it's days like these that keep me on my winning streak

- I spent much of the weekend at the cabin with some of the Usual Suspects. it was awesome! we are big nerds at heart, so we spent a lot of time working on CON costumes instead of communing with nature, but that's okay.

- we did go on a nice boat ride and I took some awesome photos like this one:


- my mom is much much more interested in geek activities when my friends talk about them than when I do. =/

- someone posted 65 episodes of a teen soap opera that Karl Urban was in back in 1995. he's in like 40 some eps, and I'm downloading them all. why? I have no idea. except that he's all adorable and baby-faced in it. also, it's a New Zealand show but they're all dubbed in German so I have no idea what's going on. probably not actually necessary when KU walks into the scene wearing leather pants. ;)

- Doctor Who, OMG. is it next Saturday yet??

- I had to come back this morning since I had to work today. Boo.

- turning to me and saying 'don't you want to work overtime?' when I tell you we're open for 5 more minutes is not going to endear me to you, stupid customer.

- I know I said it already, but happy birthday wilowisp!!

- I told carleton97 that I would post some fic recs that we were dicussing in the car on the drive back, so here they are:

Days of Promise by icanbreakthesky
my friend Kate posted her bandom big bang today! Frank/Mikey, Bob/Frank/Mikey western!AU. I'll be reading it myself tonight or tomorrow. super excited about it!

Thick as Thieves by noelia_g
Kirk/McCoy White Collar-inspired AU. McCoy is a FBI agent who has spent years chasing Jim Kirk. it's pretty awesome!

Common Grounds by caitri
Kirk/McCoy modern day AU where Jim is a barista and McCoy stumbles into his coffee shop after walking around in a haze for a few months after his divorce.

The Basics of Primary Ed. by caera1996
Kirk/McCoy modern day AU where Jim is a kindergarden teacher and Bones enrolls Joanna in his class. it's not a good story, per se, but entertaining. especially if you like AUs, which I do. a LOT. because as you'll notice, these are all AUs.

and I'm absolutely heartbroken that Welcome to Hades was deleted due to the recent J2 FAILboat wank-causing Haiti story. because Hades was a gorgeous Pinto love story that happened to have Haiti as the backdrop. thankfully, I have it saved on my hard drive because it's a story I love re-reading. if people only created art that was sure to not offend or anger anyone, it would be a pretty bland and boring world. =(

Okay, seriously. I don't even know how I'm going to make this post coherent all. (Jaime's post makes much more sense than mine is going to) Basilica Block Party was the most fun I've had since...well, LAST weekend. ;)

So first off, the weather was PERFECT. Absolutely gorgeous! Couldn't have asked for it to be more beautiful than it was.

seimaisin and I met up with doll_revolution at BBP not too long after the gates opened. My whole plan was too get in front of the stage for Green River Ordinance and then stay up there for Matt Nathanson. There were a few people up there already but we managed to make it into the second row, right at the barrier. Perfect!

Last time we saw GRO it was on a cold February night and they played in front of about 12 people. Do you see this MF photo? Jamey Ice from GRO twittered it from onstage. It's not too hard to see Jaime, Holly and myself totally enjoying ourselves, right up front. Do you see all those people behind us? We had NO IDEA how many people were back there. It was crazy! And our adorable GRO boys were playing in front of them!

You may remember Jamey as the band boy who recognized me even though we'd never actually met? Oh yes, that's him. And he saw me pretty much right away when he walked on stage and said hi. ♥ Then later during the show, Josh (their singer) talked about how it was cold the last time they played here and I shouted 'we were there!' And someone from the other side of the stage (Geoff, I think?), which I could barely see, yelled back 'yeah, you were!' And then after Matty Nay was done, we wandered back to the merch tent and before we could even say anything, Josh saw us and gave Jaime and I each a big hug and said 'I can't believe you guys make it all the way up front!' We talked to them all for a while (except for Jamey, who was fangirling the Counting Crows on stage) and they are the nicest, most adorable guys and I love them a whole lot!

( I was silly and obeyed the rule about not bringing a camera, so these are from my crappy phone )

Also, I totally broke the T-shirt rule and wore their shirt to the show. But I wanted to show my support for them so it was okay. They actually thanked me for wearing it. ;)

In closing, Green River Ordinance is AWESOME and they're going to get huge (they're going on tour with David Cook!) and you should totally buy their album because it's my favorite album of the year!!

Back to on stage, between GRO and Matty Nay, there was a competitive eating Jimmy Johns eating contest? Or something? I have no idea what was going on. It was disgusting to watch and then they were throwing food into the crowd and...yeah.

