I have been chatting back and forth via email with my friend Robin this week about the new fall television season starting and how thrilled we both are that some of our favorite shows will be back on. It turns out we have a lot of the same shows on our list of favorites, along with enough differences to keep it interesting. And our respective lists were pretty long... which made me wonder if I watch too much TV.

The truth of the matter is, though, that I am completely incapable of watching TV without doing something else... I'm usually on the computer designing or doing site admin or emailing. Or I'm looking through a pile of magazines for work. Mike has to review a lot of TV-on-DVD for work, so I often find myself completely roped into shows I would have never watched otherwise (case in point: the first season of Dexter, which we finished watching this past Sunday night -- it is an amazing show and so twisted but extremely well-done and compelling. Would I have normally chosen it to watch of my own accord? Doubtful. But there are a number of shows that I didn't think I'd get into and Mike watching them got me hooked -- The Sopranos, Carnivale, Lost, Heroes, The Shield, Mad Men -- the list is actually pretty long...). So while I do end up watching a lot of TV, it's not completely mindlessly staring at the screen, I'm almost 99.9% of the time also occupied with something else.

An article appeared in the NY Times earlier this week entitled "You Are What You Watch." Given my conversations with Robin (in which we both determined that we are complete and utter TV dorks), I found it a fascinating read. Because it appears that I'm not the only one watching a lot of shows on TV (and I certainly wouldn't be watching as much as I do if we didn't have DVR!). There are so many options, and there is so much more quality television than there has been in the past. More channels, more choices, more segmenting of audiences. We can all find plenty to love on the old tube, no matter what our preferences may be. So I decided to come clean and put together a list of all of the shows I've watched with more than a passing interest in the past 12 months. Guilty pleasures and all. Why? Because, like the NY Times says, I am what I watch. Wonder what this list actually says about me? (These are in no particular order.)

24
Lost
The Shield
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
Flight of the Conchords
Entourage
The Sopranos
Mad Men
Psych
Jericho
Heroes
Eureka
The Unit
Weeds
Californication
The Office
My Name Is Earl
Design Star
Scrubs
Ugly Betty
The Bachelor
Prison Break
Dexter
30 Rock
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Damages
Burn Notice
Robot Chicken
Rescue Me
Big Love
The Tudors
Dirt
Sarah Silverman Show
Extras

New Shows We/I Plan To Check Out This Season:
Dirty Sexy Money
Journeyman
Reaper
Chuck
Gossip Girl
Pushing Daisies

And I've probably forgotten some!!!! Tell me what you watch and how -- do you DVR things or do you have stuff that you watch when it airs?

[Edited 9/26, 11:30 p.m. I knew I forgot some! Saving Grace and The Riches. And I actually DVR a lot of stuff on HGTV and the DIY Network that I watch when I have time: reZoned {my fave}, Color Splash, Creative Juice, Scrapbooking, B Original, Carol Duvall, Craft Lab, Crafters Coast to Coast, and I also tape old episodes of Changing Rooms on BBC America.]

Gosh, it was hard to get my butt out of bed this morning. Rain just makes me want to sleep. It's the negative ions in the air. No, really, it is. When it rains, there are more negative ions in the air than usual. And that makes me want to sleep and sleep some more, since negative ions help you sleep better. I'm not making this up. Read this here for more info.

But I did get up, showered, dressed (no working in my pajamas today) and have been busy at work for a long time now. Those negatives ions also make me very productive. I feel like I get more done on gray, rainy days at work than I do on bright sunny days. Those wild and crazy negative ions also give you energy.

That's the extent of my science lesson for the day. Mike came home with a copy of the "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" DVD last night, and, boy howdy, I cannot wait to dive into that pool! That show (which at least once during an episode one of us will say to the other, "Oh, that is so wrong!"), my gosh, it's WICKEDLY funny. And it's the "wrong" that is so funny. Seriously, I laugh during an entire episode sometimes. I think it requires a somewhat twisted sense of humor to appreciate, but it is laugh-out-loud funny. To us. And apparently enough people that it's back for a third season on September 13th on F/X. You might wanna check it out. You'll thank me later.

Also in the hip hip hooray category, HBO has renewed "Flight Of The Conchords" for a second season. This is another show I adore so very much. It's simply brilliant. I'm so glad Bret and Jemaine will be back for more! Because it's "Business Time."

Do any of you remember the skit Mike Myers used to do on Saturday Night Live, Sprockets? He'd play this black-clad, bored German talk show host, very minimalist and disinterested in most everything. Here's a Wiki on it in case you don't know what I'm talking about. I always found it wickedly funny, since he'd usually tell his guests things like "I find you both vapid and uninteresting." At the end of every skit, he'd announce, "Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance," and he'd break into this jerky movement thing that was all angles and hard lines, nothing fluid in the least about it.

What does that have to do with anything? Well, I have spent the past two weeks doing a lot of dancing. At concerts. And the last of the concerts for a little while happened Wednesday night, so I thought I'd be done with the dancing for a bit. But no. Cathy and I got into an email discussion yesterday prompted by her YouTube trip down memory lane with Bauhaus. And we talked about how we both have a little bit of the goth in us, even if you'd never guess it in a million years by looking at either of us.

