jaina

Final update (Saturday):

Current location: Home (San Diego)
Miles travelled Saturday: 317
Miles travelled total: 3268
Hours travelled Saturday: 4.5
Hours travelled total: 51
States conquered: Nevada, California

( Friday's belated update )

We're here. Arrived yesterday evening. Everything is fine, house is fine, car's really dirty, but everything's okay. blusurfer was an angel and had Dan leave us frozen dinners so we'd have something to eat when we got home. (Well, so I'd have something to eat. sirrogue took off for a card tournament as soon as we emptied the car.) Haven't been watching the Olympics because I forgot to have our cable turned back on, but that'll soon be remedied. Sad about Michelle Kwan.

Off to Dan and Debby's in just a bit for lunch and socializing.

ETA: You'd think I would've learned my lesson after 2002, but NOTE TO SELF: there will be NO MORE reading or discussing of Michelle Kwan on message boards. It only makes you furious, self, when people taunt you and call her a choker, and you know that, so stop torturing yourself and just read your flist.

Greetings from the green room of Urinetown: The Musical. Since I'm not in Act 2 at all, I have the green room all to myself at the moment. Opening night has been fun so far; nice, appreciative audience. And no one was naked, and I was even pretty pleased with all the costumes. :) Eventually I'll take pictures and post them.

Oh, I just heard from asiansquishie that apparently her suspenders came off in the last dance number, but luckily her pants stayed up. (And given her pants' general tendency to flee her body whenever possible, that's seriously impressive.)

I've been catching up with the flist in fits and spurts, but we have no internet where we're staying right now so I don't get much time online. We leave Boston on Monday the 6th and should be back in sunny SoCal by the weekend, yay! I'm definitely ready to go home. *misses the sun*

Also, Skating With Celebrities is GOLD, but they need to fire whoever makes the costumes. For serious.

TANITH CAN GET HER CITIZENSHIP. She and Ben get to go to the Olympics.

I'm not crying. I'm not. My eyes are just leaking, is all. After all, it's stupid to cry over ice skaters you don't even know, especially when they haven't even competed yet.

But I'm so happy. This makes my whole week.

I have no words for this:

HAVE AN ICE FALL: Fox has landed — and it was a clean landing at that — Scott Hamilton to host Skating with Celebrities, a six-week contest debuting sometime this fall; fellow Olympic gold medalist Dorothy Hamill will serve as a judge. Here are the six star-pro match-ups: Wheaties poster boy Bruce Jenner with Tai Babilonia; Full House's Dave Coulier with Nancy Kerrigan; Diff'rent Strokes/Los Angeles jail alum Todd Bridges with Jenni Meno; Dude, Where's My Car's Kristy Swanson with Lloyd Eisler; grown teen queen Deborah Gibson with Kurt Browning; and Good Day L.A. weatherbunny Jillian Barberie with John Zimmerman. Although not involved in any way, shape or form, John O'Hurley already is claiming he was robbed.

Er. Um. Wow. I have to wonder what, if any, training the celebs have gone through. Because dancing-- okay, that's one thing. At least everyone can already stand steadily on their feet and walk properly. But people who've never skated, they're starting from scratch...ah, okay, after some googling I see they looked for stars who can already skate. That's a little better. Doesn't seem to be a consensus as to whether the celebs will be doing singles, and just be coached by their skater, or skating pairs or dance with them. (I vote pairs. Yay, pairs. So many opportunities for things to go horribly wrong!)

And yes. I will watch this, as horrible as it sounds. Because I am powerless against the lure of skating, and I'm genuinely curious to see how well they can train up the celebs. And also, Scott Hamilton! Dorothy Hamill! The joy of rooting against Nancy Kerrigan! Yay!

I feel so validated! I've been calling them "muffin pants" all along!

ETA: Oh. My freaking AllieChrist. They're making a sequel to The Cutting Edge. There's no plot summary, but just from looking at the credits it seems like freaking *Kim Possible* (alias Christy Carlson Romano) is playing Kate and Doug's daughter. Of course, the credits can't decide who's playing Doug, either, although there's just the one Kate (still Moira Kelly).

Inwardly I am weeping. Why? WHY!? WHY WHY WHY must they do this to me? The first movie had a perfectly beautiful cheesy ending. I don't need to see Kate and Doug, Fifteen Years Later and Fatter. (Also I saw DB Sweeney on an episode of CSI and GYAH GOOD GOD MAN. Perhaps this is why they are [maybe] replacing him.)

If they make a sequel to Ice Castles next, there's going to be BLOOD. LEAVE MY FIGURE SKATING MOVIES IN PEACE KTHX.

julietvalcouer was talking in chat about Sports Kids Moms & Dads, so I turned it on to see, since it sounded interesting. Apparently, skating!boy is from Escondido, and they clearly filmed a lot of his footage at Mira Mesa, where I skate every week! You could even see the Team del Sol banners hung up along the walls. Very cool.

My new skates (Super Teri boots, Coronation Ace blades) are the most amazing things ever. They hurt like a sonofoabitch, but I seriously skate 200% better with them on. Also, it's new and exciting parts of my feet that hurt, instead of my boring old bruised toes again.

Tomorrow, if time permits, I will post a photoessay: "Old and Busted-- New Hotness."

MY SKATES ARE HERE!!!!!!!!!!

*bouncebouncebounce* I can go and get them tonight! And skate on the public session to try them out! I won't wear them for synchro yet though. I've quite enough injuries at the moment, thankyouverymuch. *pokes purple-and-yellow knee*

Lessons with Sara start on Monday. I'm going to pass those damn Juvenile moves or die trying, dammit, because I'm SICK of them and really failing them any more than twice is just embarrassing. And also I get to learn fun things like rockers and counters and maybe even brackets that I don't trip over.

*GLEE*

Oh, my beautiful beautiful Tanith and Ben. I could not possibly love you any more than I do right now. Well, maybe if you eventually win gold. At the 2010 Olympics. But still. You are marvelous, you are wonderful, and it's a crying shame that we'll finally have three ice dancing couples in the Olympics, and none of them will be you. Hell, none of the three will finish any higher than 10th, most likely. *sobbity*

It's funny, I remember when I used to hate ice dance. I never bothered to watch it when it was on. But I *love* it now. Ice dancers have such a marvelous smoothness and control about them...and because they don't do jumps, there are rarely any falls.

My Michelle...*sigh* As julietvalcouer said, her long program music this year really just doesn't suit her. For one, it's too strongly tied to Torvill and Dean, and for another, she just never really *connected* to it. It felt like they were two separate things-- the music was playing and Michelle was skating along-- rather than one single, harmonious entity as they always are with her. I can only hope she picks two excellent pieces of music for next year, and that they try hard to maximize the points in her programs. It's pretty clear that under the new system, her programs as they stand are no longer enough to win.

So. tired. Skating, shopping, grading. Can I have another weekend to recover from my weekend?

And why is it way more fun to help *other* people shop for their registries? "Yes yes, you need the bright yellow towels! They totally go with that shower curtain!"

*falls over*