Beerfest

Thursday, September 28, 2006 | 0 Comments

I went to "Beerfest" by Broken Lizard with my new boss from my first job (the library job) tonight. Yeah you read that right. I mentioned that I wanted to go to it and she said that she wanted to too, but her husband wouldn't go with her. Yeah, you read that right too.

It was frickin hilarious!!

SSB and I had gone to "Super Troopers" on our anniversary because the movie that we were intending to see was sold out. And DAMMIT! I wanted a movie!

I laughed through the whole movie. "Super Troopers" reminded me of my senior year in high school. I swear the police in my home town were JUST LIKE THEM!!

"Beerfest" reminded me of my Freshman year in college. I was in the Fantastic Four of drinkers on our campus. There was Jahnke at #1 - no one could touch him. He was over 200 lbs and could bong a handle of liquor. Once he did a four story bong. Jahnke wasn't human. We later rented an apartment from his mom. A nice lady. She said, "Oh, you must know my son!" Uh, yeah. I only partied in his room EVERY NIGHT my freshman year! But I said, "Yeah, he's very popular."
At #2 was a girl named Chris. This girl could down a bottle codeine and still out-drink everyone but Jahnke.
Tied for #3 were myself and a guy that everyone called HatMan. They called him HatMan because he sucked at Three-Man, always had the hat, but was always one of the last people standing. Usually it was me, him and Jahnke still alive at 5am. Who knows where Chris was. She was a wanderer.

My boss really enjoyed the movie too. When she first started at the library, everyone thought she was wound too tight (which I recognized as her being nervous) and not warm enough for thier liking. I have been trying to loosen her up ever since she started. J (see: Friends and Family) looked at me like I was nuts when I told her that I was going to go to the movies with her(this boss, Jo, is J's boss). I think J thought I had cracked under the stress of all the long hours I have been working. But I am so glad that I went. We got to talk, and she is fun. And I think that she really appreciated the extension of friendship, as she is from out of state. I think I would go do something with her again. So I thank "Beerfest" for that.

And I thank "Beerfest" for letting me re-live my magical Freshman year in college.

But mostly, I think I thank "Beerfest" for giving me THIS.
I have been trying to get the name to this for YEARS!!
A friend of mine (who I know reads this blog) also loves this. By some strange coincidence, it always seemed to come on the radio when we would get in her car to go to lunch together and we would have a lot of fun trying to sing it. So to her, I'd like to say "You're welcome! And, Enjoy!".

10 comments:

Shamus O'Drunkahan said...

Plastic Bertrand has wayyyy too many zippers on his damn jacket. Just sayin.

Here's a shocker - I love Super Troopers as well. They (Broken Lizard) haven't lived up to that movie since then, so I'm glad to hear BF does.

You have to love actors who feel only real vomit can be used in their nmovies. That's committment to the craft.

Astoria said...

Are you talking about me?? Cause I LOVE THAT SONG!! Just checking...

Sylvana said...

Shamus, there was not one part of this movie that I did not like. In fact, this was one of the better movies that I have seen in awhile!!

Astori, I was indeedy talking about you!

sideshow bob said...

DAS BOOT!!!

Sylvana said...

SSB, OH YEAH!! That was funny. There's something about that phrase that is just funny in it's own right, like the sound of a cat screeching.

Astoria said...

AWSOME!! You know I try to explain that song and the moment to people and they just don't understand it...
Oh well, I guess you just had to be there! :)

Shannon said...

You know, I'd commented on this a while ago and had some egregious error. Stupid Blogger!

I LOVE that Plastic Bertrand song. I've never seen Super Troopers...but maybe it's time.

OldRoses said...

Wow, I can't believe you admit to drinking heavily on a blog that is read by your offspring.

Sylvana said...

Astoria, I find a lot of moments are moments you had to be there.

Shannon, yeah Blogger sucks, but it is FREE! I think, having lived in Wisconsin previously, you will enjoy Super Troopers.


