LauraCatoe.com

My review of the VM premiere: “I knew they wouldn’t! … Ugh, why are they in the opening credits? … Hey, that’s Naima … I knew they would … What? … What?!? … WHAT???”

When I went to UPN to see if you can watch a clip from next week’s episode, I couldn’t help but notice this ad. Aww, they tried. There was another one that had a quote from Joss Whedon calling it the “Best. Show. Ever.” Know you’re demographic, huh? (Oh, I just slay me.)

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I hate it when we make something really snazzy for the paper and it has to run in black and white. At least it’ll be in color on the web.

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I have so many books on my To Read list:

Blue Like Jazz
I read the “sequel,” Searching for God Knows What, while Kris (and Brad and Kristie…) read this one.

Hell’s Belles
One of Kris’ clients wrote it. I got three pages in and there was a character that I wondered if the description was based on a girl that used to work at Rococo.

Speak
One of Jaimie’s 50 Books

Good Omens (again)
I bought it with the birthday gift card from B&C cause I wanted to read it again. Haven’t even opened it.

The Magician’s Nephew (again)
Was searching for a quick read when I couldn’t sleep one night. I’m a few chapters from the end. Almost finished it at the dentist.

Cravings
Laurell K. Hamilton smut, I think. Got it at the used bookstore forever ago.

Dark Horse
Dad gave this to me today at lunch.

And Jaimie’s supposed to be bringing me Dead Until Dark tonight.

Last Thursday, I managed to condense two photo albums into one. It took forever. By “forever,” I mean from the time I got home to the time I stopped at 8pm to watch Reunion. That anal-retentive… er, I mean “attention to detail” that I apply to my mix cds? Also present when I put pictures into albums. There has to be a flow, people!

I’m trying to decide whether I’ve got it in me to attempt another two books tonight. It’s tedious and somewhat depressing and basically only useful to me. Cause really, you know what the payoff is? I mean, besides the fact that it allows me to store one more book on the shelves in the closet? That going through stuff and either trashing it, organizing it or somehow making it take up less space assures me I won’t end up like GJ or my dad.

We got rid of a lot of furniture two weeks ago. My dad had to come over so I could use his truck for transportation. “But the bar stools? The bed?” Yeah, Dad. We know. They’re cool. But we don’t have room for them and so they have been growing mold in the basement. That’s useful. But also? Just stuff.

I’m sentimental. I don’t want to get rid of my green dishes that I bought when I lived at 711. But I’m also practical. The furniture we are not using in this house? There is no guarantee we will ever use it, and there are people out there who will. It’s gone.

Where my sentimentality butts heads with my practicality? I found a stack of magazines I had as a kid. Cabbage Patch Kids mags. She-Ra mags. Need ‘em? No. But they’re so retro! Trash ‘em? Can’t. Seem. To.

So. It’s a process. I know this. I just didn’t know it would take so long.

A few years ago (2001?), Kris was on vacation and decided to get another tattoo. He picked a kanji symbol for “power.” And ever since, in any tattoo flash he’s seen, it is never the symbol on his neck that’s listed for “power.” So, y’know, there was a little voice wondering “what do I have inked on my flesh?”

Enter Pat Ramsey. While she was visiting, she asked to see Kris’ many tattoos and we mentioned how we were a little unsure about the one on his neck. She volunteered to take a picture of it and e-mail to one of her friends in China.

Today, I got the e-mail from Pat and called Kris immediately. As soon as he picks up, I say “guess what the tattoo on the back of your neck means!” Only, he doesn’t hear me, cause he didn’t answer the phone “hello?” He answered the phone “duh-duh-duh-duhDUHDUH” cause he’s using “Crazy Train” as his ringtone.

“Huh?”

“I said ‘guess what the tattoo on the back of your neck means’?”

[dread] “What?”

“Power.”

“Really?”

“Yep. It’s pronounced shi in Chinese. This according to one of Pat’s friends in Beijing.”

“Cool.”

I know!

P.S. In my tattoo excitement, I forgot to post my Illustration Friday entry.

With the rush of season and series premieres lately, I wasn’t chomping at the bit all “c’mon, c’mon, c’mon” about the Veronica Mars premiere. But now you can see a promo spot and the opening scene on the UPN site. How they can let you watch almost 3 minutes and yet still not reveal WHO WAS AT THE DOOR?!? I do not know.

So now, y’know, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon!

Season premiere next Wednesday. If the phone rings, I’m not answer… Hey! Now I can just turn my phone off! Cause man, if there is ever a time when Kris and I were watching something we couldn’t pause, that is when someone would call, so we sit through the 4 rings and then our message and of course whoever is calling is leaving a message and it’s insanely long and you’re trying to hear the television all “who was the killer? they did what? how did the toilet tank factor into it?”

Just as there are always more bins to go through (Jaimie mentions my Dad’s fame for Rubbermaid bins in her blog entry today), there are always more pictures cropping up. Yes, I know all about having a lot of pictures. And yes, in getting double prints, I understand there being multiple copies. What I do not understand is how my mom had multiple copies of the same picture in different albums and extras stored in different places. We’re not talking just school pictures where you naturally have a squillion copies in all sorts of sizes. We’re talking wedding photos, childhood snapshots, newspaper clippings, you name it.

Look, I don’t know how many of you know, but I have a lot of photo albums. That picture there? Where you can see 16 of them? I have more. And boxes. I also have boxes of prints and negatives.

I used to love my albums. I enjoyed making them. But now? I only look at them if I am looking for a certain picture. I used to take my camera a lot of places and take a lot of pictures. Not anymore. Now all my albums and pictures and frames and cameras and tripods… they are less “hobby” and more “shit to move.” Stuff I have to go through and store.

So last night after going through two more huge folders of pictures that my mom had squirreled away somewhere, I picked up one of my black and white albums and started ripping out pages. Some were thrown away, some will be given away, and some were just stacked together and jammed in an already full plastic bin.

But I do still treasure them, in a way. I mean, it would hurt if I lost them all in a hurricane/flood. As I went through them, I started making a stack of my favorites. I decided that next month I will post one a day on Flickr. When I was done going through all the black and whites, I counted my stack of favorites to post. Exactly 31. Huh.

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Ziggy Frodo,
originally uploaded by DameCatoe.

I posted several new cat photos to my Flickr account. It all started Thursday when I took a picture of them fighting. I wanted to show my web posse the difference in their sizes. And then Frodo was cute pretty much all weekend and isn’t afraid of the camera the way Satine is…

So, cat blog. I know.