The Post We’ve All Been Waiting For!

Lissa and I auditioned with a local community theatre group here in Cincinnati about two weeks ago. They had a VERY small turnout for the auditions. We got to read opposite eachother and had TONS of fun. (the most fun audition ever, I think.) The two directors we read for seem like very cool guys, both a bit older, with some experience in the Cincinnati scene.

I was cast for both shows; Lissa was cast in one of the two. The first show, that we are both in, is by one of my favorite playwrites. It goes up in Nov. The second show is a silly play full up of murder plots and family fun. (lots of kissing, but none by me. *whew*) It goes up in Feb. This means I will have done TWO shows before my birthday. Somehow this is very important. I knew 30 was going to be a very good year.

So, I have a fall show and a winter show. I may hold off on auditioning for a spring show until it gets closer to spring. There are a few other companies I’m looking at that have interesting seasons lined up. I’ll have two shows on my resume by then. That must carry some sort of street cred, right?

I know I haven’t given you dates and times for performances yet. I’m not sure why. It took me a week to actually make this post about the successful audition. I think I may still be in shock. I promise I will give you all of the details when I’m good and ready. (Have I mentioned it’s been eleven years since I last took the stage?)

p.s. This will be Lissa’s FIRST show ever! Please honor her request, and wait until at least the second performance before showering her with roses. :) LOVE YOU LOU!

Not Up for a Meal Plan

Meal planning has worked out pretty darn well for us the past couple of weeks, with only a few exceptions: company and assorted illness.

My super sister came out to stay with us last weekend. She was a great help; I had lots of fun while she was here. However she is scared of couscous, so we went out to Don Pablos instead. Every once in a while, I have to have their chips and salsa: nothing else will do. Yum!

Over the weekend, I came down with a case of numb feet. It would be funny if not so annoying. The fact that I have tingling down my legs has been very distracting; I am having trouble balancing, and walking is a chore. Ben has been wonderful about catering to me the past few days, including fixing meals and ordering pizza. I have every intention of planning away again very soon. (I have been to the doctor and have an MRI scheduled.)

So, stay tuned. I’m sure Ben will keep you entertained with lots of useless dork-info. He’s pretty good at that. :)

Something you don’t see every day

Oh my god. This is definitely the craziest thing I’ve seen in a while. A WWII-era plane had to make an emergency landing on a busy Wisconsin highway, and it was all caught on tape by police cameras. I’m not sure what the plane is (Dad, maybe you can elaborate?), but that’s not what I would want to see in front of me on the highway.

I also couldn’t find much more info on what exactly happened, but I’m sure something will turn up at some point.

Check out the video below.

UPDATE: So I just realized that this video is loading reaaaaallly slow. Just give it a second and it will load. I’m not too familiar with the site it came from, but it’s not as fast as some of its competitors. *cough*YouTube*cough*

Menu Plan #2

Well, our first week of menu planning went quite well, if I do say so myself. I’m not sure what Ben ate on “leftover night,” and I choose not to ask. The other meals worked out wonderfully, including our salmon dinner. Lissa and Jason joined us for that one. Jason joined us for fried egg sandwiches. Why are fried egg sandwiches so good?

For our next week of meals, we are sticking to a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. (no fish, but including dairy and eggs.) Ben is taking a turn cooking, and we have no plan for a “leftover night.” I know you are all waiting on pins and needles, so here you go:

Mon: Grape and Walnut Salad.

Tues: Veggie Lo mein (Ben is attempting this one)

Wed: Fetticini Alfredo

Thurs: “Ckn” Carnitas

Fri: Couscous and Asparagus

Sat: Stuffed Pablano Peppers *new*

Sun: Eggplant Parmigiana

As always, feel free to leave suggestions, and let us know if you want to come to dinner!

Top 10 Favorite Movies of All-Time

So this will be an experiment. I was reading the other day about how to liven up your blog, and it suggested posting top 10 lists and getting your readers’ feedback, as well as their own lists. Sounds fun to me.

For this first installment, I thought I’d write up a list of my top 10 favorite movies of all time. Of course, you needn’t feel any pressure to post your own list, I just thought this would be a fun little blogging exercise :) Also note that these are just my personal favorites, not necessarily what I think are the best movies of all time (that’s a much more objective list).

So, without further ado, I give you my top 10 favorite movies of all time:

10. 2001: A Space Odyssey

9. Big Fish

8. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

7. Good Will Hunting

6. Finding Nemo

5. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

4. The Big Lebowski

3. American Beauty

2. Apollo 13

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (the 4 hour 10 min. version)

Ok, I know some of you are going to agree with some of these, and some are going to crack inevitable jokes (I’m looking at you John :), so bring it on!

Here’s the Redesign

So I know everybody’s just been hanging onto the edge of their seats since I posted about redesigning the site. Well, here it is! The point of the redesign was to cut down on overall file size of the pages, and organize the information in a more user-friendly manner. You many notice a few things have been moved around, but don’t worry, all your old comments and posts are still here.

Oh, before I forget, anyone out there that’s using Internet Explorer 6 (hopefully nobody :) may notice that the image at the top of the page is all funkdified. Classic case of IE not playing nice with others. But I digress. You guys will have to let me know what you think, and enjoy the new site!

Cheers,

Ben

Seems a little domestic…

In an effort to eat a more well-balanced diet, and to keep Ben from regularly eating ice cream for dinner, we are adopting a weekly menu-planning system.

We dug through magazines and cookbooks yesterday with the intent of introducing one new meal a week. We compromised, (no tomatoes, potatoes, ranch, sour cream, or broccoli) and discussed our options. Ideally, I would like to get away from convenience foods like “Burgers” and “Nuggets”. We’ll take it one week at a time and see what happens.

And now, I am proud to introduce, our first official menu plan!

Mon: Grape/Walnut Salad and Bread

Tues: Fried Egg Sandwiches and Strawberries

Wed: Pasta with Onions and Peppers

Thurs: “Chicken” Salad Sandwiches and Celery/Carrots

Fri: Leftovers (Ben has to do this himself!)

Sat: Salmon and Asparagus in parchment *new*

Sun: Veggie Burgers and Corn

Sounds yummy, doesn’t it?

If anybody has any ideas or suggestions, or might want to join us, leave us a comment. *wiggle*

Chicken Dinner

I feel some pressure to post about our Saturday Night Chicken Dinner. I think all of you that have checked your computer for this post, should comment now.

The dinner was one of the largest we’ve hosted: eleven people showed up. Only Becca, the working girl, and Tim, the PA-Dad were missing. We missed them, but had a good time anyway. :P

The menu consisted of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, black-eyed peas, corn on the cob, biscuits and gravy. We had a lovely fruit and cheese tray as an appetizer. Lissa whipped up some fruit dip that was to die for. We had lemon bars and rice krispies on crack for dessert. The food was all amazing. Lissa’s biscuits tasted really good, even if they were a little short. We had every burner on the stove, the microwave, and electric skillet and the oven going, ALL AT THE SAME TIME. This was about the time that everyone showed up. :)

Thanks to everyone for all their help, the wine, and the frying pans. Can’t wait for the next one! (around Thanksgiving..? J/K.)

Oh! and it was Lissa’s Dad’s birthday, too! He’s in the picture with his tasty dinner. Happy Birthday Marv!