I found out this week that inside specially marked boxes of Kellogg’s Cocoa Krispies are one of three collectible Indiana Jones light-up spoons.

Of course that meant that even though I do not like said cereal, I was going to buy it, because I WANT THAT SPOON.

I found out pretty quickly that cereal is not easy to come by in Manhattan, but I did manage to grab the one box of Corn Pops, which did not offer the spoon, but instead a mail-away Indiana Jones search light (fuck yes, I’m mailing away for it).

Now, Brooklyn might as well as Battle Creek, MI, because there be cereal here! Got me some Cocoa Krispies with the light-up spoon (lights up red — fucking awesome!!!). And I just finished eating a delightful bowl of Corn Pops with my glorious new Indiana Jones-themed spoon.

Listen to this podcast

My plans from now through August so far:

– Mother’s Day/Communion Party extravaganza
– Go see Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
– My little sister’s 4th birthday party (involves cupcake baking)
– Day off to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
– Little Mermaid on Broadway
– Memorial Day weekend with the Niece
– Nephews’ & Niece’s dance recital
– Iron Maiden (FRONT ROW TIX!)
– Father’s Day with Dad
– Go see The Incredible Hulk (and expect the worst)
– Stay with Grandma after her knee surgery
– See Get Smart (and hope for the best)
– Little nephew’s elementary school graduation party
– See WALL-E, what will be my favorite animated movie ever
– See Hellboy II: The Golden Army
– Go see first showing of The Dark Knight
– San Diego Comic Con (press passes!)
– Universal Studios Hollywood (press passes again!)
– Disneyland visit (as Vacation Club member)
– Baby Shower for dear friend
– Go see X-Files 2: I Want To Believe
– Celebrate Dave & my 6 years of happy togetherness with 4th row tix and backstage passes to the Metal Master tour with Judas Priest, Sabbath, Testament & Motorhead.
– Another Metal Masters show, this time with Niece & Nephew in tow
– Grandma’s Birthday celebration
– Star Wars Day! Star Wars: The Clone Wars
– Little Nephew’s Birthday celebration
– Brother’s birthday celebration

In between all these activities, there’s the day job, along with all my work on Geeks of Doom, as usual. I have a feeling this list will grow as the Summer progresses.

Listen to this podcast

Ever since I was approved for a press pass for the NY Comic Con, I’ve been getting bombarded by comic book creators asking for Geeks of Doom to review their stuff.

I think that’s pretty awesome. We love comics and we are all for giving exposure to the indies.

Looks like I’m going to have to find more comic book reviewers.

In the meantime, I’ve making new contacts each day with promo people. There’s so much good stuff out there that I’d love to get my hands on. I wish I could review everything myself so that I could build my house of swag, but there’s only so much little ol’ me can do.

There’s a 20 percent chance that I might get backstage/press access for a major summer concert for a band that I totally love. If it happens, I will be in ALL of my glory. I don’t want to jinx it, so I’ll keep it to myself for now.

Ooh, and Alex from First Showing has agreed to be my convention buddy at the NY Comic Con. He and I are planning to hole up in the movie panel theater. Dave has decided to forego the Hollywood blockbuster portion of the Con and instead be our man on the scene, scoping out the indie comics and other goodness.

Still have two DVDs to review and a movie guide to compile, plus a book-related post I’ve been working on for a while now. When writing about books, it takes so much research. It’s not like when you do a movie round up. With movies, you can easily sit through them for 90 or so minutes, or fast forward to the areas you’re researching; with books it’s a lot harder. I’ve had to reread some books; others I’m reading for the first time. It’s all good, just time consuming.

So yeah, reading, researching, watching movies, writing, oh, and playing my bass … that’s my life. And it’s a good life, too.

Listen to this podcast

For a year before turning 13, I played an old (very old actually) acoustic guitar that had belonged to my mom when she was a teenager. On my 13th birthday (the year was 1985) I went to Sam Ash Music store with my brother and $200 worth of birthday and got my first bass — a red Ibanez Roadstar II.

