Sewing up a storm…almost

Posted in Thoughts & Stories by Jennifer | Stick Girl JAM

Remember that handy dandy toolkit my mom got me for Christmas? The one that puts the fun in functional? Boy, did that ever come in handy a few weekends ago when our dear friends were married at a beautiful ranch in Camarillo. Mumbles was a groomsmen, you see, and the stylish groom provided fancy schmancy suspenders for all the lads to wear. They were awesome. [True story: Mumbles wore white suspenders on our first date.] Only thing is, they were the sew-on button kind. Not the clip-them-to-your-pants-like-Steve-Urkel kind. Good thing is that Mumbles just so happens to be a fantastic seamster (is that what boy seamstresses are called?) and the guy’s pretty fantastic at ironing, too, let me tell ya.

Mumbles wanted everything to go just right for Cappy (that’s his name. No, not his real name. And yes, kinda like the guy from Greek. And yes again, Greek was an awesome show. I digress.) on his Big Day so he went out and bought two pairs of charcoal grey pants that were almost black, as he feared the charcoal grey pants he previously purchased were a little too char and not enough coal. He’s incredibly thoughtful but gosh, was he ever feverishly sewing up a storm – almost literally, as a storm threatened to rain on Cappy’s beautiful outdoor wedding. Pants were sewn (okay, one button popped later on), the storm diverted, and we danced the night away. It was such a beautiful celebration and I was again reminded that small things matter when we do them out of love for our friends and the big things – being there to support and share – are truly the important moments in our lives.

22Sep2011

Spiders still on the brain

Posted in Thoughts & Stories by Jennifer | Stick Girl JAM

In the shower the other day (why wait a few days to post this, you ask? I had to get over the trauma…don’t judge me.) washing my hair, massaging my scalp, admiring the handy mosaic work Mumbles and I did whilst tiling our shower (more to come on that, promise) and there it is…a moving mosaic tile…no. A spider! Ugh. Now I’ve gotta keep one eye open whilst rinsing and hurry up so I can get the heck outta there. No one wants a spider in their hair. No one. Least of all me. I’m just really not a big fan of spiders. Despite my fear, I’m at least able to laugh about it sometimes and recently got quite a chuckle when I saw this clever guy circulating on Pinterest:

And then I was thinking I know a lot of other people (the rational ones, like me) that are afraid of spiders but I wondered what my life would be like and how much easier it would be if I made friends with spiders like Freddie Prinze Jr. in the movie Down to You (which was weird and okay but pretty much a let down, right? Like, you’d watch it on a lazy Saturday curled up on the couch if you were getting free HBO as a six month trial but wouldn’t ever put it above anything else on your Netflix queue). I wanted to show a video clip of that scene but turns out, it was such a bad movie that there are hardly any YouTube clips of it. Bummer. But this person gave it a pretty good run down in the Hunt for the Worst Movie of All Time.

And in another non-sequitor but still spider-related, it must be huge spider breeding season because I’ve seen a few people post photos on Facebook of large creepy crawlies they’ve come across and I, too, just about fainted when I saw a huge brown stripey spider that built a crazy (very intricate and impressive) web between two trees about 7 feet away from each other and all the way to the ground outside our house. It was all well and fine – I knew he was there, catching bugs and being all scary but then someone had the nerve to disrupt the web and now all I can do is dwell in anxiety that he’s roaming around somewhere. I’m hoping a bird ate him. I have a mind to post a note on the tree that says “if you killed the spider that recently lived here, please let me know so I don’t have to worry about him surprise attacking me. Thanks.” Then, last night while Mumbles and I leisurely walked to dinner down the street, we noticed that just about every pairing of trees lining this busy street had at least one of the same humongous eight-legged stripey guys with their own crazy webs between trees. Eww.

21Sep2011

My DVR is full this fall

Posted in Thoughts & Stories by Jennifer | Stick Girl JAM

This week marks the return of fall television. It’s been a pretty good summer, though, I must say. Here’s what we’ve been watching regularly:

– Royal Pains
– Burn Notice
– Suits
– White Collar
– Necessary Roughness
– Keeping Up With the Kardashians
– Flipping Out
– Fairly Legal

I’m excited for all those shows to return – some of which will be back later this fall/early winter – but what everyone’s abuzz about right now is the return of fall prime-time television – click here for an interactive fall TV calendar. I am giddy with excitement about being able to push through my work day thinking about plunking down on the couch with a nice glass of wine to watch X show (depending on the day of the week).

By far our favorite show is How I Met Your Mother. The season finale finally revealed it was Barney’s wedding they had been flashing clips of throughout the season. I was happily surprised by that one and the premiere this season didn’t disappoint either.

Two and a Half Men, the much anticipated return sans Charlie Harper/Sheen, was still very, very funny and now has the opportunity to capture a new Kutcher-loving audience. But I can tell you that hanging up that bowling shirt in the backround of his funeral service alongside the flowers and casket means my dad’s days of tuning in are quickly coming to an end as well. I think everyone was really impressed by how seamless the transition feels and how it was carried on with the same humor and wit, however, Charlie really brought a lot of charisma to the show. Not that Kutcher can’t, but it’ll be a different show none-the-less. I’m wondering if they’ll just give it a go this season and make it the last?

Castle is a huge Monday night entertainer in our house and last season ended on a nail-biting cliffhanger, only to pick up last night with a frustrating and slow return. I still love it, don’t get me wrong, but I was hoping for a little more Castle-Beckett banter, however, I understand with all the drama that unfolded in one episode last season needed some time to fully recover and play out.

While crafting and killing time so we could fast forward through commercials during Castle, we watched some of Hawaii 5-0, which we haven’t seen since oh, i don’t know when. Might have missed some big things but I think we got caught up in the 20 minutes we watched. Still entertaining.

