Americana – Part 1

I’ve been procrastinating to the nth degree on processing and uploading photos from our Fourth of July at the farm, mostly because I still have a gazillion photos to go through, and you really need to see the ones of Trent, his mom, Lucy and Molly McGoo stuck on a paddle boat in the middle of the pond (HI-LARIOUS!). But as the husband has decided to take apart his computer again and I currently have no access to the hard drive where my photos are stored, this will have to do.

These shots include the first night at the farm where I aimlessly took pictures of every flower or plant in sight, hanging out with the fam in downtown Manhattan, the 4th of July carnival in Wamego, Kansas and a playdate with my friend Inger and her family, who were visiting from Maryland. Enjoy!

  • Part 2 will include explosions, a very muddy family, several rides on the Gator and blurry photos of a giant vat of sangria. Don’t let the anticipation overwhelm you!

  • Harry Potter Recap

    Yesterday, after standing in line behind quite possibly the most obnoxious family of all time for two hours, my good bud (and fellow Ron Weasley lover) Mara and I headed in to the theater for our advanced screening of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We had chatted for a bit about what we were going to do when we were inevitably disappointed with the story (they always cut out the best parts of the books), the acting (or shall we say, overacting), and the overall suckiness that seems to come out of the movies made about these amazing books. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve liked the other movies as well, but while each had it’s moments, I usually left the theater somewhat unsatisfied.

    So imagine our surprise when this Harry Potter movie blew our freaking minds. For real! The story (though they did cut out some pretty important stuff…harumph…) was beautifully told by director David Yates and his team. It was a movie that actually seemed smooth, as opposed to the choppy cuts of all the other HP films. The characters showed some real development, in particular Harry, Hermione, Ron and Draco Malfoy. The child-actors that always drove me nuts with their grand hand gestures and fake dialogue, really stepped up this go ’round. Both Mara and I commented that they had obviously worked on their craft since the last film, and it shows.

    Again, a major thanks to Scene-Stealers.com for the tickets and the opportunity to see this movie before it’s even out in theaters. For those of you that have to wait until the end of the week, (sorry about that) it will be worth the wait. You’ll laugh, maybe you’ll cry (I won’t mention who did cry, but her name rhymes with Zara), and you’ll hopefully be as pleasantly surprised as we were.

    And now, some notes from the premiere. We were told not to have cell phones anywhere near the theater or they would be confiscated, so we left ours in the car. Of course, as the line started moving, they changed that particular rule, so you just couldn’t have your phone on when you walked into the theater. So while everyone else was Twittering or texting or talking…Mara and I just stared at each other and tried not to punch the annoying family in front of us in their nasty faces. Some high (and low) points:

    – Mara proved once again that she hates people. All people.

    – If you are an obnoxious, awful human being, please do not procreate. Your children will indeed be as awful as you are.

    – If you are a Kansas City radio host, why must you wear cut off t-shirts to a movie premiere? We get it, you’re country, but good Lord. Movie theaters are cold, and your arms are looking chilly.

    – I totally cried during the previews when they played the scene from “Where the Wild Things Are.”

    – I love Ron Weasley.

    – Someone needs to invent a flask that has absolutely no metal on it so it won’t set off the metal detector wands from the crazy theater security.

    – When we were searched (as everyone was going in to the theater), I was all “Look out, we’re about to get wanded. Get it? Wanded!” And Mara tried to kill me with her eyes.

    – Mara loves Ron Weasley.

    – The Quiddich scene was awesome. Like, finally. After six movies, they finally perfected Quiddich. About time.

    – Mara thinks the one thing missing from the movie was a shot of the Weasley’s clock with all the hands (family members positions) pointing to mortal peril. I offered to make her one for her birthday. Only without magic. (Turns out you can get this very clock on Skymall.com…again, without magic. Which is sort of the point, isn’t it?)