I had never touched a bass before in my life, but I knew for that whole year that the bass was the instrument I wanted to play. Maybe it was because as a child, I could always hear the basslines in songs and that’s the parts I liked. My favorite bands were (and still are) Rush, Iron Maiden, and Black Sabbath — bands with awesome bass players.

So yeah, there was my little 13-year-old self standing at 4′ 11″ with this huge bass, and guess what? On day one, I could play it. Right out of the case, I starting play Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” and another female metal bassist was born.

I still have that Ibanez, my “Red Thunder,” and I’ll tell you, no other bass I own is closer to my heart than RT.

Today, I took RT out of its protective case and decided to record myself playing Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper” and “Flight of Icarus.” I realized for the first time that my Mac laptop has Garage Band on it. Unfortunately, I don’t have a friggin’ clue how to use it, so I had to record my basslines in one take. Dave graciously laid down the guitar parts, but there’s no vocals (oh, and there’s no solos on “The Trooper,” we got interrupted before we could finish). Lastly, the drums are Midi, which is why the end of “Flight of Icarus” is all weird-like.

Anyhow, let it load and take a listen.

(If you want it to open in a new window, click here.)

“The Trooper”
Loss of Wisdom (Teeth)
Dëve Cönman
cover of Iron Maiden (instrumental, no solo version)

(If you want it to open in a new window, click here.)

“Flight of Icarus”
Loss of Wisdom (Teeth)
Dëve Cönman
cover of Iron Maiden (instrumental)

Dëve Cönman is …

Empress Eve on bass
Dave3 on guitars
Midi on drums

Listen to this podcast

Valentine’s Day was sweet. Dave and I had some veg food, then went to see The Spiderwick Chronicles at the IMAX theater.

Check out this AWESOME V-D card Dave gave me (see image at right). It’s a friggin bass — with real strings! Check out what he wrote on the inside:

Brett Michaels is jealous of me because I don’t have to constantly ask you if you’ll stay and continue to rock my world! You’re rockin’ it constantly by being my best friend and greatest love.

He rules, I swear.

Oh, and he got us tix for The Little Mermaid on Broadway! Can’t wait for that.

Aside from V-Day holiday, we’ve been real busy lately. Somewhere around 50 or more DVDs, CDs, and comic books arrive in the mail each month that we then send out to contributors for Geeks of Doom. I have to say that after a year (we opened the preliminary site on Valentine’s Day 2007), we’ve made great progress and working on the site day in and day out together has been great fun. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a labor of love, I swear. Working on the site brings great joy to our lives.

In other news, it’s been two years now since Dave and I went vegan and I think finally our families have not only come to terms with it, but have finally accepted it as a natural part of our lives.

Yeah, my bro still teases me, but that’s his thing. He teases everyone. I told him I was going to knock him out like Mr. T on A-Team, but when he wakes up he’ll be at a factory farm. He laughs because he knows if he went anywhere near one, he’d never eat meat again.

But really, it’s all good. My family now naturally makes sure that at parties there’s food for me to eat. My in-laws do that same.

This weekend was amazing, I have to say. Both my Mom and Mother-in-Law turned 60, and were given separate parties this weekend. The partying started on Friday and will continue through Monday night. Saturday we gave my MIL a party in a private room at a nice restaurant and all of her longtime friends and relatives came from out of town for the occasion. What was nice is that my Mama & Stepdad (who live in Arizona) were in town, so they got to come to the party along with my Bro and Grandma. Plus, my family was together with my in-laws AND my sister-in-law’s in-law, so we were all one big happy extended family.

Sunday was my Mama’s party at a restaurant, same type of thing. All of my in-laws came, the nieces, nephews, the entire posse and afterward we all went back to my Grandma’s house to continue the celebration. Both Moms were so happy with how the weekend turned out.

While at my Grandma’s house, Dave and I looked around to see our two families mingling and laughing and drinking together, having a wonderful time and we realized how truly lucky we are. You always here horror stories about “the in-laws” but that’s not the case with us. Dave and my brother are like best buddies when they get together. They always end up doing some project together, whether it’s jamming on guitar, or fixing some electrical problem, or doing something on the computer. As for me, my sister in law Al is so awesome. She is my sister, the sister I never had (my real sister is only 3 years old, so it’s a bit different). I never had a sister growing up, so it feels good when we’re together and she hugs me and tells me she loves me.