OldRoses, hey, I'm from Wisconsin. Drinking is a family legacy here.

Elizabeth said...

I. cannot. believe. I. have. never. heard. that. song.

THANK YOU... It's just the kind of crappy euro-trash pop that is right up my alley!!!! Cool!

[Thursday, sitting at Pizza Hut, in the window seat facing parking lot, watching people come out of the grocery store with their goodies. SSB notices that most people are coming out with mega-bundles of toilet paper.]

SSB: That's an embarrassing amount of toilet paper to buy. They must be having a sale.

Sy: OR it's homecoming.

JD: It is homecoming tomorrow! How did you know?

Sy: Ha! I rule!




[Saturday at the art store buying supplies for JD.]

Sy: We should get a big pack of really nice, high quality colored pencils for JD since he likes to draw so much.

SSB: I don't think he needs that big of a pack.

Sy: [looking over the pack] Well, I think it is important to spend the money to invest in JD's artistic talent- HOLY $80!!!

SSB: [giggling] So a smaller pack, then?




[An hour later at the Tibetan/Nepalese restaurant in the middle of our shopping day; the waitress is just bring our food to the table.]

Sy: We still have a lot of shopping to do so everyone better have a big enough appetite to finish all their food. There will be absolutely NO to-goes.

The waitress places SSB and JD's normal-sized servings in front of them and then puts Jethro-bowl of soup in front of Sy.

SSB and JD: [bust out laughing.]

Sy: [rolling eyes] OK, fine then. To-goes it is.

5 comments:

Lindsay Lobe said...

Homecomings for more toilet paper !!
Patterned colours will match your new den ?
Pencils for JD’s equations and drawings ?
Jethroes soup, is it tiny potion with bread ?

best wishes

Shamus O'Drunkahan said...

Your conversations always crack me up. You guys are hilarious.

Sylvana said...

Lindsay, the soup was very good. I asked for it REALLY spicy, but it wasn't THAT spicy!

Shanus, I'm so touched that we have received "Shamus' Hilarity Seal of Approval". Most people around these parts just pull their children close and run away.

Heather said...

Your conversations remind me of our house. There's always a lot of laughing!

Sylvana said...

Heather, many of our conversations remind of Seinfeld.

The Egyptians Would Have Been Proud

Wednesday, September 13, 2006 | 0 Comments

Ned called to see if we still needed help moving our piano so that we could finish the flooring in our dining room. I told him that we in fact did not. We had decided to try and move it ourselves instead; and through some clever yet simple engineering on my part we were able to move the piano and not damage the floor at all. I told him the Egyptians would have been proud.
Then he said, "Oh, so you got slaves to do it for you."

Ba-dum-dum!


So as you may have guessed by this point we have finished the floor in the dining room. Let me remind you what it looked like before.

Although I did still like the flooring that was in there, it was getting ragged and really needed to be replaced. And I like it so much better now.





We just have the office to finish - and that should be a breeze.

16 comments:

evilsciencechick said...

simply GO-geous!

sands of time said...

Wow that looks so nice

http://pinklady.typepad.com/

Flubberwinkle said...

Excellent. You guys are reeeeally good!

I feel like tap dancing on it (i.e. if I knew how).

OldRoses said...

Envy, envy, envy!

Shannon said...

What an amazing difference! Be-you-tea-full

The Doc said...

Very nice. I like how the tone of the floor goes with your walls. Must be nice to have an eye for colour.

Sylvana said...

ESC, thank you, darling.

PinkLady, I was pretty impressed with it myself.

Flubberwinkle, we have all already slid across it many times.

OldRoses, hehhehheh!

Shannon, what I really like is that the dog hair is so much easier to clean up! We were inspired by your aunt's flooring. I could only hope that our house would ever be so beautiful as her's.

The Doc, it is nice. It sure makes gardening easier.

Randi said...

it looks very good!!!

Gary said...