    – I promised Mara that if I someday have a baby boy and it has red hair I will name it Ronald Weasley Peters. Hope Trent doesn’t mind this little development.

    – I bet you all $100 that Mara went home last night and rewatched the other Harry Potter movies. Seriously.

    Harry Potter and the Luckiest Girl in the World

    When I was fourteen years old I met a boy. His name was Dustin and he was one of my first friends during my first, endlessly dorktastic year in high school. He was too cool for words, had the best taste in music and would make me mix tapes for my awesome Pontiac Grand Am. Since I turned fifteen before he did, and had my learners permit, we became carpool buddies. I spent many a summer day at his house, listening to music and watching movies. He even worked as a wedding/party DJ and I would randomly accompany him on gigs where I’d pick out the nerdiest songs in his catalogue and then dance spastically while the bride looked on, horrified.

    Now Dust is a full-blown Kansas City megastar (in my opinion), and along with his day job at a respectable advertising agency, he also works for Scene-Stealers, a movie reviewing group. He is constantly attending movie screenings and randomly meets the stars (Seth Rogen, anyone?), basically his life is too awesome for words.

    Last week Dustin tweeted (twittered?) that Scene-Stealers was holding a contest for an advance screening of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and of course I entered. I always do. I never expected to win anything. Why? Because I’ve literally never won anything. Ever. So imagine my surprise and total happiness when I got a text from Dust that said, “Check your email…”

    Harry Potter Advance Screening Passes!!!

    SPOLERS BELOW! Although if you haven’t read the books, so don’t know what will happen in the movies, that’s pretty dumb and sort of your own fault if you get spoiled.

    So tonight, at 6 p.m., my friend Mara and I will be squealing with delight as Harry kisses Ginny, Hermione and Ron finally sort of get together, and Mara will totally be crying when Dumbledore dies. We have plans to possibly go buy ourselves some wands today, and I’ll be sporting my “spoiler” t-shirt.

    And all because in high school I had an awesome friend with connections. Although I doubt he’ll want to be seen anywhere near me tonight. Not even he can handle the dorktastic Megan when she’s in a Harry Potter coma. In fact, he’ll probably be the one yelling from the back of the theater “Would the wizard in the front row please put down your wand!”

    And I’ll sink lower in to my seat, embarrassed that I was called out.

    Nerd Herd Wednesday – Glee

    With all of my favorite shows on hiatus for the summer, and my hatred of reality TV growing more prominent by the minute, I’ve found myself online using Hulu more than usual. Yesterday they had a free comedy day, which I must say is totally misleading because Hulu is always free, that let users watch shows with no commercial interruption. Most of them I’d seen already (oh, The Office, you are just so darn lovely), but there was a promo for a new show on Fox called Glee. I’d seen commericals for it before, and it looked totally dumb, but seeing as I had nothing else to do at the moment, I decided to watch.

    Dudes, I’ve found my new love. This show is the lovechild of all the great Fox shows (think Arrested Development or Freaks and Geeks) with a healthy dose of the movies Napolean Dynamite or Election. But the kicker for me was the blatent parody of the High School Musical-ish shows that have filled our TVs and Target stores for the past few years. Now, we all know I used to love my High School Musical, but Glee takes all the cheesy parts I loved and twists them. Bascially, it allows me to love the singing and the dancing while still having my indie comedy street cred. Thanks, Glee!

    Oh good lord, I guess you’ll know where to find me this fall…hey, at least it’s not more vampires, right?!

    Right?

    Crap.

    You can watch the pilot of Glee for free on Hulu or on iTunes. Do it, you know you want to.

    Having a Good Time

    Watch this wedding video and try not to smile. Seriously, try. Bet you won’t succeed.

    Brian & Eileen’s Wedding Music Video. from LOCKDOWN projects on Vimeo.

    If only I’d found this earlier, we could have planned a massive wedding music video for Heath and Mikayla’s wedding this Saturday. Maybe something starring Michael Jackson….

    (via Mighty Girl)

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