Yeah, I’m feeling emotional because I realize how much I am loved and how friggin kickass the life I share with my husband is. Every so often, you have to take notice of that and relish it. And I do.

Weeee!

Listen to this podcast

For Thanksgiving this year, Dave and I, along with my brother, spent the day at my Dad’s house with him, Stepmom, her parents, and my baby sister, who’s 3 1/2 now and very active, talkative, and loves to perform.

Stepmom and her family are Russian. Some of their traditions don’t exactly line up with my family’s typical Italian ones, but in the past two years since I’ve been vegan, this difference in tradition has actually worked out in my favor.

Yes, see, where my father expects every dish to be meat or to have grated cheese on it, but my Stepmom does not; while normally the entire turkey carcass would be brought to the dinner table, then carved there, Stepmom’s dad cuts up (not carves) the turkey in the kitchen, then just brings the meat on a platter to the dinning room; and there’s more versatility with the desserts, as not everything needs to be a big cheesecake or cannoli.

This year, Stepmom made all vegan food except for the cut-up turkey and the stuffing. But, Dave and I weren’t left without — she got us the Tofurky holiday roast that comes in stuffing inside and gravy to baste it with. Plus, she made additional vegan gravy, whipped sweet potatoes, wild rice medley, and asparagus. Yum!

Normally, I’m not someone that needs to be “tricked” by faux meats and if I had been making the dinner, I would have never got the Tofurky roast and never tried it. Since Stepmom made it special, Dave and I ate it and were pleasantly surprised (and it was cool that we got to get our protein too). It was really good, especially the stuffing. The “meat” itself was good, it tasted NOT like fresh turkey, but more like the turkey you get that’s premade and you just heat it up (can’t think of the brand that does it, but they do it for other meats too; oh, and it think, if I can recall the taste, I think Jennie-O had a small turkey roast that came with gravy, I think it was like that). And the shocker — my brother had some of it too because he wanted to see what it was that we were eating. Trust me, that’s a big deal. He agreed with me about the taste.

To accompany dinner, I made the Cornbread from The Joy of Vegan Baking. Oh and I’m so happy to have that cookbook (my sister-in-law Al so thoughtfully got it for me this year for my birthday). I wasn’t sure if the cornbread would be sweet enough, so I added 2 tablespoons of maple syrup to the mix and it came out great. Everyone ate it with dinner. Also, I saw my grandma, aunt, and uncle when they dropped off my brother and I gave them come cornbread too and it turns out they ate it all on the way to where they were going for Thanksgiving.

For dessert, my brother brought chocolates, Stepmom’s mom made apple bread, and I made a vegan coconut custard pie, the recipe of which I found online in the vegan forum. I used the oats crust and it was delicious. Most of the pie went and I gave the last slice to my grandma because if I’d have brought it home, I would have eaten it the minute I walked though the door.

Listen to this podcast

The TBS channel has been running The Wizard of Oz all weekend, and I just can’t help myself, if it’s on TV, I have to watch it.

It must be a habit from my early childhood, back in the days before VCRs (and now DVDs) were common place, allowing you to watch a move whenever you wanted to. Nope, when I was little, if you wanted to see The Wizard of Oz you had to wait for it be shown on TV (no cable back then either) and sit through the commercials. I’m sure everyone in my age group can watch the uncut version and tell you where the commercials would be. (Although, TBS has commercials, I don’t have to wait for it to be shown on TBS to see it; I can just pop in my DVD.)

Anyhow, so yeah, I’ve sitting through The Wizard of Oz a bunch of times this weekend, and I laugh every time the part where Dorothy meets Glinda comes on. My brother and I have been chuckling at this scene for a long time now, because we think Glinda insulted Dorothy.

