Jeff posted pictures from the Oscar party here. Check out the cool projected leader board we used to keep track of the pool.

Wow, what a weekend. I sure didn't expect to end up dancing to TMBG's Ana Ng on a stage with Mavi and a pair of drag queens.

Ah, it's not as wild as I make it out to be ;-) Mavi, Jeff, and I went to Lipgloss at La Rumba to dance. Lipgloss is a "Indie, Brit-Pop, Glam, Soul, and Rock" club. It exponentially multiplied the number of men in drag I've ever seen in person. And Hipsters galore. Quite fun actually. A bunch of people dress up in retro clothing to go out. Most of the men were wearing blazers and button-up shirts in pastels, some with ruffles. Some women wore pillbox hats and heels. The dance floor was empty until we started at it, and within 4 songs it was full. The DJs played a pretty good mix at the start: J-pop, french scat, Michael Jackson, Beck. Later in the night the music started to get predictably "80s" with the Clash, Depeche Mode, Rolling Stones, ACDC, still pretty good stuff, but not the great eclectic mix they had in the beginning. Whenever Mavi and I took a break, someone would encourage us to get dancing again (that's how we ended up with Stacey and Kelly on the platform "stage"). Everyone was nice! It was refreshing to go to a dance club where people were there to dance and have a good, self-aware, time. Too often dance clubs are flesh fests, where people go to get stinking drunk or to hook up with a stranger. I'll take La Rumba over Pollyesters any day.

I got tired pretty fast that Friday. 2 1/2 hours of aerobic dancing is tiring enough, but I had already had 1 1/2 hours of ballet that evening. Ballet is going really well. I pulled off a perfect double pirouette last week! I can control a single fairly regularly now. Sure, triples used to be my goal, but these days I'm happy to do a good single. Christina remarked that I was getting my strength back pretty fast:-)

We went to see Les Enfants Terribles at Starz last night. I didn't like it very much. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for absurdist French cinema. Afterwards Ben, Bruce, Brian, Jeff, and I got a late bite at Pete's Kitchen. I love my biscuits and gravy.

Brian and I have hit Scrabble hard since watching Word Wars. We played four games yesterday, and we have plans for more after dinner tonight. (I'm 3-1, though Brian got a bingo on the game he won. I'm insanely jealous).

I watched an interesting documentary with Ben and Brian last night. It's called "Word Wars" and it's about the Scrabble championships. If you like Spellbound and Trekkies, you'll like
Word Wars. It's a bit like Spellbound for adults. (Note: one contestant is rather found of foul language, so it's not a movie to watch with kids.) These people are so obsessed with Scrabble, most of them don't have jobs, they just play all day and hope to win money at tournaments. Not only is the subject matter interesting, but the documentary is very well edited and directed. You really get to know the community of Scrabble. You recognize the players. There's clever title cards and informative sequences, like the final match, which is cleverly shown play-by-play. The movie dances along at a nice pace. My favorite player has to be G.I. Joel. Joel has a lot of G.I. problems. It's hilarious.

Why are there so many street corner sign-holders in Arvada? At first it seemed like only the lowbrow independent shops paid people to wave signs at passing cars. Usually mattress sales and rent-to-own specials. But lately there have been larger businesses, like Kmart, hiring the stick people. Recently I spotted both Safeway and Quiznos stooping too. How tacky.

What a relief! My office finally has a new suite where we can move. We can finally stop worrying about where we will be working this summer--and start worrying about actually moving ;-)

Amanda, Mom and Dad came up last weekend and we had a pretty good time touring Old Town. I had Indian, English, and Moroccan food within 24 hours. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to share.

This morning there was no hot water. Now, there have been times when the pipes are running with other people showering, and I can barely get lukewarm water when I turn the faucet all the way. Usually if I wait for the other pipes to quiet I can have a decent shower. But this morning there was only icy cold water on all the taps in the apartment. I checked every ten minutes for 45 minutes, and even when the pipes weren't running there was nothing but ice! Needless to say, I had a grumpy Monday.

Ben sweetened my day by taking me out to eat, buying a special cheese (Ski Queen) along with our groceries, and then we watched Tampopo together. Tampopo (meaning dandelion, and in this case, a woman's name) is about a woman who wants to run a better noodle shop. More than that, the movie is a series of vignettes, showing how the Japanese love and savor their food. Very weird but very good. I came across the movie on IMDB's movie of the day, here. I wouldn't recommend it if watching a lot of loud noodle slurping sounds annoying to you. Or if you don't find Japanese culture completely bizarre and fascinating, like I do.

Ben got into the carnival spirit at the Primary kids activity.

A SLC sunset. Andy, Jill, and Annie fly a kite.


Amanda's play, the Seussical. I couldn't even fit all the cast in the photo.


A Peeps Tree!


Josh only left one "squashed" jelly bean behind.


Ahh, beautiful Colorado again. What a lovely view I had during my flight home.

The great thing about Netflix is that it encourages you to rent DVDs you wouldn't normally pay money for. Recently Ben rented Jem, a show I remember from long ago. Watching it again brought on a flood of nostalgia. It's so weird that hot pink and assymmetrical clothing makes me think of my childhood.

For those who never knew Jem (or have forgotten), it's a Hasbro cartoon (the same universe as GI Joe and Transformers) which debuted in 1985. Jerrica Benton's father died and left her Synergy (below) a super computer which projects audio and visual holograms, so Jerrica and her friends (Aja, Shana, and Kimber) can become rock superstars.

Jerrica takes on the alterego Jem, causing much trouble for her boyfriend Rio, because he naturally falls for Jem as well. Meanwhile, The Misfits, a rival band, stop at nothing to try to ruin Jem and the Holograms' sucess. Each episode has three music videos. If you're lucky, it will have a chorus AND a verse.

I'm enjoying this show far too much for my age. I'm also realizing where I developed a warped sense of the world as a preteen. I didn't know universities were schools until I was in high school. I thought it was just a place where you lived after you graduated. Where would I get such a simplistic definition? Well, let's look at how Jem describes adult issues:

Episode 1: Jerrica and her friends live in a charity home she inherited from her father--but it's falling apart. "We need money to fix this place up" says a girl. "But where will we get money?" asks another. Jerrica replies "when my dad needed money, he would get it from Starlight Music." Cut to Jerrica walking past security into Starlight Music, the company she recently inherited. Eric (who owns the other half of Starlight) says "Jerrica, what are you doing here?" Jerrica replies " We need money." Eric says "I can't just give you the money." Jerrica says "But I own half this company." Eric replies "We'll see about that."

No wonder I had many strange ideas about how the world works.

Sing with me now the song Ben and I have been haunted by for the past week:
Jem! Jem is excitement. Ooo Jem! Jem is adventure!
Ooo, glamour and glitter, fashion and fame.
Jem, Jem is outrageous, truly truly truly outrageous!
Ooo Jem! The music's contageous, Outrageous!
Jem is my name, no one else is the same, Jem is my name!
Jem!