The Physics of Physics

I've gotten many freaked out looks lately. Why, you ask? Well, I'm voluntarily taking a physics class. The first week of the semester I had a class be cancelled. (The first time I've ever had a class cancelled.) It was a video editing class and the main reason it got cancelled was there weren't enough students taking it. Shocker.

I only need two more generals: an art class and a science class. No art classes were being offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so science it was. Now, I'm a complete sucker for physics stuff. Not only do I love The Big Bang Theory, but I also loved The Elegant Universe. This is fascinating stuff that makes our world function the way it does. Galileo? Genius. Einstein? Ditto.

My professor signed an e-mail to me "Dr. G," so he's now known as Dr. Gravity and his syllabus was hand-written then xeroxed. I guess he couldn't find a mimeograph machine. (Yes, I know what they are...)

Since I started the class, I keep telling people that I, the English major, am taking a physics class just so I can watch the look that crosses their faces. It's a combination of "What the hell?" and "Is she drunk?"

I can't help it if I hear about the equation that "got us to the moon" and write exclamation points and smiley faces in the margin of my notes! It's a simple concept, but it sent us 250,000 miles away and got us back again!!! I'm getting all teary just thinking about it.

Don't hate me cause I'm a geek.

The Whisperer in Darkness Trailer

I know. I know. It's been forever since I've posted anything. I was waiting for something truly amazing to post about and, BEHOLD, it's here!

Here is the trailer for The Whisperer in Darkness. That's right, my friends, this is what I did with my fall vacation from school. Check it out and see if you're as excited as I am!

When I embed the video in here directly, the right side gets cut off, but use this link.

The Whisperer in Darkness - Day Two

I'm sorry I'm not doing these more often, but time to yourself is a rare commodity on this shoot. At the moment I'm covered in paint from painting a set that should have been completed while we were in New England. Silly of me, really, to think that I wouldn't end up painting a set for this. We've re-arranged our shooting a bit and we're back on schedule. Now I'm off for a much-needed bath.

Day 2 (September 22, 2009) – First Day of Shooting!


5:00am: Wow, another early morning. And it feels like it’s two hours earlier. Granted, to my compatriots it feels like it’s three hours earlier.


7:00: In Jamaica state park to film a dead sheep in a river. It’s a party now!


7:20: Met Paul, our farmer. He’s a cool dude and a tech writer and he has to get super wet in an ice cold river in Vermont.


8:06: Found myself lying amidst cold, hard rocks, desperate not to be seen by the camera while making fog to make the river look “eerie.”


8:35: First shot is in the can! WOO!


8:42: The dead sheep looks gross and yet cool!


9:00: Sean says I’m having too much fun. Hee!


4:30: On the busiest road in Vermont trying to film in some fields, but people keep driving past. One woman in a Prius tried to run us over 6 separate times.


6:00: The lovely Andrea Ogden (whose house we’re filming in front of) brought us cold local beer to refresh us. These Vermonters are so sweet and friendly.


6:06: I don’t have to look at the monitor to know how a shot is looking. I just watch Sean and Andrew’s faces. Their smiles speak volumes.


8:00: Back to base camp from Landgrove. Sigh.


8:20: Loony chef brought me a flower (!) (and all the girls), but gets mad when I try to take the red one.


8:30: Finished dinner, but we have more simple shots to do. It does mean we have a later start tomorrow.


9:45: Let Amanda run the fog machine cause she feels like the kid in preschool who’s getting punished for eating paste.


9:47: Must keep moving or will fall asleep.


9:49: Chris Lackey says he’ll end this shoot “ripped or dead.” We figure it’s a new line of workout tapes. Chris keeps being the dude to hold up the rain rig (since it’s not actually raining in New England), which is a steel pipe filled with water with a sprinkler at one end and a hose attached to the other.


10:53: A stinger sounds like it should be a fish or something, but it’s really a big-ass extension cord.

Whisperer at Mount Holyoke

I could wait to post this until I post my timeline from the day, but it's too cool to wait. That script at the beginning? Yup, that's mine.

The Whisperer in Darkness - Day One

Wow! So sorry it'a taken me so long to post. There was a really irritating lack of internet access in New Hampshire. I'm back now. Back in L.A., that is. Here's what happened last Monday. I have a few of these saved up and more to write. The joy of making movies.

Pictures soon to follow!