But then Matt came out and everything was right with the world. Especially since the first word out of his mouth was 'fuck!' Heh heh. Oh Matt! And he was really fantastic! I've never been that close for him and I really enjoyed it. He looked DAMN GOOD and his shirt kept riding up and exposing skin and then I couldn't keep my eyes off the giant bulge in his pants. Yeah, I went there. *ahem* He played all the songs I would ever want to hear, including 'Detroit Waves' and 'Laid.' And then he started to intro the last song and immediately Jaime and I started going nuts, because we knew it was going to be 'Don't Stop Believin''! (I think we scared the girls next to us) And really, there may not be a more perfect way to end a summer evening than to be having a giant Journey sing-a-long as the sun is going down. AMAZING.

Jaime & I left Holly up front, since we're not that into the Counting Crows and FOUGHT our way back through the crowd. Seriously, pushing and shoving and it was crazy. There were so many people there! Once we saw the size of the crowd, we realized just how very lucky we'd been to be able to be up front. Unfortunately, we never did find duckduck as she made her way forward into the crowd. =( But we did manage to find jmasterflash and her friend and we hung out with them, in between running over to stalk talk to the GRO boys and getting food. Holly eventually gave up on the crowd too and managed to find us and we spent the rest of the night hanging out in the back.

It was a fantastic night and I can't possibly imagine how it could have been any better! I'm so happy we went!!

Also, sorry for all the Twitter spam tonight. Whoops?

I have a dreamwidth account now. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. Something. Maybe some sort of 'public' blog. Anyhow, I'm leigh over there.

And no, I'm not leaving el jay. I'm in this for more than just fandom and I can't imagine leaving. Unless livejournal implodes or something.

SO! Tonight we went to Senor Wong's for Dining Out for Life. And Father Glamour Shot Constantin was there with some friends. So randomly weird! Sven was there earlier in the night to eat with his family and shoot some footage for the news. We missed him by a couple hours. So sad!

Oh and dinner was delicious. And the company was lovely. =)

Yesterday, my brother was at my parents house when I got there and I asked him if he was going to come over today to see the new dog. He said he wasn't sure and that he'd heard she was a midget Riley. I told that to my sister, she loved it and the name's kind of stuck.

So, introducing Midge! (uhh, we think - it might change yet, I guess) ETA: Already changed to Annie. We'll see if that sticks.


( more adorableness behind the cut! )

So yeah, she's pretty adorable. And so tiny for a Scottie! She's a little hard of hearing and has cataracts, but otherwise she's in good health. She LOVES to eat. In fact, we were already calling her Midge the Mooch because she wouldn't stop begging around the table and following people around the kitchen. I was the one giving her treats because I was trying to get her to learn how to use the doggie door, so she stuck close to me a lot of the night and all through dinner.

She & Earl mostly ignored each other. I think they'll be okay. But she's tiny enough to fit under the bed and that's always been only Earl's territory. I don't think he'll be okay with sharing with her. We'll see.

The first family also got a new dog this weekend! The only thing I ever liked about Dubya was his awesome dog Barney. But this one is pretty cute too.

In other news!
We had a little meeting of the minds last night and came up with a plan for CONvergence. We're going out dressed up as a group for the Saturday night parties and everyone is welcome to join us! We'll be doing the Zombie Pirate Pub Crawl Cabana Shamble. Brilliant, eh? I can't wait to start getting my costume together! Aaarrrrrrrrrrbrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaains! By a unanimous vote of arrrrrrrrrrrrs, I'll be heading up this yet-nameless ship of Zombie Pirates as Captain Legend, I suppose. It's going to be so much fun!

Henry joined us last night since he'll also be attending CONvergence for the first time this year. He took a real shining to wilowisp. He still mostly just stares at me. In fact, he would look around the group and be giving everyone a huge smile and then completely drop it he when he looked my way. =/ I swear, I've never pinched him or anything.

Oh Bret...really? That girl?? :sigh:

Thank you, dear anonymous sender, for the gift of an emo heart! ;) 'Tis very sweet of you. ♥

praguematic is KILLING me. Seriously. She's at Gallifrey One. Gareth David-Lloyd (and Kai Owen!) is at Gallifrey One. I am in my parents kitchen. I think you can see the problem here. ::frowny face::

Yes, I am once again dog sitting while my parents are in Phoenix for the next five days. Earl is already pissed off with me since I came back in the car without his mama, after I dropped them off at the airport. It's going to be a long few days.

Maybe we should just go take a nap...

I should probably give you all a much better recap of how Saturday night went, but I am too exhausted. So here's another photo, from my Project 365:



I walked into the bar and both Zach & Andy were drinking these ginormous drinks. They're called Tie Me to the Bedpost. How did I know I'd like Andy? Before we'd even been introduced, he offered his drink for me to try. =) And I may have helped Zach finish his off. Oops.

