web-goddess

Trivia Update: After a two week hiatus, “Six Standard Drinks” made their triumphant return tonight. We won! Personal highlights were knowing all the US States that start with “M” (courtesy of the alphabetical song I learned in elementary school) and that Tom Hulce and Kenny Baker starred together in Amadeus. There was a guaranteed bonus jackpot of $500 but we fell one point short. (We knew which state Colby Cheese originated in though.) Your questions: Name the six nations of the world that have produced undisputed world heavyweight boxing champions in the 20th century. Name the four countries that have won the most gold medals at Winter Olympics. And lastly, if you take the second star to the right and head straight on ’til morning, where do you end up?

The Snook and I finally saw X-Men 2 last night. It rocked! I was surprised afterwards to realize that my favorite mutant is now definitely Mystique. [Spoiler alert from this point on!] She’s smart, she’s sexy, she kicks ass, and she’s not afraid to be herself. Yeah, sure, she’s a villain and all, but I’ll take her over Halle Berry any day. I had a few questions though for you fan-boy types: What exactly was up with the metal Mystique injected into the security guard? How did it get past the scanner? Also – why didn’t Iceman freeze the dam before it ruptured? Wouldn’t that have given them more time? (I don’t think it would have helped, but the Snook disagrees.) And who was the big guy that covered himself with metal? Why isn’t he a grown-up X-Man? Is he just an older kid? Lastly, what was up with that Lady Deathstrike chick? We haven’t seen any other mutants that have “duplicate” powers, but evidently it’s possible. We saw that Stryker was controlling her with his weird acid stuff, but it seemed to wear off on Cyclops pretty quick. Why couldn’t Wolverine do the same rather than killing her? Maybe she could’ve been redeemed.

I think I’m going to have to see it again…

I’ve been following the Kathleen Folbigg story with some interest, and I was relieved today to see she was convicted of murdering all four of her children. What a horrible tragedy. All four died as babies and the defense tried to argue that they could’ve all died of natural causes, but there was evidence of suffocation in each case. Oh, and she, like, confessed to the whole thing in her diaries and then had to try to explain that away in court. Not a wise move.

I’m so, so happy that folks are still protesting this Hillbillies show. Kickass. Time to send another letter to CBS, methinks…

I am powerless. I read a recap of the Buffy finale. Man, it wasn’t anything like I thought. I’d like to discuss it with some of you that saw it, so if you haven’t seen it and you’re trying to stay spoiler-free, stay away from the comments on this post…

One of the problems with going to a doctor in another country is that they call everything by a different name here. “Kristine, have you ever had glandular fever?” Think, think, think. “Oh, isn’t that what you call mono? No, then I haven’t.” “How about thrush?” “Hmmm… what’s that? Oh! Nooo, I haven’t!” It gets complicated. But eventually I made it through my appointment with the endocrinologist yesterday, only to hear her say that she definitely thinks I’m hypothyroid. I had to go for blood tests and the results won’t be back for a week, but based on my symptoms she’s fairly certain. Hopefully as of next week she can prescribe me some drugs to make me feel better. She laughed as I described huddlling under three blankets next to the Snook, who only sleeps with a sheet. “I’ll have you as warm as him within a few weeks,” she told me. I can’t wait.

Roger Ebert thinks that Storm is really the top mutant. I have to disagree, if only because Halle Berry’s character can’t produce a funny one-liner to save her life. (Remember her horrible delivery of the “toad” line in the first movie?) If Buffy has any legacy at all, it’s that superheroes should always dispatch their foes with a witty pun.

Me: So, what episode of Angel are we up to tonight, Snookums?
Snook: It’s called “She”.

[Forty minutes later…]

Me: Hmmm.
Snook: …
Me: Is it just me, or was that whole episode about female genital mutilation?
Snook: Um, yeeeaaaah.

That said, the bit where Angel dances at the party made me laugh more than David Boreanaz ever has before.

Friday Five:

1. What drinking water do you prefer — tap, bottle, purifier, etc.?
At home we have a Brita water filter jug, but really we use it more for the coldness than the filtration. (As evidenced by the fact that we only recently changed the filter for the first time… over a year after we bought it.) At work I drink tap water.

2. What are your favourite flavor of chips?
It’s been sooooo long since I had chips. (Long enough that it feels weird to call them that.) I used to be addicted to Cool Ranch Doritos back in college. Here I love Kettle Chips, especially the sea-salt-and-black-pepper and lime-and-black-pepper varieties. In England I even enjoyed salt and vinegar crisps. (I avoided all their weird meat flavoured ones though.)

3. Of all the things you can cook, what dish do you like the most?
Chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes. Unfortunately it’s got seven zillion grams of carbs, so I haven’t had it in ages.

4. How do you have your eggs?
It used to be strictly fried, but nowadays I like ’em all different kinds of ways. I like scrambled eggs and omelettes, and the mere thought of poached eggs and hollandaise sauce has me drooling. I’ve also finally learned to like hard-boiled eggs. I’ve started boiling up several at a time and keeping them in the fridge to take to work for snacks. I still like fried eggs too, especially with Worcestershire sauce (which the Snook introduced me to). The only egg I don’t like is a soft-boiled one. It just kinda grosses me out.

5. Who was the last person who cooked you a meal? How did it turn out?
Snookums cooked dinner Tuesday night: lamb chops, baked pumpkin, cauliflower mash, and asparagus. Soooo good. He’s such a better cook than me.