When Glinda meets Dorothy, she asks Dorothy if she’s “a good witch or a bad witch?” Dorothy says that she’s not a witch at all and that she thought that witches are ugly (which would make it obvious that the pretty young Dorothy is NOT a witch). Dorothy is then surprised when Glinda — who’s beautiful — reveals that she’s actually a witch. “Only bad witches are ugly,” Glinda tells her.

If only bad witches are ugly, then why would Glinda not know if Dorothy was a good witch or a bad witch?

Umm… that sounds like an insult to me.

Ok, you can argue that while only bad witches are ugly, perhaps not ALL bad witches are ugly. But, the way the scene is written, it sounds like Glinda is insulting Dorothy.

I’m just saying.

Listen to this podcast

On Friday, Dave and I decided to really get a lot of sightseeing done.

The night before, we went online and shelled out the $3 to purchase tickets to the Washington Monument for 11am. There was no way I was getting up at 7am to go there in person to get a free ticket. For three bucks, I’ll take the online convenience.

That’s where we started out the day. It’s a really quick trip to the top of the monument and we snapped some pics out the tiny windows and about a million pics of the monument from the ground. It’s one of those landmarks that appear wherever you are in the city, like, “hey look, there’s the Washington Monument again! :::click:::”

And yeah, obviously, all of the photos of Dave and me together look exactly the same and that’s because we’re taking the photos ourselves and are always attempting to get some kind of landmark in the background (hey, sometimes it even works!).

After the Washington Monument, we walked passed the reflecting pool to the WWII, Lincoln, and Vietnam Memorials. Let me tell you, everything in the heart of DC appears very close … BUT IT’S NOT! Damn forced perspective. From the memorials, we walked to the White House. You know that gate in front of the White House you see people gathering at on TV and in pictures? Well, those days are over. The street itself is blocked off, as is that side of the street. You can go down the block on the opposite side, but that’s as close as you’re going to get.

From the White House, we moved on to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The Smithsonian museums rule! They are huge and interesting and FREE. That’s so damn cool. We spent several hours there and went to the IMAX film “Sea Monsters.” We also ate lunch at its Atrium Cafe where they have veggie burgers and steamed broccoli!

While we were there, we saw that the IMAX theater was showing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at 7:30pm, so after going for dinner, we returned to see the movie. Score!

By the end of the night my feet were killing me, but it was well worth it. We had lots of fun.

Saturday was more Smithsonian museums, moviegoing, and lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe with Jerry, one of our writers at Geeks of Doom. More on that soon.

Listen to this podcast

Dave and I are still here in Washington, DC, having a great time. We went to see Van Halen at the Verizon Center on Thursday night and it was AMAZING!

Check out the photo at right of one of the blimps flying around just before the concert started. I snapped it with my cell camera. I took a few other pics of it, but I can’t seem to access them on my Flickr account right now. Our seats were really good, section 110 row C. That S-shaped stage they had running through the crowd really wasn’t utilized unfortunately, but we were still close.

Oh, before I forget — there is an opening band. It was a barely average reggae band and half of their songs were the most played out cover songs going (”I Shot the Sheriff” and “No Woman No Cry” among them). They in no way got me psyched to see Van Halen, so if I had known about them, I would have showed up to the concert a little bit later.

This morning, the hotel left a complimentary copy of the Washington Post (not used to “free” or paper, for that matter) and in it was a review of Van Halen’s performance, which pretty much summed up how I felt. Everything about the show was great, except for the times that singer David Lee Roth overdid the ad libing, forgot the words, or changed the timing of the vocals. (Nothings sucks more than trying to sings along to some of your favorite songs, while the singer isn’t singing in the proper timing.)Otherwise, it was a great experience.

Right before the show, actress Valerie Bertinelli (guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s ex-wife and mother of current VH bassist Wolfgang Van Halen) walked through an opening in the crowd, and was greeted with huge applause and cheering.

I’ve been a VH fan since I was a little kid and I remember when Valerie and Eddie got married. It was a pretty big deal in the tabloids and definitely a big deal to me, being a fan of both of them. I remember an article in US magazine that had a photo of the couple together and they looked so much a like — and so young (she was 20, he was 22).