Nice floor! Nice blog too...I found you via Lindsay's Lobes in Oz.

From your music choices, I think you might like Regina Spektor, who my 16 year old daughter introduced me to.

link here

Shannon said...

Sy- Ditto! I'd love to have a house that cool. But it looks like your house is really coming along nicely.

Derek Knight said...

that looks fantastic

Wendy A said...

Lovly! We just did the same to our new house. Only problem is our big dog is putting down some pretty big skid marks into the wood. Regardless..It is a huge improvement.

Lindsay Lobe said...

Sylvana !! Good one. The Egyptian’s would be very impressed, not only with the engineering feat of moving that piano but with your colour and appearance which is simply superb !!
Best wishes

Sissy said...

The floor is beautiful, but I really like the wall with the window. What kind of treatment is on that wall? It's wonderful and the wood and the paint make it a very warm and inviting place to be!
Is it a wash of some kind???

Sylvana said...

Randi, thanks!

Gary, welcome to my blog! I will have to check that artist out.

Shannon, I was told by a good friend that it has a wonderful homey feeling... or was that homley?

Derek, awe, thanks!

Wendy A, the cool thing about real wood is that it looks good with dents and scuffs.

Lindsay, I intended the walls to look like bomber jacket leather, but the whole room took on a pumpkin pie feeling instead. I was happy! And it always makes me hungry!!

Sissy, welcome to my blog! The walls are done with a basecoat of a paint color called Sandstone and a glaze called Sienna Red or something like that and another glaze that was yellowish, Goldenrod? I put the base coat on in one layer (if you are glazing, you really don't need a second coat). Then I got a plate and poured two puddles of the glaze on it and used a REAL SEA SPONGE (very important!). Then I just dipped part of the sponge in one colored puddle and another part in the other color and started dabbing it on the walls. As you dab, move and rotate the sponge in as many directions as you can. Do not over-coat the wall. You do want some of the base coat to show through. It does take some trial and error to get the amounts the way that you want, so you might want to practice on a piece of drywall first (I didn't). My walls are half plaster half brown coat (the cement-like stuff that goes under the plaster coat - I guess they just gave up when they were building our house:)

Sissy said...

I thank you for explaining that to me. I did buy the Mocha glaze with a pottery colored wall, but by the time I had finished, it looked like a child had broken into the Hershey syrup and made a mess.
Pass the KILZ, please!!

Fire It Up, Baby!

Sunday, September 10, 2006 | 0 Comments

SSB and I have a friend (I'll call him Obi since he is a huge Star Wars fan) who has just built his first kiln (and we helped a little too :). His parents and the parents of his wife (I'll call her Jill because I think she looks like the girl in Brazil) threw a party Saturday for the first firing.

It was a wine-drinking, world-traveling, pesto-eating crowd (which we are not) so we weren't sure at first what to expect. We were relieved to discover that they weren't the snooty wine-drinking, world-traveling, pesto-eating crowd. And DAMN!! can those people cook!! Yummy!!

Jill's parents have a beautiful piece of property with a huge vegetable garden where they grow the food that they need. Their vegetable garden is almost the size of our entire yard - and we have a very large yard!
They even produce their own power via a huge, rotating solar panel. I want a place like that. With the chickens, apple orchard, pear and plum trees, berry patches, rolling hills and woods in the back... *drool*
It is an ultimate dream for me.

People were really impressed with JD. I was standing with a group talking and JD came up to join in. After he left, one of the ladies asked, "And just who was that delightful young man?" I said that he was my son. Another woman asked, "Has he just started working on developing that wonderfully rich character or has he always been like that?" I replied, "Oh, he's always been quite a character." They all chatted about how the world needs more unique, interesting people like him. *blush* It's nice to see other people appreciating JD for what we see in him. Stick that in your ear, school system!

