The Daily Show

Several years ago, I called The Daily Show for tickets. An actual person answered the phone, looked at the calendar and told me what days they had available (usually within a month or so) and then mailed them to my house. I went twice with Craig Kilborn as the host and twice since Jon Stewart has been the host. A few months ago (maybe 6?), I thought I'd like to get tickets when a friend was coming to town, so I logged onto their website and found that times have indeed changed! The first available tickets were for November. So I decided to get them for November 27, on the off chance that Jill might be here for Thanksgiving (she wasn't). However, due to the writer's strike, there was no show and it's back to the drawing board. Maybe I'll get to go again in 6 more months.

The Office (11/29)

I guess they ran out of episodes. sniff.

30 Rock quote of the week (11/29)

There were so many great moments in this episode. I loved the "We're cougars" speech from Jenna. I loved when Jamie called Liz Lemon the sexy librarian and she said, "You are!" Then, of course, Jack's "Churchillian" takeover of the baseball and his statement, "I don't have to understand their world to help them. It's like this great country of ours. We can go into any country and impose our values. It's what Bush is doing all over the globe. " Along with the "Mission Accomplished" banner

But, the quote of the week goes to Liz Lemon, and it's short and sweet: "I'm 37. Please don't make me go to Brooklyn."

This coming weekend

The weekend before Thanksgiving is the beginning of New York tourist nightmare season and now that T-day has passed, we are well into it. Esther is coming to visit this weekend and is bringing several friends who have never been to New York before. As such, I will be partaking in all the best and worst the city has to offer. As if they knew, Time Out New York arrived in my mail box today with this cover.

(Yes, I'm complaining, but happy to see my BFF none the less!)

Congratulations, Tina!

I just wanted to say congratulations to my little sister who is now a spokesmodel for Cover Girl!! I have been enjoying your commercials each week while watching ANTM.

30 Rock Quote of the week (11/15)

This was such a brilliant episode. I love the whole Liz Lemon is a little bit racist bit. but the quote of the week goes to Jack again.

Jack: When it comes to hair, no one is more bitchy than conservative males.

The Office quote of the week (11/15)

Kelly Kapur: Trash talk is all hypothetical, like, your mama is so fat, she can eat the internet.

30 Rock Quote (11/8)

Look how Greenzo is testing. They love him in every demographic -- Colored people, broads, fairies, commies... Gosh! I'm gonna update these forms.

The Office quote (11/8)

Jim, referring to Michael: He is a very big believer in surprise parties. Maybe even, arguably possibly to a fault.

FNL

Another reason to love it... now they have a foster child on the show!

I love Jim!

Walking past The Gap last night, I saw this image in the window. How cute is he?

I'm so bummed!!

A few days ago, I learned about an upcoming John Mayer concert. He will be performing a special holiday concert for charity. The bill says, John Mayer acoustic, John Mayer Trio and John Mayer & his band. I immediately thought, "Uhhhh.... I have to be there!" This concert is going to be in LA (a minus), but I have people there ( a plus!). I called Anne Lise and asked if I could come stay. As luck would have it, she has family coming that week and leaving on the same day as the show. I decided I don't want to be an annoying friend, so I put it out of my mind, after talking about it A LOT.

Although I ruled the whole thing out, I decided just to check what the ticket situation was. They went on sale Thursday at 1 pm. I have a standing appointment every Thursday at 1 pm with my student. However, it's not the first time I told my student to wait for me while I purchased JM tickets (seriously. you can ask my student from last year.) Anyway, somehow at 12:55, I was asking Heidi what she thought I should do and then at 1:00 I went into my meeting, somehow totally forgetting that I was supposed to be looking at the ticket situation. At 3:00, I came out of the meeting and went, "D'oh!" and by this time the show was sold out. Immediately following this, I got a message from Anne Lise saying, "You have to come, my mom is excited to feed you a traditional Norwegian Christmas feast and they are going to drive themselves to the airport in their rental car." All the pieces came together... except for ...Uhh..... I forgot... to buy the tickets!

Now I have to try to get tickets through ticketmaster instead of the cool way... the JM fanclub, of which I have been a member for about 5 years. I have a dream that someday, he will come to my home and tell me he is going to come perform at my high school prom since I'm his biggest fan and president of the fan club!