Day 1 – Monday, September 21st
4:30am: Dude, it’s early!

4:32: Nudged Daddy awake, cause he didn’t hear the alarm go off.

4:33: Wondered if he really was awake.

5:00: Left home. Buy kitties, buy Mummy!

5:20: Wondered how many times my father was going to bitch about red lights before he finally let it go.

5:55: Smooched the Daddy goodbye at the airport curb.

6:00: Marveled at the SHORT line for American Airlines!

6:02: My suitcase weighs 33 lbs. Trivia is fun!

6:05: Saw the line for security and figured it made up for the short check-in line.

6:06: A little girl in the security line has a backpack bigger than she is. Blonde and cute.

6:11: Told the security dude his name tag was on upside down. He said he’d been there for half and hour and I was the first one to notice. I’ve got your back, Ross.

6:18: Mmmm… Starbucks.

6:25: At the gate, checked my e-mail, blah, blah.

6:40: On the plane. Glowered at the people in first class, just for effect.

6:42: Had the weird recollection that de-icer smells like maple syrup.

6:48: Done “reading” Skymall and the in-flight magazine. Good article on Ricky Gervais.

7:20: Finally in the air. We taxied so far, I thought we were driving to Chicago.

7:25: Realized that these stupid little tables on the plane are not QUITE big enough for my laptop.

7:35: I dislike turbulence.

7:45: We have to detour for thunderstorms across the midwest. This is bad, since my layover in Chicago is only 30 minutes anyway.

9:13: Was strangely fascinated by some awesome clouds.

10:32: Prodded two people awake so I could go “un-hydrate.”

10:40: Finished crossword in in-flight magazine.

10:45: (Chicago time) Heard Josh saying, “Don’t tell me what to do it sickens me,” when they told us for the fourth time to keep our seatbelts buckled while we were in our seats.

11:15” Plane should be landed at O’Hare and we’re still in the air!

11:30: Wondered if the plane always makes that noise when it lands. Hmm…

11:31: On the ground!

11:35: At the gate! Out of my way, people!

11:45: Off the plane and sprinting for the other end of O’Hare to make a flight that leaves in 5 minutes.

11:50: Gasping and wheezing, but just in time.

11:51: A line to get on the plane?! I could have stopped to pee!!

12:08: Mention of “life rafts stored in the overhead compartments” sounds like “live rats stored in the overhead compartments.”

12:09: Can’t stop coughing. This is why I don’t jog to keep in shape.

12:16: And we’re off again!

2:22: (Boston time) Losing two hours should make the day feel shorter, but it doesn’t.

3:10: On the ground! Huzzah!

3:20: Called the Mothershipto inform of safe landing. She reminded me to stand up straight.

3:30: Please God, let my suitcase be here too!

3:35: My suitcase! Double HUZZAH!!

3:43: I hate crying children.

4:12: I also hate “Unchained Melody!” Ugh!

4:20: Someone I recognize. Yay, they’re here!

4:22: Thoroughly kissed by Barry Lynch, Matt Foyer, Andrew Leman, Laura Brody, and Sean Branney.

4:45: In a BIG van trying to follow a conversation about where it’s best to be during a zombie attack. Apparently the prison in Concord, Mass. or the Warner Bros. movie studio are the best. According to Chris Lackey, anyway.

5:00: The leaf peeping isn’t quite as developed as I was hoping for, but what are you going to do?

7:45: New Hampshire is bringing out the West Wing geek in me. Home of Jed Bartlet! AH HA HA!!

8:00: During a long drive to our Home Base in New Hampshire I was told in so uncertain terms that I was NOT going back to Utah by about 7 different people.

8:30: Lunatic chef man is making me crazy and I’ve only known him for 30 seconds.

12:20: Partied hardy with my favorite people. Ate, drank, laughed. I’ve really missed these guys. Wouldn’t have partied quite so hard if I’d known our call for tomorrow morning (this morning) was going to be so freakin’ early. Sigh.

Come All to the Fair

Apparently, I've reached a whole new level of snootiness. In the last two weeks, I've been to two county fairs and the whole thing just escapes me. I'm looking at a sign that says "Kachunga and the Alligator Show," I wandered through the animal pens, I averted my eyes from the pie-eating contest, and decided I'd hold it rather than pee in their scary restroom with two year olds peering under the stall doors. If the "psychic" was reading palms instead of tarot cards I might be swayed.

