Inappropriate things to give trick or treaters:

Scissors

Canned soup

matches

Casserole

Silverware

Painkillers

Edit: Chewing tobacco

more coffee

The aforementioned Starbucks at H&R Block is coming in handy. The production staff here at the opera wanted coffee Saturday, so I led them there. We've been back 3 times. There was a local coffeeshop down here that also had nice sandwiches, but I think it has closed. That makes me sad, because I just don't like the coffee at Starbucks as much as other places. Sigh.

dinnertime moment

The Hamburger Helper was almost ready to eat.

Donald:

"I'll go clear off the table. And by table I mean coffee table. And by clear off I mean move the computers."

It was funny to me. :)

coffee on site

They opened a Starbucks in the same building as our theater downtown about a week ago. It's right next to the box office. They're going to make fat cash, because house management is allowing food and drinks into the theater for this show. (Not to mention the several hundred H&R Block tax drones every day.) They're going to be open weekends and evenings, selling many overpriced sugary things to theater patrons. The whole concept of food and drink in a live play rubs me the wrong way. You aren't seeing a movie after all, and those actors one stage can see you too. So far, I think there has only been one coffee spill. It just seems wrong to me...

The Starbucks itself is pretty humorous. We're at 13th and Main. The other Starbucks downtown is at 14th and Main. Due to building layout, you'd actually have to walk 2 blocks to get to the other Starbucks, but still. A block away. There's also a nice local coffee shop 2 blocks away that I'd much rather go to, but it isn't open as late. And the damn Starbucks is actually in the damn lobby. I've been going up there when other people go for drinks because they are giving away Song of The Day iTunes cards. Each card has a code for a free download. When I take a free song card and don't buy a $3 drink, it's my tiny, ineffectual way of sticking it to the man. :)

How The Cat Wakes You Up In The Morning!

This is pretty much true, and DAMN cute. I laughed out loud. :)

Heroes

Tonight's episode only confirmed that I hate that Molly kid. I hope the boogeyman guy comes and eats her face. I don't know why, she just gets on my damn nerves. Aside from that, I enjoyed the Micah in LA story. I also enjoyed the Claire gets a boyfriend story, although it's damn certain she's going to get caught. I like the addition of Flying Man Jr., and that he's added some doubt into Claire's mind about HRG. Donald thinks junior is up to no good, but I'm not sure.

Our VCR is getting a good workout so far this TV season. We've been taping Heroes because 8:00 on Monday is an awfully good time to go get coffee, being my only night off currently. Wednesday I tape Bionic Woman. The lead actress is alright, but a little annoying in the same way Jennifer Garner was at the beginning of Alias. I will continue to watch though, because I just love Katee Sackhoff. Thursdays we tape Grey's Anatomy because we love that show, even though Meredith continues to be annoying and whiny. Good supporting cast = we keep watching.

Update: Amazing

eBay batteries arrived, and when installed in flashlight, produced light. Success! Hooray for the internet.

We watched Mean Girls the other night, and were thoroughly entertained. Tiny Fey should write more movies. I loved the dialogue! It also made me sad that Lindsey Lohan has turned herself into a scrawny blonde burnout. She really had potential (and pretty red hair.)

Cute +10

This kitten is almost too cute to be real. Beware!

Amazing

I bought a nifty little LED flashlight for $10 on clearance a year or so ago. It has a small round plastic base with a clip, so it can sit on a table or be clipped onto something. It has a bendy neck so I can point the light where I need it. It's pretty much great during a light focus session. The batteries ran out, so I needed to get new ones. It takes 2 CR 2032 watch batteries. I bought a new battery from CVS the other day for $3.99. When I got home, I realized dammit, I need 2 batteries. Then I thought, wait, I'm going to spent $8 on batteries for a $10 flashlight? Now, I know CVS prices things high. I know I can almost certainly get better deals somewhere else, but for some reason I still occasionally shop there. It's convenient. But this is just silly. I checked Amazon, prices okay. They're selling a new battery for .01 and shipping it for $4.99. That would be great if they did combined shipping. I checked eBay. The second listing is for 10 new Sony batteries, $8.50, free shipping. The seller has a 99.9% positive rating. I clicked Buy it Now. In 4-5 Business days, we'll see if I got ripped off or not.

More tasty dinner, and not too funny

I cooked again! At the theater we decided to do an Italian- themed potluck on Sunday between shows. Yesterday, my mom and I made spaghetti sauce and meatballs. It was fun to cook together, and delicious too. Afterwards, my hair smelled like meatballs. My hair seems to absorb food smells very easily. I smelled delicious. So now I have delicious sauce and meatballs to take.

After the show last night I caught the end of UMKC's production of Noises Off. Verdict: I'm not sorry I didn't see the beginning. One major element that the movie does better than the stage production is focus your attention. I saw the last 10-15 minutes of Act 2, where there is a lot of chaotic running around. In the movie, they put the camera on what they want you to see. On stage, there's so much mess that you don't know where you should be looking until you realize you've missed something. This is more of a problem with the staging then the actual show. I'm sure that professionals can (and have) pulled it off nicely.

Next there was a ridiculous little, I dunno, intermission show or something while the set changed. They played Mission Impossible music and a guy dashed around playing commando or something while the turntable turned and the set revolved around to the front. It was the single most amateur thing I've seen on the Spencer Stage. I was kind of embarrassed, actually.

Then there was Act 3. Another issue I have with this production is the voices of some of the actors weren't strong enough to project the dialogue. Act 3 isn't funny if you don't know how much they're doing wrong from Act 1, and you can't tell how much they're doing wrong if you can't hear what they're saying. They also seemed to have cribbed a lot of blocking straight from the movie, which was even more obvious in Act 2.

Verdict: Watch the movie. It has Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, John Ritter, Marilu Henner, Julie Hagerty, Mark Linn-Baker, Denholm Elliot and young Nicollette Sheridan running around in her underwear. It is hilarious.

P.S.- The lighting wasn't any good either.

Tasty dinner

I actually cooked today. From scratch! I bought the cookbook Macaela recommended, Cheap. Fast. Good! and today I tried my first recipe from it. First I made the Thai-Style Peanut Sauce, then I used it to make a pasta dish. The sauce was made in my blender, so it was easy and fast. The longest part was chopping up the fresh ginger. Oddly enough, this peanut sauce used only 1/2 cup peanut butter to make about 2 cups sauce.

For the Thai Spaghetti Toss, I cooked chicken pieces in my wok. Next I added onions and snap peas, then bean sprouts and half the peanut sauce, then mixed in the pasta and added crushed peanuts. I'm pretty damn pleased with it. Donald thought it was a little bit bland, which could be fixed by merely adding more sauce. (The other half of the batch of sauce went in the freezer for next time.) It made 4 good sized servings, and Donald even had seconds. Success! And now I have 2 dinners to take to the theater with me. If anybody's interested, I can post recipes.