great weekend in houston.

since it’s soccer season (we have a game tonight, in fact), i am officially admitting how terrible i’ve been about keeping up with friends and family and keeping everyone abreast of my life here in the Arrogance State…er, i mean…the Lone Star State.  so i figured i could update a lot of you with a brief post about a few recent goings-on in my life and the lives of some of ‘my people’.

this weekend was fantastic.  ellen came to visit me in houston on thursday, and she didn’t have to fly home to cincinnati until yesterday afternoon.  what’s more, the soccer tournament that was scheduled for this weekend (friday night and most of saturday) ended up being postponed and then cancelled due to weather, so we had an entire day and a half that we didn’t initially plan on having all to ourselves.  she knew that the tournament was this weekend when she booked her flight, so she was planning on watching some (actually, quite a bit of) soccer (how cool is that, right?); nevertheless, it was really nice to have all of that extra time to spend together.  the whole cincinnati-houston thing definitely puts a damper on the quality-time-together aspect of our relationship, so an extra day and a half was actually a huge bonus.  it really made her visit seem much longer…in a totally great way. 

we ate at several really cool restaurants downtown, got to hang out with sean and laura one night, spent a rainy evening inside watching bad tv and movies, went to see 27 dresses (actually pretty good…especially for a chick-flick), went on a quest one night for a restaurant that serves brownies (i mean, seriously, is it really that much to ask?  i was shocked at the difficulty we encountered and the scarcity of such a seemingly common dessert), went downtown to hermann park on sunday afternoon and enjoyed the sunny (albeit chilly) weather while we walked around, made several random trips to sonic to try a whole slew of slush flavor combinations, and even caught some of the packers/giants game.  (on a side note, i’d like to both air my disappointment with brett favre not being in the super bowl after the freakishly successful year the cheeseheads have had and send eli manning my condolences for the severe and total beating which he and his new york football giants will undoubtedly endure in the super [lopsided] bowl in a few weeks).  but i digress…in short, the whole weekend was so great, just to have ellen here and to be able to experience parts of the city that i had never really encountered.

my family was all in memphis to see anthony’s show (he’s on a national tour of high school musical), and he was actually on as one of the leads for this tour stop.  they all said that he did a great job…which is no surprise…and they all seemed to really have enjoyed the show.  i wish i could’ve been there with them, but i at least got to see the show a few weeks back when he was in little rock.  it was great to see him for that weekend and to spend some time with him.  we rarely get to hang out, and it was totally worth the drive to little rock to be able to see him for a few days. 

i miss seeing my fam…i’m really looking forward to seeing them in april when i go home for matthew’s show.  he got one of the lead parts in one of the big shows at southern miss this spring, which is a huge accomplishment considering the miniscule attention and recognition most usm freshmen receive in the theater department.  he’s been really successful, and i’m really pumped that he’s enjoying school so much.  in the words of ron burgundy…he’s kindof a big deal.  i’m pretty proud of both my brothers…if you can’t tell.  i’m just trying to figure out two things: 1) where the heck did this whole acting/performing gene come from?? and 2) why the heck did it skip me?? 

so to all of my family and friends, i really hope that you can forgive me for being such a small blip on the radar screen that is your email inbox or your cell phone call list.  i hope you guys are all doing well.  i miss all of you and look forward to catching up with you sometime soon(most likely when soccer’s over).

woo hoo!

this post is for those of you who’ve kept up with the clash of the choirs competition over the course of this week–namely krystal, sean and laura, jon and elizabeth, many of my coworkers, and pretty much my entire family.  thanks for tuning in and voting for cincinnati!  it seemed as though nbc was ready to hand over the title after monday night to patti labelle and her philadelphia choir, but nick lachey and his crew truly (and undoubtedly) proved themselves to be the best of the bunch as the week progressed. 

on behalf of cincinnati, myself, and a particularly cute member of cincinnati’s choir, i just want to say thanks again to everyone who played a part in cincy’s victory.  now hundreds of children will receive life-saving medical care by way of the $250,000 donation that team lachey won for children’s hospital in cincinnati.  a wonderful end to a wonderful show.  i hope you were fortunate enough to catch at least part of it.  either way, i wish you all the merriest of christmases.  i hope your holiday season is a great one!

clash of the choirs. (go cincinnati!)

if you like american idol, if you appreciate music, if you (like me) aren’t one of those lucky people who was blessed with musical ability and are amazed by those who are…then you should be watching clash of the choirs on nbc.  the show, which began last night (monday, 12/17), and will run through thursday (12/20), is a lot of fun.

the show is basically a competition between choirs from five cities: cincinnati, philadelphia, houston, oklahoma city, and new haven (connecticut).  a celebrity–nick lachey, patti labelle, kelly rowland, blake shelton, and michael bolton, respectively–from each of the cities when back to his/her hometown to select a choir of 20 singers.  the five choirs are competing for a $250,000 donation for a charity in their respective cities.

