And the sky looks nice and inviting. I can just imagine the text of an magazine advertisement written across the top.

I set up another shoot with some bottles of Mike’s Hard Lemonade that was already in the refrigerator. At first, I thought the pictures would be really bad. The whitish color, the black label… I thought they would not be good parts of the subject.

Turns out, they look fine. Just like magic! They, too, received a little spritzing. It’s hard to see it in the small image, but my intention was to show drops of water dribbling down the sides of the bottles. You’d be able to see this better in a larger image. There are also some nice sunbust accents on some of the drops of water.

I guess I should mention that these pics are as is. I didn’t manipulate them in Photoshop, aside from sizing them for the web.

So what do you think? Good? Bad? Do you have suggestions for how I can improve? Constructive criticism is welcomed.

In the meantime, drink up!

Luke Russert Interview

I’ve probably been watching too many videos about Tim Russert today and yesterday. It’s apparent that his presence will be missed.

This is a great interview from this morning’s Today Show with Tim Russert’s son Luke. It makes you wish you knew Tim Russert and his family personally.

Tim Russert Tribute

Meet the Press Remembers Tim Russert (article)

A Death in the Family (video)

Remembering Tim Russert (video)

Portrait of a Family Man (video)

Pal, Go Get em (video)

Where the Light Is Preview

Not much can compare to your favorite musician playing live in concert. There’s something so wonderful about that kind of experience. For me, no matter how hot, how humid, how crowded, how sweaty it is, I’m in heaven. It’s total bliss. Aside from the possibility of losing my hearing, I’d go concerting every week if I could.

That’s why it’s particularly awesome when I am treated to non-cellphone-recorded, non-You-Tube-uploaded, professional video of a concert. July 1 is the big day when Where the Light Is will be released. It’s a DVD (film by Danny Clinch) of John Mayer’s “triple threat” concert that he played in Los Angeles a few months ago. By triple threat, I mean, it’s the bluesy-rock John Mayer Trio, the pop-rock John Mayer with his band, and the acoustic John.

Want a preview? Check out it at the AT&T Blue Room. It’s pretty cool. He plays a number of songs from Try! and Continuum. If you only have 5 minutes, I recommend going with Who Did You Think I Was. It’s probably the Johnny you’ve never experienced before.

My Playlist

After my last post, I started thinking about my own playlist. I’m not a musician per se, nor am I famous, but I who doesn’t have a song that has impacted them in some way? It was really tough to limit it to just 5 songs like they do on Nightline, and I didn’t start off intentionally choosing such a wide variety of genres. I think it’s just a reflection of my taste in music. Here’s what I came up with (along with links to iTunes):

• Linus and Lucy by Vince Guaraldi Trio. You know this one. Remember the Peanuts Christmas cartoon from when you were a kid? The scene where the kids were dancing around? Yeah, that song. No words, just instruments. It just makes me happy.
• Stop this Train by John Mayer. This isn’t one of his songs that is out there on the public airwaves but it’s really significant to me. It’s pretty thoughtful and heavy, so don’t listen to it on a daily basis or if you’re sad in any way.
• Walk Humbly Son by Eddie From Ohio. This, too, isn’t a song you should consume on a daily basis. It’s heavy and has heavy meaning for me… and a lot of other people I know.
• Kiss by Prince. This is perhaps the only song I know word-for-word, hoot-for-hoot, and grunt-for-grunt. “Act your age, not your shoe size”
• It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday by Boyz II Men. Acapella and fabulous.

Your turn.