I'm baaaack...

I'll be able to start posting to the old blog again very soon, so stay tuned.

Funny new TV spots

Brendan's new TV spots just started running this week!




I think they are really funny, and they definitely get funnier the more you see them and you notice the details like the rat tail and pegged jeans, and the guy in the background in every shot. Watch them 5x and you start laughing harder. Or at least, I do.

You can see them here»

If you're wondering what happened to Lehman and Merril Lynch and Bear Stearns...

...and Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and my 401(k) (and, fine, yours)...

This is, by far, the clearest explanation of what happened to the housing bubble, and the economy, that I have come across:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRmFEpl74sI

Wait...that's not it.

Here it is: The Giant Pool of Money

I'm telling you, it's worth the listen.

Cheering in the Sun. Singing in the rain.

Brendan just did the Ironman last weekend! He did great, and finished the race (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile (a full marathon) run, and he even broke 11 hours! That took almost 42 minutes off his last time. Unbelievable. Pictures to come soon!

Of course, he wasn't feeling so hot at the end--until some magic chicken soup fixed him up and turned his color from gray to his normal rosy pink. I was pretty nervous when he wasn't making a ton of sense when I was talking to him. But, he perked right up. (His blood pressure had dropped to 80/70--which is really low for him. Normally he's around 130/80.) Not enough salt, we suspect.

But, he did so great! I'm really proud of him. And, his parents came out, as did Amy Blevins our resident photographer and endlessly supportive cheerleader. I had such a great time!

The weather could not have been more beautiful! (Of course, the next day it was non-stop pouring rain in the fifties, almost identical weather to the first time Brendan did it, so we definitely lucked out.)

But, the rain has not stopped, it seems. We've just been getting totally hammered in both Chicago and Michigan over the last few week, and over the last two days especially. Over 9 inches in 24 hours.

Yesterday was the wettest day in Chicago's history, in fact.

Here's a rough site to get a few pictures: http://web.me.com/brendangately

(He just built it tonight with his new cool apple applications--so it's still a little rough.) But click on my albums at the top!

And stay tuned for more soon!

Dear Democrats,

As you are watching the DNC and the angry throngs of people shaking placards and fists, and chanting against Obama in the name of Hillary for McCain, please do me a favor and check their wallets. I'm pretty sure you'll find more NRA than ACLU cards.

A true Hillary supporter would never vote for John McCain, not if they care about the issues she values, or the country that she envisions.

I mean, seriously.

And to these TV reporters who are creating daily "Convention Report Cards" for those of us drooling sloths that require them in order to understand a gigantic party (that needs to be rated?) maybe instead of blithely referring to the protest groups outside carrying Hillary signs as Hillary supporters, maybe do some due diligence--or as some in the field call it--journalism.

Because I'm betting that there are at least a handful (the majority) of those McCain champions/"Hillary lovers" who are also known as--Republicans. Did we not learn anything from Turdblossom?

I'm not saying that there isn't a single Hillary supporter out there. I'm not. But, I find it truly hard to believe the level of support outside the DNC for McCain in the name of Hillary (right after McCain's Hillary ads have run) in a group wallpapered in McCain yard signs, are actually Democrats.

It's called a tactic--one used in numerous other Grimm fairy tales. And guess what. The person who buys this? Gets eaten by that wolf. Every single time.

Rocking Mad City

Up in Madison, WI this weekend. It is gorgeous. Brendan is riding his bike 100 miles or so. I am planning on going shopping for a new purse. I think my day holds a lot more appeal.

I got up at the crack of dawn this morning to drive my husband to meet a group of other crazy people who are all riding 100 miles together. (You're right, I am the best wife ever.)

In this group he's riding with today are two people that I am not best friends with. One is this girl who used to openly hit on Brendan in front of me. I met her about twenty times before she seemed to be able to remember me, and when I was by myself and smiled and said hi, she wouldn't acknowledge me. Whenever Brendan and I saw her together--she would laugh and flirt and only talk to him, completely ignoring me.