I also remember when they had Wolfgang. Every magazine took the opportunity to report the news with a “And the Cradle Will Rock” headline. Ever since, I always think of Wolfgang when I hear that song, and I did again when the band played it at the concert.

It’s obvious the Eddie is a really proud Dad. Dave and I both felt so emotional to see Eddie up there with his son on bass and his brother on drums. It was really heartwarming.

The reunited band played most of their self-titled first album and all the hits from their last album together 1984, as well as tunes I know I just HAD to hear: “Little Guitars,” “Somebody Get Me a Doctor,” and “Unchained.”

My favorite tune of the night: “Everybody Wants Some!” Ah, that song rules! Tell me you don’t think of the burger scene in the John Cusack movie Better Off Dead whenever you hear that song.

Aside from hearing all of those classic VH songs, it was awesome to see the band in great physical shape, still doing flying kicks and the like. And Eddie, well, he just rules. His playing is still fantastic and I was in awe to see a master of the fretboard in action and innovator in the rock guitar world.

Anyone out there who has a chance to go see Van Halen, I highly recommend that you do — you won’t be disappointed.

Listen to this podcast

Happy World Vegan Day to all my veg*n, aspiring veg*n, or generally supportive friends on this glorious observance. I feel fortunate to be celebrating my birthday on such an awesome day.

Thanks to everyone who’s called, texted, emailed, and myspace messaged me today. I really appreciate it. My family sent me some really cool gifts and some money (always appreciated, lol). I plan to spend the cash well, fear not.

For my birthday, Dave got me a Traveler Escape II Bass! I love it. It’s so tiny and adorable and now whenever we travel, I too can have my musical instrument with me (Dave has the smaller guitar version.) He also gave me a cute little stuffed animal, the Evil Dead the Musical soundtrack (it rocks!!!), and the new Nikki Sixx autobiography. Attached to it all was the most tear-jerking card. In it, my love wrote such wonderful things to me, even referencing a Star Trek episode (he truly does know the way to my heart!).

Dave and I are still in DC, having a great time and luckily getting some really awesome weather. We spent the day at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum, which we TOTALLY love and got to see the Cosmic Collisions planetarium-style show. Gotta love the planetarium.

The hotel, like I mentioned yesterday, is totally swank and I’m being spoiled rotten. Every night, they come to do the “turn-down” service and I must admit, it makes me feel guilty. Hell, Dave and I feel guilty that they do EVERYTHING for you — carry the bags, open the door, turn down the bed. My Stepdad tells me I shouldn’t feel bad, because I work hard and I’m paying for the services, so I should enjoy them. I guess he’s right. At least I’m polite and generous to the staff and the great thing is, they are SUPER polite. I really love being treated with respect. So hard to come by these days.

Oh, and they give you these really fancy soaps and shampoos and embroidered shoe shining cloths (makes me want to shine some shoes!). The bathroom has a flatscreen TV in it, so I got to take a long hot bath while watching some TV. Quite different from the Best Western we spent the night in in Wilmington, Delaware. Too bad I’m so bad at taking advantage of amenities. We have concierge service and I know there’s all kinds of things they could be doing for me, aside from getting some free movie rentals, I haven’t requested much.

Right now, I’m watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl in the bedroom on the 36-inch flatscreen TV (I can really get used to this.). In a half hour or so, we’re heading to the Verizon Center to see Van Halen where we have great seats!!! Oh please, oh please, oh please, let it rock my fucking face off!!!!

Thanks again to all for the good wishes.

Listen to this podcast

A fews ago, Dave and I went pumpkin picking with our niece and nephews. At right is the pumpkin we picked carved up as Darth Vader. Dave did the carving, and I must say, he gets more creative with his carvings each year.

Dave and I are on vacation now in Washington, D.C., and Darth Pumpkin is here with us, along with jack-o-lantern lights and some other miscellaneous Halloween decorations, including “Scarum” the cutest little Beanie bat that I found on my pillow this morning when I got up (hmm…wonder who left that there, lol). We drove from NYC to Delaware last night and stayed over night there and did some sightseeing in Wilmington today. Didn’t take too long, it’s quite a small town.