We were there late. At 10pm the kiln had just topped 1000°F and still had 1400° to go - 100°/hour. We were stoking it with red oak, which is a slow burning wood - not that great for getting hot fires fast. There were just a few of us that were there after 10pm but it was a very good mix.
Jill, Obi, SSB, me, Greg (also a friend of K), and Jill's mom who I will call Em (for Earth Mother).

Jill is a very quiet girl. And her parents are pretty quiet too; but we found out last night that once you get some wine in her mom, she can't stop talking! She was HILARIOUS!! I could tell that Jill was a little embarassed, but no one could stop her mom once she got on a roll.

At 1000°F she started apologizing to SSB and I for having a "domestic" (which is now going in my lexicon) the other day when we were there helping build the kiln. She was explaining that she and her husband were fighting about this trip that they were taking in a couple of days overseas. He was worried that she was going to say or do the wrong things while they were over there. She said, "So I tried to put his mind at ease with humor." SSB and I looked at each other and started laughing - he's worried that she won't take things seriously and she thinks joking around will help ease his mind? She said that she was telling her husband earlier that he needed to come and apologize to us, too; but he wouldn't. We kept telling her that we hadn't heard anything. "Oh, you are just being nice. you HAD to have heard us. We were screaming at each other. I'm surprised the police weren't called. I'm sure they could hear us up the road." Jill was dying of embarassment. So I said, "Em, we never apologize to our neighbors for that."

At 1100°F she was letting us know that there were beds in the house if we got tired. She was particularly fond of this big futon that her husband had made and was currently residing in the guest bedroom. She said, "I love it when my husband and I have our domestics. That futon is simply FABULOUS! I could sleep on that every night!"
Jill went to bed - exhausted from her mortification, I'm sure.

At 1200°F she was telling us about how she didn't care about the war or if the Twin Cities were going to be blown up tomorrow, she just wanted to grow her damn vegetables! She didn't know or care about technology, she just wanted to grow her damn vegetables! Why can't people leave her alone and let her be who she is and let her grow her damn vegetables?!

At 1300°F she was letting spill all this dirt about her husband (Obi's FIL) which I will not repeat here, but will say had Obi all excited with interest.

At 1400°F she was telling us how she could take out her left eye ball to make macaroni and cheese. ????? SSB said, "Em, I have no idea what you are talking about." She says, "Oh, that's because you aren't a woman." Everyone snaps a glance at me since I am the only other woman there. I shrugged and shook my head. No clue, really.

At 1450° she exclaimed that she smelled a skunk."I'm out of here! I'm going to jump up into the vegetable beds like a Barbie head if a skunk decides to come around!" ????? What exactly was that woman drinking??

At 1500°F Em finally retired, and so did we. It was all in all an entertaining night, even if we didn't make it to 2400°F. I can't wait until their next party!

9 comments:

Shannon said...

Take out her left eyeball to make macaroni and cheese? WOW!

The world is sure full of interesting people! I love it.

Wendy A said...

Sounds like my kind a party!

Sylvana said...

Shannon, that whole thing morphed as she kept talking. First I think that she was trying to say something like she could make macaroni and cheese with one arm behind her back but was using the eye instead of arm. Then she was trying to say that she was would give her left eye for macaroni and cheese. Toward the end of her ramble, her left eye was actually making the macaroni and cheese! All the while she was talking, she kept making more and more graphic motions simulating the plucking out of her left eye. It was truly bizarre!!

Wendy A, I'm still giggling and smiling. It was a great party!

DrMax said...

You sure all that was burning in that kiln was red oak? That sure sounded like a *weed* induced conversation.

sideshow bob said...

Em was definitely under the influence of something, but I never saw a drink in her hand. Obi did say something about skunk smelling like "sticky weed"...

Sylvana said...

DrMax, are implying that someone was holding out on me? I feel so rejected.

SSB, but she never left the kiln area and I never saw her with anything. Hmmm...

Heather said...

That sounds like a great party. Not sure that I'd want mac & cheese that bad, though! :-)

AG said...

Next time I make Mac N Cheese I am going to think of my left eye.

