a few days alone make me a crazy cat lady

I think it's time for vacation to end. I watched an embarrassing amount of TV yesterday, including the first disc of the first season of House (from Netflix) and the documentary Jesus Camp, which was fascinating/disturbing.



Today has consisted of bringing the recycling back in (wrong week, apparently) and having an impromptu photo session with the kittens. I just thought it was funny how willing they were to strike a pose and look at the camera.




Now if I can just get them to say cheese...

k8

As Promised

For those of you saying, "But Kate, you promised to honor us with a list of your favorite radio shows and blogs!" your time has come. Seriously, though. I have become a HUGE fan of radio because of my long commute and frequent trips to PA. Now that I have an iPod, I get to explore even more options in the "spoken word" department.

NPR:

I listen to NPR every morning and afternoon on my commutes. It's like an addiction. Music has taken a back seat to news junkyism. Obviously, the two big commute-time shows are Morning Edition and All Things Considered, but besides those two, here are my favorites:

This American Life: Ira Glass is a genius. Everything this show covers, it covers in an absorbing and thoughtful manner. If you've ever come across random stories on the radio on the weekend sometime, and gotten so sucked in that you couldn't get out of your car, it was probably this show. Subscribe to the podcast.

Marketplace: Yeah, for some reason I look forward to 6:30 every night. Dammit, I love Marketplace! I have no idea why!

On the Media: I subscribe to this podcast and I listen to each one. I know, it sounds boring, but few NPR shows quote Southpark, Jon Stewart, and The Simpsons as often as this one. A really smart look at how news is being covered each week. And you know I love that stuff.

Fresh Air: Terry Gross is simply the best interviewer ever. She manages to make people I have zero interest in interesting. I got totally sucked into the interview with the guy who directed Old School, which I've never seen. She's good. Good TV and movie reviews on this show as well.

Other: These are the other podcasts I listen to.

The Sound of Young America: Jesse Thorn is also a pretty good interviewer, AND he interviews people I'm interested in.

The Delta Park Project: This is a random husband and wife team who TiVo things and go to movies and then tell us whether they liked them. That's seriously all it is. I love it. They also have a Lost show.


THIS JUST IN: When I linked to Jesse Thorn's blog, I discovered that This American Life is going to have a TV series on Showtime. Wow! I wish I got Showtime.

k8

our house...

It's done! My parents have a brand new house in the same place my brand old house used to stand. It's absolutely beautiful. Check out the pics... ignore all the boxes.

V-Day

Hello all, happy Valentine's day. It is also, for me, a snow day. This has made me very happy! What I should spend today doing is working on my students' MCAS (no child left behind can kiss my *ss) portfolios, but so far I've spent it on the couch. Connor left a box of my all time favorite chocolates (L.A. Burdick's) for me, and tonight we're going out to dinner. Connor gets CVS candy from me, because he doesn't like fancy stuff.

This weekend, we're going down to PA to see my parents' brand-spankin-new HOUSE! It's going to be pretty nice! As hard as it was for me to see my childhood home demolished, they've done an excellent job designing their ideal home. I'm happy for them.

Last weekend, my friend from Wesleyan Amy came up to the Boston area for a visit. We saw Children of Men, which I enjoyed and she didn't, and went to a concert by an Australian band, The Cat Empire. Amy became a fan when she spent 5 months in Australia while traveling the world. She gave me some MP3s and I like them too. They're a lot of fun. It didn't hurt that one of the lead singers is really REALLY hot. Check them out!

All this me me me, how are YOU doing?

k8

Don't Worry, They Didn't Get Me With Their Moon Rays

Hi everybody! I know you were all worried for my safety, what with the Mooninite invasion and all, but I seem to have made it through alive. I think one of them might be giving my city the finger as hard as he possibly can, though.

One of my coworkers who lives in Somerville got a message on her phone from her sister, saying she heard about "all the packages" and she hoped we were OK. What? Are people getting trapped in boxes? Mailed, even? Then, on the way home from work, I had the privilege of hearing NPR cover this story. Maybe they, or the city of Boston, should hire someone under the age of 30 as the official "Don't worry, it's from a cartoon" person.

Now, today, they arrested two of the guys who did it, and the Boston officials are saying that it was an attempt to advertise through "fear," which is just ridiculous! The idea behind this was not to get people to think "Oh my god, that's a bomb! I'd better watch that cartoon!" Because that would be really stupid. The idea was to have people say, "Oh my god, who's that squarish, pixelated guy giving me the finger? I want to know more." These puritans have no sense of humor, sheesh.

In other news: well... there really isn't any. I just had to get that out.

K8