Here's some last.fm stats before I head to bed. ( in which the John Barrowman album obviously leaked )

I'm currently sitting in xiolablux's living room, here in Chicago. duckduck and I had a fabulous time at the Kasey Chambers show last night! I have all kinds of video that I might get around to posting sometime eventually. But our drive sucked and it actually took NINE hours to get here. It usually takes me six. =/

We're working on getting ourselves in a presentable fashion and then we're going to hang out with bibliogrrl for a while. And then it's Skid Row tonight!

Also, yaaaaaaarrrrr! =)

I had a pretty awesome weekend! I went down to the Minnesota Irish Fair all three days. Three days of FREE MUSIC! Okay, I had to walk for almost a mile so I didn't have to pay for parking, but it's not like I can't use the exercise. It's amazing to see how big the Irish Fair is, yet you can still run into people you know. Like f_o_n_y and cashbox, whom I chatted with a little on Sat.

A little rundown of the bands I saw:
Romantica - a local band that's sort of but not really Irish. They sounded lovely, especially on the bluegrass cover of "Hallelujah", but the lead singer needs some work on his between songs banter.

Scythian - They were completely fun! Traditional Irish music with a nice kick. A good lead in to the next band...

Flogging Molly - Crowd watching for the FM fans was completely fascinating. Lots of mohawks and chains. Even a mesh shirt on one guy. We got the heck out of the crowd because I value all my limbs, and actually ended up listening to part of the show while we hung out down by the river. FM was great! Even though it's still kind of weird for me to reconcile Dave King of FM with Dave King of Fastway and Katmandu.

The Tannahill Weavers - More traditional music. They were good. The crowd seemed really into them.

Sweet Colleens - Another local, sort of Irish band. I do like them quite a bit.

The Fuchsia Band - I was so happy to see that they were on the schedule! I've seen them all three years they've been at the Fair. And they didn't disappoint this year. Máirtín was perhaps even more entertaining than in previous years. I think he said 'oh jeepers!' about 20 times. I totally love these guys!

( Look, I even got a photo with them! )

The weather could not have been more perfect. It was sunny with a nice breeze, not too hot or cold. I don't even mind that I got a little sunburned on the top of my head and the back of my shoulder (which I apparently wasn't able to reach when I put sunblock on). A big improvement over last year, when we nearly died from the heat.

You know how sometimes you just have that perfect moment? Where everything is right with the world and you're exactly where you're supposed to be? That was exactly what Friday night was like. I was surround by awesome music and nine of my good friends and everything seemed perfect. I like those moments. =)

We actually remembered to take a group photo of us all together, but I don't have that uploaded yet. Instead, ( here's a really goofy one with some of us )

Best shirt I saw all weekend? 'Mom, Dad, I'm Gaelic' =)

Besides all that, I also went to see Idina Menzel on Sat night. I didn't really know what to expect and I was completely blown away. (plus, we were in the front row, which is completely fucking awesome) Holy cow, does that woman have pipes! She mostly did songs from her new album, and she threw in part of "Another Day" and a couple songs from Wicked. And something from the new musical Duncan Sheik is working on about Nero? Yeah, I don't know either. But everything sounded great and Idina is very, very entertaining to watch and listen to.

And I think that was about it for the weekend. Probably enough, eh? Oh, there was the important development that duckduck and I did decide to go to Chicago next month to see Kasey Chambers. OMG! I CAN'T WAIT! I ♥ her so much!

Reading all of our Twitters from tonight is AMAZING. I think they may need to be made in to an lj post so we don't lose them.

Tonight I made my professional singing debut in a band that included a plastic pickle tub and a rubbermaid tote as part of the drum kit. I think I have found my ideal situation.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out today. I have the most amazing bunch of friends and I feel very lucky to have them. You guys rock! My spirits have definitely been lifted. =)


I will not make any snarky comments. I will not make any snarky comments. I will not make any snarky comments...

I went to see RENT again tonight. The South African Idol guy was out for the performance and his understudy went to the Drama School of Overacting. Also, he missed a whole entire line. BAD. Mark sounded much stronger tonight because I think he figured he was going to have to hold the whole damn thing together. Collins kinda sucked again. Benny, Maureen and the female soloist were awesome. I managed to stop myself from buying the $65 hoodie. Bren & I had a lovely time out. In fact, we're going to hang out for a third day tomorrow as we're going to watch the RENT movie and maybe talk some Doctor Who. =) I'll try to remember to take some new photos of Henry.

Dammit. The 2009 RENT tour with Adam & Anthony is not coming here! I see a trip to either Detroit or LA in my future for next year.

Okay, I don't watch Psych, but that "Ebony & Ivory" commercial is the best damn thing on television right now. ♥

I managed to sleep most of the day and now I'm not tired at all. This is bad. =/