I also can't wait for the next party!

Sylvana said...

Heather, that is exactly what I was thinking while she was saying that.

AG, me too! on both accounts.

I just heard this morning that Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter, died. He was stung in the heart by a stingray on the Great Barrier Reef while filming a new spot "Ocean's Deadliest" for his daughter Bindi's new TV show.

I liked him. His pure enthusiasm for nature was inspiring. But of course I also watched his shows for the same reason that people watch Nascar - waiting for the crash.

I think we can all feel good that at least he died in a way that was befitting of him. Not only did he die at the hand of nature, it was a fantastic, memorable way to die. It is extremely rare to be killed by the normally passive stingray let alone be pierce in the heart by one.

Steve Irwin, you will be missed.

9 comments:

Laurie said...

My sister just called and told me about this. So sad.

Shamus O'Drunkahan said...

I ranted about this already on my wasteofspace, but I think he was a selfish bastard for depriving his kids of a dad for the sake of a tv show.

Shannon said...

It was an amazing death. I don't know how I feel...on one hand, I liked watching the crazy things he did, and I'm sad he died. Another part of me wants to say "live by the sword, die by the sword."

sideshow bob said...

I heard the last thing he did was to actually pull the barb out of his chest...yeeouch!

Wendy said...

Certainly big news down here downunder. What a fluke. Puts a damper on my trip to the Great Barrier Reef. Not only do I have to fear saltwater crocs, killer sharks but now stingrays.

Steve Irwin will be missed.

sands of time said...

I did really like him.His enthusiasm was catching.

http://pinklady.typepad.com/

Sylvana said...

Laurie, I found about it on NPR.

Shamus, I was thinking about the time that he had his kid hanging over the croc and was trying to tell everyone that it was fine because he knew how to read animals. He's lucky that he didn't misread that croc like he did that ray.

Shannon, I'm torn too. We all knew that it was going to happen. It was inevitable.

SSB, OUCH!! Maybe he should have just left it in?

Wendy, just don't go poking anything with a stick.

Pink Lady, I like people who aren't afraid to show enthusiasm.

Elizabeth said...

I was wondering why people watched Nascar!

Lindsay Lobe said...

This was simply unbelievable, stingrays very rarely attack or cause problems for divers, but he took a direct barb to the heart. A freak accident that occurred when swimming directly over and slightly behind the stingray with the camera man probably too closes in front filming.

Steve was very entertaining and really didn’t take on the risks as it appeared with his lifetime’s experience of animals from the time he was a toddler looking after the families Reptile Park and helping catch crocodiles with his father. Even that famous shot with his son, that caused all of the uproar was a deceptive shot as from another angle the distance from the croc was far greater than the photo and film clip indicated. But more importantly he was all about conservation, education, and making sure animals have adequate habitat. He put my life on the line to save animals, calling himself a "wildlife warrior". His message was conservation.
Irwin was estimated to be earning $4 million a year from his Australia Zoo alone.
Four years ago, his television work was netting him $20 million a year.
He funnelled all that into conservation.
He bought hectares of land around the world, land that Irwin planned to transform into wildlife reserves.
He spent $8.8 million on land around Australia Zoo.
He spoke about expanding Australia Zoo to incorporate a flowing river system, teeming with rhinoceros and hippopotami that tourists could cruise down, admiring African animals in natural habitats.
He was linked to major land holdings in Tasmania, Vanuatu, and Fiji and throughout the U.S. It was all for conservation, he maintained: The land, the documentaries, the films, the Steve Irwin dolls.
It was all for them.
The Irwin family had a three-decade scientific research relationship with the Queensland Museum.

In 2001, Irwin received a Centenary Medal for his services to conservation.
In the wake of Irwin's death, scientists from around the world praised his conservation efforts. He spent a lot of time with his family and an awful lot of his own money buying back habitant for his beloved animal family and investing in animal habitat, tht otherwise would be lost.

best wishes

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