someone very near and dear to me has been selected as a part of cincy’s choir, so i will shamelessly encourage you to not only watch but also vote for lachey’s choir.  they’ve been great both nights, performing natasha beddingfield’s ‘unwritten’ on monday and garth brooks’ ‘friends in low places’ on tuesday.  both songs were high-energy performances, and the variety of the two selections show off the versatility of lachey’s choir. 

tune in tomorrow from 7 to 9 (central time), and, given the cincy crew gets the nod for round three, vote for them wednesday night to win it all!  it is a fun show with great music.  they’ll be doing christmas tunes on wednesday, too!

if you’re curious about the show and want more info, check out www.nbc.com and click on ‘clash of the choirs’.

the [potentially] great new show that you’re probably NOT watching.

ok, so i don’t have tons of time to watch tv.  in fact, if it weren’t for tivo, i would never watch tv at all.  i am perpetually behind on the few shows that i watch (house, the office, prison break, and heroes) by at least a week, so the last thing i needed was another show.  nevertheless, i heard about this new show on abc called ‘pushing daisies’ that was supposed to be interesting, so my curiosity got the best of me.

in short, it’s about a guy whose first touch has the power to bring people back from the dead.  however, this seemingly cool ability comes with two caveats: 1) if the now-undead person stays alive longer than one minute, someone else in the vicinity must die in their place; and 2) if he ever touches them again, they’re dead…for good.  but the catch is this:  it’s not really a sci-fi show.  it’s a comedy.  and a bit of a romance (albeit an awkward one).  and even a suspenseful whodunit drama at times.  with a tim burton-esque twist.

now i know you’re probably thinking the same thing i did when i first read the premise…”how stupid. someone actually greenlit THAT?”  but i gave it a whirl anyway.  within minutes of the opening of the pilot (cleverly titled ‘pie-lette’…the main character is a piemaker), i knew that this show was different from anything i’ve ever seen.  it features fantastically bright colors that seem torn from something in between a dr. seuss book and scenes from the remake of willie wonka.  the music is whimsical and frolicking at times, mesmerizing and evocative at others, and somehow manages to tightrope the line between being out of place and being just plain weird.  the pacing of the storylines resemble that of a feature-length film, making it hard to stop watching.  the actors are all perfectly suited for their roles, and, with the exception of a kristin chenoweth solo in the second episode (?!?!), the script is witty, quick, and well-delivered.  and it has the best narrator i’ve heard in a while…whose casually formal ‘bedtime story’ air and impeccable timing add immensely to the seussian effect that the show exudes.

it’s still too early to tell if it will be consistently good enough to maintain such high standards (there was even a slight falloff from the pilot to the second episode)…hence the disclaimer in the blog post title.  either way, it is BY FAR the most i’ve enjoyed a new show since heroes first aired over a year ago.  in a time when 75% of tv shows seem to be a ripoff of some OTHER tv show (c.s.i. cleveland, anyone?), ‘pushing daisies’ is fresh, original, and fun.

if you’re interested, i’m pretty sure you can watch the season pilot on abc.com for free.  if you like it, tell people about it.  if it does turn out to be consistently good, it’d be nice for it to run longer than six episodes without getting cancelled.

tales from the freshmen frontier.

so i just figured out i can access my blog from work.  right now, we’re in advisory, followed immediately by lunch, so i figured i’d take a minute to share a funny exchange from my class today.

in discussion of our new unit of vocabulary words, we came across the word haughty.  when we discuss new words, i usually ask them for suggestions as to what they think the words mean since they’ve usually at least heard them before, even if they’re not familiar with what they mean.  today was no different.  i asked if they were familiar with the word haughty or if they’d ever heard it…no responses.  so i asked what they thought it might mean.  a boy in the back of the room slowly raised his hand.  i was surprised because he hardly ever involves himself willingly in class discussions.  after the long pause in class, i assumed he had a question, so i called on him.

“yes sir,” i said, raising my eyebrows to indicate my interest.

“my girlfriend’s one of those,” he responded.

“excuse me?” i asked.  obviously i was missing something.

“my girlfriend is one of those,” he replied, slightly more articulately.

what the HECK is this kid talking about?  i thought.  he’s not a clown or attention hog, and he’s never cut up in class before, so i assume he’s being serious.

“what do you mean?” i asked, my curiosity and puzzlement becoming nearly impossible to mask.

“a haughty.  my girlfriend’s a haughty.”

i immediately realized what i had missed, but evidently my realization wasn’t displayed on my face.  feeling that i was still confused, he sought to clarify.

“you KNOW, coach d.,” he continued with a look of disdain at my apparent ignorance,  ”she’s hot and she’s naughty…a haughty.  that’s what it means, right?”

i couldn’t help but grin as the class erupted into laughter.

guess you can’t blame him for trying…at least it makes sense…in a freshman sort of way.

don’t you wish you taught high school?