This afternoon we continued on to Baltimore, MD, and had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. The drive was pretty easy and we have the audio book for Neil Gaiman’s Fragile Things to listen to, so that’s pretty cool. Then, we moved on to D.C. — not so easy. I’ve never driven to D.C. before, but everyone I know who has said that getting lost here is quite common. I felt like that scene in European Vacation “Look, there’s Big Ben.” It’s like, you can see exactly where you need to be, but you just can’t get there!!!

Anyhow, we checked into a really swanky hotel, one that we probably have no business being in. There’s concierge and turn-down service and the bathroom is bigger than my bedroom at home. Ah, this is living. We’ll be here for the next few days.

It’s a much-need vacation. Last vacation we went on in May started out great on day one, then we both got sick and that was the end of that. So, I’m really glad to be able to get away now. The weather is beautiful and the Fall foliage is gorgeous.

Tomorrow is my birthday and we have tickets to see Van Halen at the nearby Verizon Center! I can’t wait for that. Eventually, we’ll make our way in the next few days to the D.C. Hard Rock and the usual tourist spots (Washington Monument, Smithsonian, etc.). And we’re going to meet up with Cinema Junkie, one of our writers at Geeks of Doom, so we’re looking forward to that.

Listen to this podcast

I meant to post this two weeks ago when the first signs of the Fall appeared, but I never got around to it. Good thing too, because right after I was so thrilled to welcome the Fall, a heat wave rolled in.

I HATE THAT! Nothing sucks more than a heat wave in October in NYC. October is a time for cool breezes, falling leaves, and good hair days. Instead, it was in the high 70s and very humid. I already had my Fall clothes out and my favorite new jacket, and next thing I know, I’m sweating.

But now, the Fall is truly here!

As a Halloween present, my gave me a beautiful pot of orange flowers and a decorated straw hat for my door (see photo at right). Mama and Gary sent me candles with holders in the shape of leaves made of orange ceramic, purple plastic Halloween glasses, and Fall-themed potholders and dish towels (thanks Mama and Gary!).

And yes, at my age, I still get Halloween gifts. In part, I’m sure, because my birthday is the day after Halloween, so people always give me Halloween-themed gifts along with a birthday gift. I guess that’s from all those years having a Halloween/Birthday party.

Anyhow, I feel like in the past few years we go right from summer to winter. Hopefully, the Fall will stick around a bit longer this time.

Listen to this podcast

I’ve been given a lot pocketbooks, either as gifts or hand-me-downs. I’m not big on handbag shopping, so in the past, I would love it when someone would give me one, for whatever reason.

Since becoming vegan, I’ve had to be more conscious of purses that have leather on them, which is something I’ve never even thought about before. A lot of bags I really like are made mostly NOT of leather, but there’ll be a leather strap or zipper pull, which sucks. The Dooney & Bourke bags I used to love so much are like that, so no more D&B.

Since I needed a new small bag, I went online to Vegetarian Shoes and Bags and found the cutest little black studded handbag! It’s so ’80s metal, I love it.

The bag came in the mail yesterday and it really does look and feel like leather.

I filled it up and wore it today. I love everything about it — except that the strap is so slippery! It keeps falling off my shoulder. I hope that changes once I wear it in.

Listen to this podcast

How happy am I to have found Whole Foods brand Vegan Meatballs?

OH, SO HAPPY!

I’ll admit, I’m quite skeptical about faux foods. I guess it’s because the first time I wanted to go vegetarian over a decade ago, mock meats were so damn gross. But nowadays, vegan alternatives have come A LONG WAY. “Chicken” nuggets and cold cuts, as well as whipped cream and cheesecake can all be enjoyed without meat and dairy ingredients.

Whole Foods supermarket has a great selection of vegan alternative foods, and their brand (called Whole Kitchen) of vegan meatballs is SO good. Dave and I had them tonight with spaghetti and fresh tomato sauce that Dave cooked up this morning (hey, it is Sunday, after all, and I’m Italian, so we always have fresh sauce).