Dessert

Jill came to visit this week. We spent a few days in NYC, and then went up to Boston where we spent a few more days with Tina and Valerie and the kids. The following is a list of desserts we have eaten:

• Cupcakes (Amy's Bread)


• Apple pie (Little Pie Company) with Haagen Daz ice cream (light, of course)


• Various forms of chocolate samples from the Chocolate show http://www.chocolateshow.com/index2.php


• Canolli (North End, Boston)


• more Cupcakes (Lulu's bakery, Boston, pictured here with Maureen)


• Apple slump (Louisa May Alcott's recipe)


• Candy Cane Jo-Jo's (Trader Joe's version of Oreo's with peppermint candy in the middle)

Is it any wonder my pants are feeling a little tight today?

I'm a tourist at heart

I was walking past the Time Warner building and saw the writer's on strike. I started gawking... then saw some of the people in the picket line. Tim Robbins was being interviewed by someone at E! and Seth Meyers was there. I was staring hardcore because I heard Tina Fey has been out there, and since she's the most brilliant writer in TV, I wanted to catch a glimpse. Jill was sort of watching, but mostly walking... until.... I spotted David Duchovny. I went running up to her and pulled on her sleeve and yelled, "David Duchovny's here!" These are the words she needed to become a stalker as well, and she whipped out her camera. She wasn't able to get a good photo because, as I'm sure you've seen in movies, they walk in a little circle and he was at the far side of the circle. I was content to stand and wait until he got to the closer side of the circle to get a good shot, but we were running late. Plus, after getting two partial shots, I was starting to feel a little conspicuous. I wonder if they think we are (a) annoying, (b) pathetic, or (c) sympathetic to their cause.... Turns out, I'm all three.

Finally, Finally, Finally

I'm caught up on FNL!! yipee! I have to say that I put it off a little because I wanted something to look forward to. I finished season 1 two weeks ago in a 5 hour marathon (totally worth it). Then I watched one episode each night after work last night (also, a great way to do it). Have I mentioned that I LOVE this show??

I had been hearing that season 2 was a little disappointing. There is one story line that's pretty annoying, I admit. Don't want to give it away because I know not everyone is watching this show (but everyone should!), but basically, someone killed someone out of self-defense and then didn't report it. Don't people know that self-defense is a REAL defense!? People do it all the time and don't go to jail for it! But the rest of the plotline for these two characters is so good, I just pretend the murder isn't even part of the show. Murder? What murder?

The other good thing about this season is that all the guys on the show have gotten hotter over the summer. Which definitely helps.

My friend informed me today that they are pulling new episodes off the schedule due to the writer's strike. This means that there may not be new eps for a while... and that we may not get a full schedule. I supported this writer's strike until this minute!!

30 Rock quote of the week (11/1)

Wait... what? It wasn't on? Either they did not put 30 Rock on this week because it is the beginning of November and thus the beginning of Sweeps and thus they don't want to put on a show that gets poor ratings because this is the BEST SHOW AND PEOPLE ARE STILL NOT WATCHING. Or... my DVR did not record it this week, which has been known to happen.

So, what happened?

The Office quote of the week (11/1)

Michael: You cannot take the hilarious black guy from the office. I don't know how George Bush did it after Colin Powel left.

All Roads Lead to the Rock

Bon Jovi is in the middle of doing 10 nights at the new Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. After seeing them perform at Live Earth (Dawn and I agree that they were the highlight--better than the Police, but not better than JM, at least for me), I decided it was crazy that I've never seen them perform live before. So I decided to go to performance #5.

They are a lot like Bruce Springsteen in several ways. Of course, there is the NJ connection and the crazy NJ fans that love them and go to see them 10 nights in a row. There is also the similarity that they have those big songs that have the capacity fill up a whole stadium with the music ("Livin' on a Prayer" is their "Born to Run"). Unlike Springsteen, however, Bon Jovi played all their hits. Starting with "Runaway" all the way to "Lost Highway." If you are not a fan of The Boss, you may not be aware that people are always complaining that he doesn't just play Darkness on the Edge of Town and Born to Run, with a little Rosalita and Born in the USA mixed in, but actually tries to play some of his new songs and his solo songs in there as well. Despite their complaints, they will stil pay thousands of dollars to see him play live. Anyway, Bon Jovi tickets do not go for thousands of dollars and therefore I was able to go and enjoy them among my peeps. I still get a little choked up as he sings about his love for NJ.