I should applaud these people for growing and raising and creating things they're so proud of. I should be able to give them their moment to shine without rolling my eyes in derision. When did I become so jaded that I couldn't enjoy this? Is this what living in L.A. did to me?

The Weber County Fair at least had a band I wanted to see. We braved insane wind and air so thick with dust you couldn't see the mountains to see an acappella group called T-Minus Five. Five guys singing harmony made up for the fact that the beer was Coors and Bud Light. You know the band is singing for a conservative county fair crowd when they change the lyrics to Brown Eyed Girl from "making love in the green grass" to "making friends in the green grass." Chickens.

I wonder if they'd let a grownup have a free pony ride.
I wonder what kind of pie they ate for the contest.
I wonder what the psychic would see in my cards.
I wonder where that asian couple got all that cheap Michael Jackson stuff.
I wonder what that cat is going to do to his mistress for making him do "tricks" on a 95 degree day. (His trick tonight is going to be barfing on mom's pillow.)
I wonder when the alligator show is.

Ooh, I really wish I hadn't seen that guy's full moon as he stood up from that table to throw away his leftover funnel cake. . .

Sorority Girls and Free Tequila

Reading the title of this post, you'd think that I'd gone 'round the bend and joined a sorority. Fear not, faithful readers, I've not been brainwashed into all-night keggers and wet t-shirt contests! Rather, I've been brainwashed by crazed movie-makers.

About a week ago I received an e-mail from my friend Sean (producer/director/actor extraordinaire). Sean wanted to know if by some miracle I had dropped out of school and wanted to take a month helping him and his minions shoot a movie in New England. My e-mail of reluctant decline followed shortly. Over the next few days our e-mails got more and more... sassy. His last was very adamant in his concern for "what I wasn't telling him." Because, it used to be that if I was faced with the prospects of a drowned sheep prop in the middle of a freezing Vermont river, I would have "jumped up and down like a sorority girl on Free Tequila Night."

I have to admit that he had a point.

Well, the more I thought about it, the more I couldn't stop thinking about it! I mentioned it to my parents, they voiced their concerns, we came up with solutions we're all comfortable with, and I e-mailed Sean back and was able to astonish him by agreeing to his mad scheme (no small feat, I assure you).

So, it's true. Mid-September I will depart for New England, spend a week there, and then head for L.A. where we'll film the rest of The Whisperer in Darkness. Remember two years ago when I helped them film the trailer? No? Maybe this will jog your memory...



You can also check out the blog for the production here.

I'll be acting as Script Supervisor. You know, making sure the actors don't screw up their lines, that we film everything that needs to be filmed, etc.

I'm ridiculously excited! One might even say that I'm as excited as a sorority girl on Free Tequila Night.

The Luck of the Draw

I was thinking about luck today. Not the leprechaun, pot of gold luck. More like the luck you make for yourself.

My literature professor was telling us how by the time he was fifteen, the farthest he had travelled was to Salt Lake City and he'd only been there twice. (Once had been with the Cub Scouts to go to the zoo and he got peed on by a liger. That has no other baring on the story, I just thought it was REALLY funny.) He was 28 before he got on an airplane.

By the time I was fifteen, I'd been to Germany and seen the remains of the Berlin Wall. I was spending every summer in L.A. with my aunt and seeing piles of excellent theatre while I was at it. By the time I was 22, I'd been to England three times, Scotland twice, France, Italy, and New York City. None of this was by chance.

The other day my dad told me the story of how my travels began. My A.P. European History class took a trip to Europe each year. My sophomore year Mr. Lane gave us the brochure for their next trip, a London "City-Stay" where they'd stay at a hotel in London and take day trips out to Stratford, Oxford, Stonehenge, Bath, etc. I got in the car that afternoon and lightly mentioned that they were doing this and what a cool idea it was. My dad asked me if I was interested and I mumbled something about money. I hear that it was my Grandmother that said something to the effect of, "We'll hock the family jewels if we need to, to make sure Kate gets to go!"

That was my first taste of the lengths to which my family would go for me. Each summer after that I remember working my butt off to earn the money for the subsequent trips. Paris during my junior year, England/Scotland during my senior year, and Italy after I graduated. The culminating trip was the trip to England and Scotland with my mom, my grandmother, and my aunt.