One that delightfully wowed us was 2 Broke Girls – sadly, we didn’t have it recording so we missed the ending. We definitely added that one to the list, even though Mumbles says he isn’t fond of this actress who plays the lead.

Last week we welcomed Buffy babe Sarah Michelle Gellar (now Sarah Michelle Prinze – wife of Freddie Prinze Jr.) back to the small screen in the CW’s new show, Ringer. I thought they did really well and knowing it had been made for CBS. I hope the CW doesn’t teeny-bopper it up too much. (a little bit is okay. You know how much I love Veronica Mars). Something isn’t quite right but I can’t put my finger on it. For example, they keep showing this photo and it takes me too long to figure out what they were trying to accomplish…is the the uber rich twin and the fancy/weird/Gaga-ish outfit is supposed to tell me she can afford expensive, weird clothes? That she can get away with anything? Or, is it the prostitute sister and this is supposed to tell me that she’s imprisoned by her body? She feels trapped and chained down, trying to break free? She doesn’t feel comfortable wearing a collar chained to her tube top in a similar fashion that she doesn’t feel comfortable impersonating her twin sister? I don’t get it.

Also on my must-watch list (brace yourself, it’s kinda long):
(Returning)
NCIS
NCIS Los Angeles
Grey’s Anatomy
The Mentalist
Body of Proof
One Tree Hill
Gossip Girl

(Newbies)
New Girl – watched it last night… started out slow but had me laughing out loud by the end.
The Playboy Club
Pan Am
Unforgettable
Person of Interest

What is on your DVR this fall? Any new shows you’re really excited about?

19Sep2011

Netflix and my obsession with television

Posted in Television & Movies, Thoughts & Stories by Jennifer | Stick Girl JAM

Are you a Netflix customer? I didn’t realize that I was supposed to be so angry about all these new changes but I think I’m catching on. At present, I’m a little spoiled with all my tv viewing options – last year Mumbles signed us up for a 6 month free trial of all the movie channels and when I got super sick in January he took such pity on me that he decided not to opt out of it so I could watch all the sappy love movies I wanted to at all hours of the day despite the fact that it was very likely I’d already seen them 5 times or more (Charlie St. Cloud, Something New, Enchanted, and the list goes on…) That coupled with my brilliant idea to get Mumbles a Netflix subscription for his birthday last year (I’m a big fan of gifts that ultimately benefit me) so he could watch Entourage season by season and also because it became quite clear that Blockbuster was never gonna make it and I wanted to keep the ol’ movie-in date night alive.

So now here we are and Netflix is making all sorts of crazy changes so that it doesn’t seem like the steal it was before…yet — and it might just be me — it also doesn’t seem like a rip off. When I think about how much we’re paying for all the movie channels plus the streaming and mail-in DVD, well, that’s when I get a little remorseful. I like to think that we’d stream more often but until they really bulk up on the selection I can’t see that happening. I think the only real reason I’m clinging to Netflix is that I’d like to be able to request all the seasons of Veronica Mars if I wanted to, but I just found out BFOTB has every last one of ’em so that solves that insecurity. With how full my DVR is each week, we really do have plenty of options for which way we’re going to kill time watching tv. And now that I think about it even more, I feel really guilty/successful because when Mumbles and I met he wasn’t all too into television….now he is hooked! [insert evil laugh here].

Stay tuned for what I’m watching this week and let me know what your thoughts are on the whole Netflix debacle. Staying a subscriber? Jumping ship? Don’t really care about that extra $8 a month?

30Aug2011

Spiders. Gross.

Posted in Thoughts & Stories by Jennifer | Stick Girl JAM

Wouldn’t exactly call spiders my biggest fear but I do really despise them. Weird thing is though, as much as they freak me out, they’re also sort of fascinating. Maybe it’s because my brother had a rose hair tarantula while we were growing up and (aside from the housekeeper who accidentally knocked over Theresa the Tarantula’s little home one day forcing said housekeeper to scream and barricade the door until someone from the family got home), Theresa was quite gentle and non-threatening. In fact, my dad used to go so far as to call her “beautiful” and he sure did get a kick out of taking her for “walks” in the backyard. My dad’s a funny guy.

For as much as I hate spiders and the alarm and anxiety they cause when I encounter them, you think I’d be all about killing them. Unfortunately, I just can’t muster up the courage to kill bugs – part crunch factor and part “what if it jumps at me or survives my act of attempted murder and comes after me in full force?” This is especially troubling when Mumbles is out of town and I must resort to finding a can of bug spray/hair spray/anything that will kill it so I don’t physically have to squish it or get within close range. I’ll never forget living in the sorority house and lying in bed seeing little things dangling from the ceiling (about a dozen baby spiders – gross) and then a few days later sitting at my desk and out of the corner of my eye spotting a furry legged dark spider on the wall. Just about died of shock, I did. And what could I do but run downstairs in hysterics begging anyone to come kill it for me, only to be forever traumatized by not finding aforementioned monster when returning to my room? Sleep with one eye open is right. Geez.

Here’s another thing about spiders: I’m pretty sure they have a worldwide web (ha! see what I did right there?!) that lets all of them know who their fearful prey are, who they can most easily taunt and torture with their creepy crawly i-have-too-many-legs wily ways.

I’m only saying all this because I discovered a bite on my abdomen which means [I shudder to even think!] there’s probably a spider in my bed. GROSS. Mumbles gets home tonight and you can bet we’ll be fogging our place when we go out of town this weekend. Eww.

Here’s another one of AT&T’s great commercials – just picture me playing the part of the demure red head and imagine my dad taking that bad boy of a spider for a walk instead of smashing it into smithereens.