So, yeah, I’m in all my glory right now. Traditional Sunday dinner is back!

Listen to this podcast

This is the cat that my Grandma has been feeding for the past month. Grandma named her Beauty.

I don’t think she can “speak.” She sits outside the back door on the porch (just like in this photo) and she opens her mouth in a “meow,” but no sound comes out. Her mouth opens pretty wide too, as if she’s trying really hard to make a sound, but to no avail.

Beauty is at the back door again right now. My Grandma can’t help but feed her, no matter how many times a day Beauty appears. In the morning, Beauty was sitting on the table outside under the umbrella, since it was pouring out. That’s when she was given a can of cat food. This afternoon, upon her return, Grandma gave her some sliced ham. A few minutes, there’s Beauty at the back door, out comes Grandma’s broccoli and cheddar quiche. The kitty ate it, no problem.
I keep saying “she,” but I don’t know if Beauty is a female or male. For some reason, I get the feeling that she’s a girl kitty. Either way, Grandma says “she” so even if we find out that Beauty is a boy, Grandma will continue to say “she.”

I stayed over Grandma’s house last night, so that this morning we could go to the ear doctor. (It’s easier for me to stay there, since it’s closer to the doctor’s office by 20 miles or so than my house.) Plus, it allows me to spend quality time with Grandma.

Listen to this podcast

Here’s what I commonly eat for, no, not breakfast, but rather, a late lunch.

That’s scrambled tofu, Smart Bacon, and steamed broccoli. Yummy!

I like to cook up a large batch of scrambled tofu, so that I can just bring it with me to work every day. I use two 16-ounce packages of extra firm tofu (the kind in water, not vacuum-packed) and cook it up with some onion (sauteed with 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil), tumeric, salt, and 1-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast.

At times, I add green, red, and orange peppers to the onions, but my favorite side is sauteed fresh spinach and mushrooms in garlic and oil (which replaces the broccoli).

Then there’s the Smart Bacon, oh how happy I am to have found this project. I throw it right onto the George Foreman grill for a few minutes, and I have myself some “bacon.”

Weight Watchers just came out with hamburger buns (2 points each) and one thing I hate is wasting calories on bread, so these buns are a really great find. And they’re delicious, too. When I feel like having some bread with my scramble dish, I’ll put some of my scramble onto one of these buns with one slice of the “bacon.” This especially tastes good with the spinach and broccoli.

And it’s all naturally low fat, too. Can’t beat that.

Oh, and the buns also taste great with Tofutti cream cheese or hummus or — of course — veggie burgers!

Listen to this podcast

Ok, so I’m not that great at updating this blog. Oops. Hey, I mean well.

So, I got my tickets to see Van Halen at Madison Square Garden next month, woo hoo!!! It got me wondering if I had any VH t-shirts in my large collection. So, I went digging and I found one — a three-quarter sleeve jersey with the sleeves cut. It’s a size small, and no, I won’t be wearing it any time soon (or ever). That’s because not only it is a small, but it’s also shrunken down quite a bit.

I should probably mention that I wore it between the ages of 12 and 14 (take note, it’s from the 1984 era).

Dave and I have some grand plans to go see Van Halen in D.C. on my birthday (Nov. 1)!!! We already have our hotel booked and let me tell you, it’s a nice ass room in a swanky hotel. (I was able to use my Disney time share points to make the swap.)We’re probably going to drive down there, so that we can hit Delaware and Maryland, two states neither of us have been too. And anyone who knows me know that I’m on a mission to hit all 50 states. I’m up to 25 already, plus D.C., which I last visited in 2000.

So, if anyone has any advice as to were to stay overnight in Delaware (the Wilmington area) and what to do for a few hours there as well as in Baltimore, Maryland, please let me know. (Ooh, I see there’s a Hard Rock Cafe in Baltimore, I’ll definitely have to make a stop there.)