I wouldn't have gone in the first place if they hadn't said, "Yes, honey, you can do this and we'll do whatever we can to help." I guess that's the real luck, the family I got.

Those trips shaped who I am and made my life so much richer. I've seen the Mona Lisa and I've seen Versailles, but I've also seen the difference between life in former East Germany compared to the life in former West Germany. I've seen the beaches at Normandy and St. Peter's square in Rome. I've seen the Vatican museums, the British Museum, and all the German museums that absconded with relics from Egypt. It's been so much more than cultural literacy. It's the world I live in and I've experienced a little of it.

Here's to my trip to Gettysburg next summer!

And You Thought There Weren’t Any Great Guys in Utah

I was on the bus last Thursday after class, daydreaming about Bruce Wayne or the Doctor coming along and sweeping me off my feet, when someone out there in the universe thought it necessary to bring me crashing back to reality.

I wear my iPod on the bus specifically to keep lunatics from talking to me, but this guy was not to be dissuaded by ear buds and a little Queen. Mr. Fantastic was in his mid-twenties and banging his head along to whatever he was listening to. He turned to me and said, “I’m wearing two different boots today, cause the laces on the one broke this morning. It makes me look like a hobo.”

I couldn’t argue with that. I nodded and tried to turn back to the rainy green hills outside. No dice.

“I was kicked out of the place I was living, so I have to move into St. Anne’s on Saturday.” (St. Anne’s is a local rescue mission.) “I have a little money left that I’m going to use to buy alcohol and weed.”

This guy clearly has his priorities perfectly aligned, I thought to myself.

He kept going. “I’ve got this dragon incense burner thought that’s worth at least 30 bucks. And another little dragon figurine that’s hand-crafted ceramic and worth about 70 bucks. I’m gonna stash those, along with my TV and DVD player, at my mom’s house while I’m at St. Anne’s, cause, you know, it would suck to lose them.”

I couldn’t think of anything to do other than nod again. Were we there yet?

The inane conversation continued until I, blissfully, got off the bus and he said, “I’d give you my number, but I won’t have one until Saturday.” I expressed some sort of feigned regret at this and skipped off the bus.

He was quite the catch. Infinitely better than that sexy billionaire Bruce Wayne. What was I thinking?

When I'm a Movie Critic...

There may be many movie/theatre critics out there who think they have a good method for determining what makes a "good" show. Well, here are two more.

Jennie and I decide how good something is by how much liquor you need to have ingested to enjoy yourself. For something like the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie you can have fun watching that movie stone cold sober. When I watched Fight Club I wished that I'd had a couple of beers to sip for the first half and a couple pints of everclear for the second half. Woah.

My mom and I know that we like something when we get in the car and say, "Didn't you love the part where..." The more of those moments we find and the longer we're talking about them, then the more we liked the movie.

After we saw the new Star Trek, we were oohing and aahing over it for days. I'm stilling oohing, but it's more internal now.

Note: this works just as well for theatre as it does for films.

Didn't you love that part where Spock turned down his admission into the Vulcan Science Academy and told the Vulcan elders to "Live long and prosper"? Yeah, me too!

A Sign That I Am Not a Pod Person

For those of you out there who think I always remember everything and never miss a detail, I have two instances for your consideration.

First, my mom and I were at the gym yesterday and she mentioned that a guy on the elliptical would "know me if he saw me again." I was oblivious. I think I'm pretty observant (usually), but I completely missed that. Sigh.

Second? Last Thursday I got onto campus shortly after 7am. I came with my mom for what I thought was an 8:30 class. I got there and found out it was a 7:30 class and that there were 15 minutes left. Dude! That's bad enough, right? NO! It gets worse.

I show up today (at the right time) and find out it's a TUESDAY AND THURSDAY class. I had looked on the website to make sure that it was just Thursdays and the schedule for summer is so... bollocksed up that you just can't tell. So... I didn't miss one class, I missed THREE. Damn it! Fortunately, they had just gone over the html code that I taught myself years ago. And the assignment that I turned in the other day in an effort to make up for the class (the one that I thought at the time) I missed? We did it in class today.

I feel like an idiot, but thank God I didn't miss anything more important than that. Again... sigh.

There are a few Banshees that would be very reassured by this sign that I am, in fact, human. I, on the other hand, am just irritated.