Maybe this is just me, but I find that to be irritating. Usually, I try to put it in perspective, and have sympathy for a person like that. I try to remember she's probably insecure--or has a raging STD. But, even so, sometimes don't you just want to punch people like that in the face?

But, we don't, because we are ladies and ladylike.

On the outside.

What is/was most annoying, though, is that Brendan never noticed this behavior, even with my sketches and dioramas, my fully scripted scenes playing out before him, my claymation, the CGI. In fact, he refused to believe me until it was finally confirmed by outside sources (other boys) that it wasn't just me--that it turns out her selective rudeness was well-known. I think there's a name for someone like that. I can't think of it. It's on the tip of my tongue...

And then my other non-BFF is this guy, who after the Chicago marathon last year--the one where I trained all summer to get a thimble of gatorade in raging heat and wasn't allowed to finish?--made some blanket statement on this running forum about how anyone who didn't get liquids in the race didn't deserve them because they obviously weren't fast enough, and basically didn't belong in a marathon to begin with. Because a marathon is about speed, obviously. Remind me, dude, which marathons have you won?

Look, I am the first to admit, I probably have no business running a marathon. I am a huge slow poke. No arguments there. But, if they're going to take my $120, they owe me a couple of cups of water, whether the people in front of me were faster or not. It's called a business transaction.

Anyway, for now I am back in the hotel, with seemingly little to do for the day--which is a huge relief. I have not had a weekend like this in weeks. It is fabulishious.

Feel free to use that term.

I'm reading Sharp Objects right now, which came out last year and was written by a girl who lives in my neighborhood. I am jealous because I can't seem to finish my third book. My first, I've sort of hit an impass with in terms of knowing if I need to rewrite it, and my second is still percolating. The third, I think I'm ready to polish off, but then I get side tracked...by say, posting a blog entry.

Okay, fine, I'll go write, and then go get the best grilled cheese ever, with a tall sports tea. Or maybe a glass of white wine.

Lollapalooza this weekend--and I'm not there.

I'm here. In the quietest office in the world.

So, I was just telling my boss--one of them--that he shouldn't be intimidated by starting a blog. "A blog is a free, organic, living, breathing thing," I said with an alarming level of confidence. "You don't have to update it every day. You don't have to update it every week. You just have to be consistent, and also allow for people to be alerted when you post a new post--and if they care to read what you wrote, they will come. And if not, well, they weren't your audience anyway."

And then I promptly logged onto my blog to prove my point, only to discover that I have not posted in an embarrassing two months. Shame on me.

And here's why: I have no idea. I guess my new job is really challenging. Lots of moving pieces. Lots of meetings. Lots and lots of emails. I even got an intern for the summer. Maddie. I want to kidnap her and not let her finish her senior year. Actually, she's been working on her own blog this summer: "Confessions of a Summer Intern."

Sometimes it seems that most of what I do is write emails, either in response to other people's emails, or to create an email that generates a flurry of responses...for me to then respond to.

I am very important.

Brendan has been training for Ironman Wisconsin for the second time, so he's constantly on his bike or running or swimming, or all three. I miss him when he's out doing these things, but on the flip side, I have had a very relaxing summer with quite a bit of free time on my hands. And, in my free time, I have been re-hashing my first novel--which I'm not sure has much improved since the last time. I think it has, but no one who matters (those who would sign on to sell it) seems to agree. And this has led to a grave depression. Okay. Not really. But, doesn't that sound so dramatic? Really, I've got a pretty thick skin at this point.

I guess, though, what I wish was that someone would say to me. "Look, kid, this isn't quite there, but you're real close, see? Stick this in a drawer and show me what else you've got." James Cagney is my fantasy agent.

Or maybe I should chuck it all and give up.

But, I can't, because I can't help but make up stories anyway--and if I do that without the writing part, I'm pretty sure that just makes me liar.