Listen to this podcast

Just Jared posted some photos of Evan Rachel Wood taken from an article on the actress in GQ. This caught my attention because in one of the photos, she’s eating Good & Plenty candy. My husband can tell you, I’m obsessed with Good & Plenty. I’ve eaten a box every day while recovering from surgery (that’s how I comfort myself).

Wood’s been making headlines lately thanks to her relationship with Marilyn Manson. Last year, Manson left his wife, burlesque star Dita Von Tease, for Wood, who’s 19 years his junior. More recently, Wood appeared in Manson’s music video for “Heart-Shaped Glasses,” which caused quite a stir. (Reports were that the couple were not faking the sex scenes shown throughout the video.)

When I went to see Stardust last week, I saw the trailer for Wood’s upcoming movie Across The Universe. Check out the trailer and tell me Wood doesn’t look exactly like Chloë Sevigny in this movie.

From director Julie Taymor, Across The Universe is told through the lyrics of Beatles songs as sung by the characters and is set during the late 1960s. Wood plays Lucy, an American girl who falls in love with Jude, a boy from Liverpool, England, and the two get involved in the anti-war and counterculture movements of the time.

The movie looks amazing and from what I can tell, it’s in the same vein as Tommy or The Wall. I wonder how today’s teens will respond to a film like this, because when I was teenager in the 80s, it would have been a big hit amongst my friends. It definitely would have been perfect as a midnight movie (probably more like an “enhanced” midnight showing, though).

Listen to this podcast

I’ve had some bad stuff happen this year: lost a loved one, got stuck with a big bill, been wrongly accused of thief, had to undergo ear surgery, been treated rudely because I’m a vegan, had my vacation cut short by illness, been kicked while down, and screwed over by USPS overnight delivery.

But why dwell on the negative?

I’m happy that …

• I’m alive.
• my husband loves me.
• I got to see Transformers the week before it came out.
• my ear infections have ceased.
• I had 3rd row seats for Rush.
• my Web site geeksofdoom.com has hit 1 million visitors in less than four months.
• I got a promotion and love my new position.
• my family and [real] friends care about me.
• my niece and nephews still look up to me.
• I got to read the seventh Harry Potter book the day it came out.
• I got to spend quality time with my Mama.
• I got to see my “sister” cat Lynx before she passed away.
• my kitties are healthy and happy.
• my plants are growing.
• my house is clean.
• Pringles are vegan.

Listen to this podcast

Van Halen announced today that the band will tour the U.S. and Canada with original lead singer David Lee Roth for the first time in 22 years.

It kind of sucks that the band couldn’t reunite and appear at the induction ceremony at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March, yet mere months later, they’re touring. I know Eddie Van Halen was in rehab, so that’s why he couldn’t make it, but didn’t it seem like there was still some strife amongst band members?

Remember back in 1996 when the original line-up (Eddie and Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony, and David Lee Roth) appeared at the MTV Video Awards? And they acted like they were reuniting, but weeks later had a falling out and that was the end of that.

This time around original bassist Michael Anthony won’t be on the tour. Instead, Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie’s son with ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli, will be playing bass. While I think it’s cool that another generation of Van Halen is in the band, it’s still not a real reunion, as all four members are still not playing together! And every VH fan knows that Michael Anthony is the voice behind the hits — it’s him that you hear doing back-up vocals on classics like, “Running With The Devil,” “Panama,” and “Unchained.”

The tour kicks off on September 27, 2007, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the last date listed as of today is on December 11, 2007, in Calgary, AB, in Canada. Tickets begin to go on sale for select dates this Saturday, August 18, 2007. (See full tour dates here after the jump.)

But here’s my big question: Do I get tickets? I was only 11 1/2 years old when 1984 — the original line-up’s final and most successsful album together — was released, so I never got to see Roth fronting Van Halen. Plus, earlier this summer I saw this really good VH tribute band Unchained, so now I’m kind of itching for the real VH. I’ve seen them with Sammy Hager a few times, and while they were good live, the Hager VH tunes just aren’t my thing.

Who am I kidding? I have to get tickets, I HAVE TO see Van Halen with Roth.

Read the rest of this entry »

Listen to this podcast