Grandfathers, Mothers, and Mayhem

My dear Grandfather turned 85 last week and is still going like a bat out of hell, as evidenced by the spray paint on my fingernails and the permeating odor of starter fluid.

The main thing I'm working on now is painting the biggest generator you've ever seen. It weighs 6500 lbs. I'm calling it "Big Bertha" and it's the color of that scuzz that forms on top of a cup of coffee that's been sitting on your desk for a week.

I should be going to work with him this morning, but I've had a little bit of a sore throat for the last few days and the last thing I need is to get sick right now. There's WAY too much fun stuff going on this weekend!

My aunty and Robyn are in town, GF's big birthday bash is Saturday night at our house, Mother's Day on Sunday, my aunty's birthday on Saturday, a geek trip to go and see the new Star Trek, and tomorrow is cleaning day in preparation for the big party. I'm sincerely hoping that if I take it easy today then my left eye will stop watering. I look like the bad guy in Casino Royale who weeps blood. (OK, it's not quite that bad, but still...)

On the bright side, the party favors are all finished (and pretty awesome, I think) and my mum's Mother's Day present is all finished.

It was inspired by a wreath we saw in a catalog and we got the stuff for about half what the catalog would have charged.

Wish me luck on my busy weekend and I'll give Big Bertha and Grandfather your regards.

Pictures Speak More Than Words

I've got a few pictures that I've been meaning to make into involved, interesting blog posts, but my brain doesn't want to oblige today. So, here are a few recent photos from my world.

Gwen scorning the effort I put into a jigsaw puzzle.

The table from mum's most recent tea party. (The cosmopolitan on the table is a fluke. I swear.)

A rainy walk with my mum.

My cat wondering when I'm going to stop doing stuff on my new laptop and pay attention to HER again!

B sleeping. I adore her fuzziness.

A picture from the Getty museum during my spring break trip. All in bloom.

Not Much, But Something.

Boy, have I been slacking!

Check out this cool picture from Wordle.net...



I typed in the address for this blog and it came up with this! (If you click on it, it'll take you to a page where you can actually read it. Extreme, I know.)

I'm almost done with this semester and am enjoying the rain.

More to come when I have my camera with me...

Wine Really Does Taste Better Out of the Right Glass

We only had nine people at our monthly wine-tasting last night but from all the glassware, you'd think there'd been twice as many. This first shot is of the table after quite a bit had been cleared away.


This one gives you a better idea. Since I was sitting at the end of the table, I got the whole picture. We each had a water glass, a red wine glass, and a white wine glass. A few of us had an extra glass too. And then there were the port glasses that went with dessert.



We tasted some really good stuff. We started with pinot noir and riesling with our salads and appetizers. We had some cabernet with a very tasty onion/herb dip on rosemary triscuits. Our main course was a tomato and breadcrumb pasta dish that mum and I fix as often as we can. Dessert was a double chocolate cream pie with coffee flavored port and chocolate flavored port. Even though I'm not (very often) a coffee drinker, the combination of the two ports was really good!

Many thanks to the wine buddies for a lovely evening and much tasty food and wine. And thanks for leaving us the onion/herb dip.

You named your laptop?

My new laptop is named Cosmo.

Why? You ask.

It's bright red. Mum said it looked like cranberry juice. I said, "Like a Cosmopolitan?"

She agreed and then said something about Donald O'Connor in Singin' in the Rain.

I said Cosmo Red, rather than Cosmo Brown.

Yes, I'm a freak.

Culture, Taste, Wisdom, & Words

You haven't heard from me in ages, you say?

Well, last weekend, I went to the symphony, the opera, and a beer-tasting. Keith Lockhart is on the verge of leaving the Utah Symphony, so the parental units and I caught his last "Pops" concert. They played everything from The Blue Danube and Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy to the Beatles. Lots of fun! That was Thursday.

Friday, I went with my grandparents to see The Marriage of Figaro by Utah Opera. Watching it, you could tell exactly why Mozart was revered as highly as he was. Truly amazing. LONG, but amazing. A happy opera. Wow!

Saturday night, our group of friends that meets for a monthly wine-tasting, met for the annual because-it's-St.-Patrick's-Day beer-tasting. I find that my taste for beer has waned somewhat. There was some of my favorite Bass there and it just wasn't as tasty as I remembered. I guess as my knowledge of wine grows, my palate has changed. Or I'm a freak. Take your pick.

