Raymond M. Reskusich

For whatever reason, I'm being a bit introspective tonight. I have been in my house and in Champaign for just about a year now; maybe that's the reason. In any case, here's a list of good and bad things from the past year.

Zoo Improv: I got involved with a local improv group at the beginning of 2008. They are committed to the craft, and they really make efforts to improve and to move forward with group dynamics, practice, and the troupe as a whole. Really excellent stuff.

Quest United Methodist Church: Perhaps the best part of moving to C/U is getting to commit to a church. It's been 10 years or so since I last was part of a church where I thought I could be around for years, instead of months or less.

Serious girlfriend. At the risk of being too sappy, I'll leave that alone.

Parkland Community Band: I've picked up the french horn again, and I cannot imagine a more relaxing time than those two hours on Thursday night when the band practices.

Of course, not everything has been good. It's a wet year, so I've been working a bunch. That's not so bad, except I was so sick this summer that most of that field work has backed up into a very small length of time.

Maybe I should vacation?

The Sword of Truth novels (by Terry Goodkind) are being made into a TV show produced by Sam Raimi. Observe promo image:



I really don't know what to say about this except, "Gosh, I hope there's less Objectivist propaganda in the TV show," and "Wow, that's probably going to be really terrible."

You can go watch a couple of teaser trailers on Terry Goodkind's website if you're so inclined.

But on the "books of my childhood turned into films/shows" theme, there's pretty much no way this show can be worse than the Dragonlance movie was.

From monimala:

When you see this, post in your own journal with your favorite quote from The Princess Bride. Preferably not "As you wish" or the Inigo Montoya speech.

Inigo: "Fezzig, are there rocks ahead?"

Fezzig: "If there all, we'll all be dead!"

Vizzini: "No more rhymes now, I mean it!"

Fezzig: "Anybody wanna peanut?"


I dreamed it was snowing last night. That's how cold my apartment was. I keep looking out of the window and expecting to see snowflakes. But still, we're braving the cold to pick some yummy wild mushrooms (sorry mkwhite!). It's cold enough that I might even drink hot chocolate instead of coffee this morning.

Wait, no, that's just crazy talk ...

http://outpost505.com/?p=136

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

http://waiterrant.net/?p=521

I’m thrilled to announce that I will be appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show this Wednesday, October 15th! The show is titled “Are You Rude? Take the Test!” and I’ll be on stage with Oprah discussing the finer points of restaurant etiquette gleaned from my book Waiter Rant: Thanks for ...

Beer in hand: Check
Hole 5 of Wii Sports Golf: Check
Still at work: Check

Thank God it's Friday :)

1 Canadian dollar = 0.841822 U.S. dollars
1 British pound = 1.70200 U.S. dollars

As usual, I apologize for my lack of a real camera. Here's a picture of Murphy in bed partially under the covers. She sleeps with me every night!

(She's gone completely under the covers once or twice, but I think those were just experiments.)

( You're a kitty! )

That is all for now. No news is good news?

I did vote, though. Go Ohio! Go Blue!

So, Ebug has off school tomorrow (in-service) and I'm to spend the day with her. So far my thoughts are:
- a haircut (for her)
- going to Hobby Lobby to get more squeeze bottles, and maybe look at fabric for Halloween costumes (for me... I've maybe already got something lined up for her)
- skeining my most recent dyed yarn. So excited about it, it is lovely; not sure this will happen, as it will require her entertaining herself for 45 minutes while I do it...
- watching a Star Trek movie while she takes her nap and knitting.

I suppose I should take her to a park, because she'd like that... :P

I'm wondering, though, why they didn't move this to Monday when they could have claimed it was Columbus Day?

I was trying to hold off turning on the heat until November. It's gas, and it's expensive. But my apartment is frigid, so I gave in. It's an old gas stand-up heater. I got home late, turned on the heat and opened up osme ice cream. (I know, I know ... counterintuitive).

I start smelling something funny, and I'm looking at my tennis shoes next to the heater. But they're not close enough to actually be melting, right? I wait a little longer, then decide to get up and double check. And that's when I notice ...

the paperback book sitting on top of the heater. The one that is melting and smoking.

Holy crap, f'list. I just nearly burned my apartment down.

I enjoyed apples at Skirvin's Hort 100 apple lab today.

http://waiterrant.net/?p=518

Frank Bruni, the food critic for the NY Times, interviewed me for an article in his Critic's Notebook titled Old Gender Roles with Your Dinner? Basically the article is about how male and female diners are treated differently in restaurants. I am quoted as saying, “Men eat and leave. Women eat ...

@ The Abbey, 8:30 with two opening bands, so I'm not too concerned about getting there too early, although [:SITD:!@)#!*$)$@ (I hate bands with symbols in their names) isn't bad. IR always puts on supremely entertaining shows, so I'm stoked.

We shall be there. I feel safe saying this since we are in no danger of being flooded out like we were for the Iris show. And BONUS, yummy Irish food! Plus I have a coupon! 

Then tomorrow's the bachelor(ette) parties for <lj user=literarychck> and <lj user=apagelisgunna>, rehearsal on Friday, and ZOMG THE WEDDING!! I'm so excited! I'm picking up my dress from the seamstress tomorrow, and while I'm a bit nervous about my high-wedge shoes (need to practice stairs), I cannot wait. Samm gifted me the most AMAZING glass earrings (I need to get a photo this weekend of my own, but they're in my new icon), and with the hair and makeup and manicures— it's going to be a wonderful long weekend. 

Sarah Palin talked to the press for a whopping 15 unscripted minutes recently. Here's a quote from when Palin was asked about her focus on Obama's acquaintances rather than the economy or other serious issues:

“Well, Americans are caring about the problems in the economy, of course, and wanting to know what those long-term solutions are that our ticket can provide and what the other ticket is proposing. So when you talk though about what it is that we are proposing and what it is that Barack Obama is proposing, again it is relevant to connect that association that he has with Ayers, not so much he as a person—Ayers—but the whole situation and the truthfulness and the judgment there that you must question if again he's not being forthright in all of his answers as to how did you know him, when did you know him, why would you continue to be associated with him?”

Well, that sure cleared things up, especially as Obama's association with Ayers has been investigated by the press and shown to be casual and not current. Thanks for the straight talk, Sarah!

Also, from a Washington Post column:

Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

Posted on Behalf of Tim:

Crane Alley at 9 tonight

Drinks tonight at Crane Alley at some point. And the Apple Lab is tomorrow at 3pm at Mumford Hall; come if you're interested! (And we could use another couple of people to help set up, if you're interested...)

...and it was okay.

No, really, it was. It was quick and painless - the event, anyway. The leading up to it was full of stress, but not because of anything that the other one did. I'm sorry it fell apart, but I'm happy to be friends with Beth.

I hope that we'll end up as a parable of how divorces can end up going well.