Well, all that poking around on YouTube, viewing the links she sent me, made me think about other stuff I hadn't listened to in a while. And hours later, I had put together a playlist of some of my favorite songs of all-time. This is by no means comprehensive, although I will say the first five songs are my top songs of all-time, in order. After that, the order is completely random. One band would make me think of another, and then another... Anyway, I made the playlist public so I could share it with you guys (what fun is it if you don't share it?). I'm embedding it here in this post, but I'm also embedding it at the bottom of my blog so you can listen to it anytime you want to. 'Cause it's really great shtuff!

I'm sure I'll have to do some of the same hocus pocus I had to do earlier this week to get the Neil Finn clip to post, but it's so worth it.

Anyway, putting this playlist together was totally making me want to dance (through much of it, except maybe the slower songs). And dancing is good. It's part of my healthy living lifestyle (I got into even smaller pants yesterday, so I'm pretty darn thrilled at the moment).

So I had two awesome shows this week... both were Styx/Def Leppard/Foreigner. The second one was especially fun because Melissa and her hubby Bill came with us. We took them backstage to meet Tommy Shaw of Styx, and when we were walking back out to our seats during Def Leppard's set, we had to walk on the side of the stage to get back out and Melissa said it was like we were onstage with them for a moment. And technically we were.

Wanna see some pictures? Of course you do! (Sorry, don't have time to add the cute white borders and drop shadow I've gotten in the habit of doing...)

Here's Def Leppard the first night:

Here's Tommy Shaw of Styx the second night:

Here's Lawrence Gowan of Styx the second night (he's standing up on his keyboards):

And here's a photo of my better half, Mike, with Tommy Shaw after Styx's set the second night. Tommy's holding a CD Mike had given to him (a Vivian Campbell - guitarist for Def Lappard - solo album):

Good times!

Still no word on my new computer. This is getting old fast! I'm ready to have it already and be done with the whole stupid USB disconnects my current laptop is having. It's such a drag!

Hope you all have a great weekend, and have fun rocking out to my playlist!

'cause I have a freebie for ya today! Yesiree, I made a freebie last night, just for you guys. So stay tuned, I'll get to it at the end of the post!

But first, a shameless plus for something I put in the store last night -- I also made another fuzzy alpha. I followed Erin's suggestion this time and made this one white. While the black version looked like pipe cleaner texture to me, the white alpha looks more like terrycloth, like a white towel. See what you think:

You can get it now at ScrapDish. I tried to make some other colors and patterns, but they weren't looking so hot. I'll keep playing around with it until I get another one I'm happy with.

Mike forwarded this link to me earlier today. If you love The Office, you must watch this clip:

Jim impersonates Dwight

I was kind of bumming that The Office was a repeat last night, but 30 Rock was so funny that it made up for it. I am SO GLAD that 30 Rock was renewed for next season. That show is hysterical. OMG, Kenneth the page singing Michael McDonald last night was brilliant. I won't say anything else in case I have readers here who watch who haven't seen it yet. But I adore that show. I also love how Tracey Morgan's character always calls Tina Fey's character by her full name, Liz Lemon. Why that cracks me up I have no idea. But it always makes me laugh. And Alec Baldwin as Jack is simply amazing. He is such a great comedic actor.

And, holy cow, the last two weeks on Lost have been pretty darn awesome. Last week especially, although this week was really good too. Thank goodness they are finally explaining some things to us (and giving us more questions, but the explanations are very satisfying since they are so long-awaited).

For anyone who is perplexed at how to use my recent Art Clipz series, I direct you to two places online: check out the galleries at Digital Art Quirks and at Zneart.com. For a specific example, here's one that uses vintage clip art: Krista's quirk. (The boat image is clip art.) If I poked around other galleries for a bit, I could find other examples, but that's just a quick one I knew I'd done in the past... If you aren't a quirky type, you can use them on regular layouts too. I have included them all as PSD brush (abr) files, so you can use them to embellish regular scrapbook layouts too.

I was lamenting with another designer via email that I hadn't had a freebie on my blog since the Bohemian Peddler add-on, and it was time. So I made this alpha last night. It's pink, it looks woven, and I added a white rim to the letters (that sorta looks like puffy paint). Here's a preview:

Thanks for your interest in my blog freebies. This freebie link has expired.

Thanks for your interest in my blog freebies. This freebie link has expired.

You can download it here. If you do download it, here is today's fun download question: what is your middle name? Mine is Marie! (Please don't share this download with anyone -- if they want it too, send 'em here to get it!) (Oh, also, it's a big file, so please be patient... it'll take a little while to download! The letters are really big.)

Happy Friday to all!

I'm excited for several reasons today, one of which is that I am getting my hair cut tonight for the first time in four months (yes, it has been that long). I know that when I end up putting my hair in a pony tail every day that it is time, and I've been doing that for a while now. So hopefully I will look considerably better this evening! Or not. The guy who cuts my hair does an awesome job, so I'm sure it will be great.