This just past Friday, another of my mother's infamous teas was on the books. "Pearls of Wisdom" was the theme of this one. I don't know how "wise" we were after the two bottles of champagne we had, but we didn't really care.

My pearl of wisdom for the day?

"Mastering yourself, makes you fearless."
-Lao Tzu

A huge congrats to Ang and her honey-man on their new arrival!!! Go happy for you guys! She's beautiful!

Return to the City of Angels

My sweet grandmother and I went to LA this past Wednesday. I told no one, so I could surprise the cast of Macbeth. Watching peoples faces as they saw me was one of the best parts of the trip. :)

We went to the Getty, ate lots of good food, I finally watched Tropic Thunder (thank God for the margaritas I drank beforehand), I saw a bagpipe band in a bar, and watched Macbeth twice.

The set was simple and yet perfect. The lights were beautiful. And the show itself was beyond amazing. GM didn't quite understand why I wanted to see it twice. Friday night's show was good, but not great. Saturday's was spectacular. I told her that is why you see it twice.

I also got to see my friend Shawn in a play of his that closed last week. He was fantastic. The rest of the play, not so much.

It was a little surreal to be at the Banshee and not be in the booth. I felt this instinct to set props and vacuum floors. My aunty told me that she needed to clean the theatre before Friday's show and I said, "Can I help?" She looked at me like I was completely insane (which I am) and then agreed. I did like that I didn't have to clean the blood off the stage after the show. I watched with glee while their current stage manager did it.

She did an admirable job for this being the first show she's ever stage managed, but there were a couple of times, particularly on Saturday night when I longed to go and kick her out of "my" booth. Thankfully, my self-control is better than that.

To think that if I'd left today instead of yesterday I could have gone to a party at Mel Gibson's. Damn.

P.S. Best luck to my fellow Banshees who are nominated for LA Drama Critic's Circle Awards! Win something tonight!

Sleeping B-eauty

Years ago, my mom turned the third bedroom in our house from a chaotic storage space into the "wisteria room." It's got a Monet-ish mural of wisteria on one wall complete with a quote from A Midsummer Night's Dream. A couple of bookcases, armchairs, and a coffee table my grandfather made in highschool finish the room off.

Since I came home, it's become my sitting room. My TV, DVD player, DVD collection, and surround sound speakers went to live in there. I can crank up Star Wars and Doctor Who when I feel the need.

It has also become Brid's bedroom. In the early days when the civil war between the Old Cats and the New Cat was in full swing and the nights were filled with guerilla warfare between the factions, B was exiled into the wisteria room at night so the humans could sleep.

Every night at 8:15 or so, B appears in the living room, stares at me and demands to be escorted to bed. After refreshing her water and making sure her food dish is completely full, I smooch her on the head and bid her "bon nui."

Last night, I was distracted either by American Idol or the desperate need to color my hair and forgot to tuck my dearest in.

I was awakened at 2am by B sitting in the middle of my bedroom floor wailing at me that I was the worst mom EVER!

I enticed her onto the bed, pulled over a glass of water that she could get a drink out of and told her to shut up and go to sleep. Amazingly enough, she did.

My cat is a diva, but she is not to be trifled with. I woke up this morning to find her asleep on my side. Yes, I was on my side and she was on top of me completely unconscious. Aww.

Thank God a peace treaty has been accepted by all parties.

Welcome to Hoth!

It's snowed like hell yesterday and the world now resembles Hoth.



You know, the planet from Empire Strikes Back where Luke Skywalker goes to investigate the meteor and gets attacked by the wampa, escapes, sees the vision of Obi-Wan telling him to go to Degobah and seek Yoda and...

Wow. OK, just forget that tangent, please. Thanks.

Anyway, we got about 7 inches of snow, they closed campus early, although not early enough to do me any good.



Mum and I went to shovel Grandmother and Grandfather's driveway and sidewalk while Daddy took care of ours. A seriously stupid woman got stuck right in front of us in her well-equipped-for-the-snow black VW beetle. On the way home, we encountered so many morons stuck in their dinky little cars that Mum started turning a different direction just so we could avoid them. Between that and an open back window in the Jeep to accomodate the snow shovel handle, we were laughing pretty hard by the time we reached home.

Thank God there was a shaker of Cosmopolitans and a night of American Idol in our near future.