Things to say

We had a really terrific weekend at my friend's lake "cottage". Our gang of friends went and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves playing games, gazing at the lake (the brave ones taking a dip) and drinking what might be considered a ridiculous number of margaritas. Actually, it was not as ridiculous as we anticipated because M&I wanted to take 100 limes, but, in the end we only took 64. If you don't know me, I have some kind of crazy compulsion/worry about not having enough food.

On the drive through Indiana my friend and I like to text each other. This is what she wrote to me:

OMG. Just saw a sign for 'Pumpkin Fall Fest' and my cell keeps having no coverage. We don't know where TF we are. We're going to be raped and mu [some text missing]

That's what it said, for realsies.

Something has been weighing heavily on my heart. Some time ago, perhaps rashly, I blogged about cat litter. I knew it would come to haunt me, perhaps sooner than this, but I must... I MUST SPEAK OUT! Loathe I was to admit my dad was right, but his prescient remarks in comments were all too true. Again, I quote verbatim:

And you can flush it down the toilet! Now that's Gross! I can't wait to hear about the drains of Evanston being clogged-up....Headlines of the news..."Kitty Litter Stops Up Drains"! Now that's a lot of kitty s_ _ _!

Not long after that ill-begotten post of April Ought-Nine DID our pipes begin to back up, and lo, were we forced to call the plumber and spend ungodly plumber-money having it fixed.⁺ Whether the back-up was due to the kitty litter, I cannot say for sure, but we don't dump it in the toilet anymore, we just do it the old fashioned way.*

⁺Now my conscience is clean!

*Bake it into cakes and feed it to our enemies.

Some movies I'm excited about

Here are a few movies that I'm really excited about. Links to trailers.

Whip It
In theaters: October 9, 2009
Directed by Drew Barrymore, starring Ellen Page, about girl roller derbiers? Yes, please!

Good Hair
In theaters: Oct. 9, 2009
A documentary starring Chris Rock about black women's hair. Also features Maya Angelou.


Where the Wild Things Are
In theaters: October 16, 2009
Directed by Spike Jonze
Co-written by David Eggers and in collaboration with Maurice Sendak - OMG, I'm pretty sure we can trust these guys. Right?

Fantastic Mr. Fox
In theaters: November 13, 2009
Directed by Wes Anderson - whatcha been doin', Wes Anderson? Oh, making this movie? With George Clooney? Ok, then!

Jackson, WY

The last few days of our trip we stayed in a spa/hotel in Jackson - we had a lovely little luxury cabin and indulged ourselves with massages, soaks, and gourmet food.

Here we are at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar":

The Tetons

We camped and hiked in the Tetons. The best hike was back in Cascade Canyon. We saw gorgeous views, beautiful wildflowers, and tons of animals: bison, elk, prong horn antelopes, pika (at high-risk for extinction due to global warming *frownie face*), and mooses! (Meeses?)

Yellowstone

M & I got back from our trip out west this afternoon. Have been doing that weird re-adjustment thing one does when they come home from a vacation. One of the first things we did was put ALL of our clothes in the wash - they were DIS-GUSTING. One pair of pants, I couldn't even bring home - I threw them in the trash, they smelled so bad. Hiking, camping... I tell ya...

We happened to catch Grand Geyeser going off - it only goes off once or twice a day and not regularly, like Old Faithful.

Here's M in front of the terraces at Mammoth - they were amazing, like another world. Nearby was a hot spring which fed into a river - we went for a soak there - it was so fun, the river was freezing, but this boiling water was puring into it. It felt delicious!

This was one of my favorite views - the repetition of these tall lodge-pole pines - so different than the forests I grew up with!

When there's something strange...

Special husband has been playing Ghostbusters on PS3 recently and admitted that it's a bit boring. We're now watching the movie on dvd. I can't help thinking that if this movie were made today, it'd be amovie about like, the psychological consequences of containing ghosts - you know, to like take all these spirits and lock them in a vault. In any event, it's true that they just don't make songs to go along with movies like that anymore.

Last week I saw a lovely play at the Steppenwolf called UP by Bridget Carpenter. It's based partly on this guy and partly on this guy, but what I took away was that sad but true reality that you can't escape our socio-economic paradigm. Unless you like, move to a commune or something. Or buy a farm in Minnesota and live off the grid. I figure I'd last about three months on a farm.

You scream, I cream

Over the weekend M & I went with some friends to an very interesting dessert shop - here's a pic of what it looked like (shamelessly stolen from my friend's fb):Those are classic KitchenAid mixers with metal tubs attached to them - at the other end - guess what? Friggin' liquid nitrogen. You order ice cream or yogurt flavorings, even color; they pour in cream and whatnot, turn on the juice, and a few seconds later, Bob's your uncle. Ice cream verdict: Not bad. Venue name (i cream): ick.