I don't want to jinx anything but the rejiggering I did behind the scenes on my blog seems to have cut the spam crap down totally. But I didn't just say that because, like I said, I don't want to jinx it.

I'm getting really tired of stupid drivers. And there are more than there should be around these parts. I'm constantly amazed at the completely ridiculous things people do when they are driving. So I constantly drive in a state of expectation -- I expect the people driving in the cars around me to do the most insane, stupid stuff. And they rarely disappoint me. So I'm prepared for them to do stupid things and I can then react accordingly. Case in point, I was just driving home from the post office, which is not far from my house. I was waiting to make a left-hand turn into my neighborhood when a car came up behind me, ran off the side of the road and UP ONTO THE CURB to get around me because the driver could not wait another 10 seconds for me to turn. WTF? People do go around when we stop to turn at that spot often, but never up on the curb like that. Dangerous and unnecessary.

Perhaps people are just antsy all of the time. Always in a hurry. Rush rush rush. The woman behind me in line at the post office came in and said after standing there for maybe 30 seconds, "I can't believe this is taking so long." What? She'd just walked in the door and already she was complaining. Granted, the line was long and it wasn't moving, but still. People are just stupid a lot of the time. I already know this to be a fact. But still, the constant reminders I get in the course of my day sometimes just make me shake my head in disbelief.

I just added smilies onto my blog because sometimes I just feel like I want to use one. Not often, but every once in a while. This one cracks me up:

Ok, yeah, I do have a freebie for you today. It's not part of any kit... it's just a paper I did for something that ended up not matching the intended kit as I would have liked, so I saved it for something else. What better than a BLOG FREEBIE, right? I really love this paper, actually. Not to toot my own horn, but sometimes I just really like what happens when I play in PhotoShop!

Thanks for your interest in my blog freebies. This freebie link has expired.

Thanks for your interest in my blog freebies. This freebie link has expired.

It's good for so many different kinds of layouts that it could be super duper versatile. If you'd like it, download it here. And tell me what your favorite TV show of all-time is. Me? Hmmmm... that's tough as I really like a lot of them. Right now, my favorite is "The Office." I also loved the Aaron Sorkin show "Sports Night" (which was so NOT about sports) if we want to mention something that isn't on right now. Other past faves include "Highlander, The Series," "Seinfeld," the U.K. version of "The Office." (BTW, if you are a fan of the UK "The Office," Ricky Gervais' show on HBO now, "Extras," is BRILLIANT!)

Speaking of TV, THE OFFICE SPOILER ALERT... DON'T READ THE REST OF THIS POST IF YOU DIDN'T WATCH LAST NIGHT:

This show would be funny if you'd never watched it before, but the subtleties and details of it are so much more fun and entertaining and fulfilling if you've seen every episode. Last night's show was a perfect example. I loved:

1) Dwight doing his home inspection in the midst of a cocktail party. If you didn't know what Dwight is all about, that part of the show would read really weird. But if you've watched and know what Dwight's M.O. is, him doing that is just so perfect.

2) Tobey trying to win Pam the duck... and her telling him to give it to his daughter. We've seen Tobey gazing at Pam from afar. We've seen him try to ask her out. We've not wanted him to ask her out. Seeing him make note of her comment and spending an entire evening trying to get the duck for her was so sad. And I had to wonder if Pam knew what he was all about or if she is just oblivious to his unrequited crush...

3) Karen feeding Jim lie after lie and him believing all of it because he's gullible. But he's also not, in a lot of ways. So was he taking it because he feels bad that he still has the hots for Pam? Was it almost cruel of Karen to go there because she now knows about Pam? Yes, I think so. But they pulled that off beautifully and just made it funny instead of cruel.

4) Michael and Jan. The oh-so-odd couple. Mike and I agreed last night while we were watching that we are so glad that they took that story line there. Jan is so befuddled by Michael -- he's so socially inept. But he has a good heart. And she's totally hot for him, but she can't seem to figure out WHY. So we see this amazing parade of emotions across her face as she's appalled and amazed at the uncouth comments Michael makes or the way he behaves, then she turns around and wants to jump his bones. It's such a hysterical dynamic and it's so funny to watch the guy be the warm fuzzy one in the relationship. I also find it amusing that Michael has no clue of the power he holds over Jan.

5) Pam and Roy. OMG. OMG. She confessed the kiss and he FREAKED! I said to Robin in an email earlier (because there is nothing quite so fun as discussing the episodes with her!) that Roy's screaming parts were so real -- you could just feel the anger pouring off of him (and smashing things, of course, just seemed so over-the-top). The tag at the end about him getting Jim... well... one's mind reels at what might develop there. I loved that earlier, Pam was starting to assert herself: making Roy act like a boyfriend and "do boyfriend stuff" if he really wanted to be with her, correcting the order at the bar... I've never seen Pam as a pushover, because the characters on that show are so multi-dimensional, but in some ways she always was with Roy, and I'm glad to see her breaking out of that.

SPOILER COMPLETED!!!!