Vascoozie TV Fall Preview

Warning: We are TV people. You can have baseball. You can have crafting. You can have college basketball. You can have cooking. We have TV and right now is our "draft." I don't remember a time in my life that we have not devoured the "Fall Preview TV Guide." As we have gotten older we use many sources: TVline.com, Entertainment Weekly, and of course the TV Guide. We now have our official guides to this important time.

Here are our main guidelines when picking new shows:

1. What shows interest us?

2. What shows will be the new "water cooler" topic?

3. Which shows will fit within our dvrs? (We do NOT watch live TV period!)

People keep asking so we're sharing our top picks, so here they are:

1. Persons of Interest: CBS, Thursday, 8:00 Central, Sept 22

This show had us at produced by J.J. Abrams (our fave!) and stars Jim Caviezel. Added to that, it has this great futuristic, crime storyline. When we heard about this show in June, it felt like we won the lottery. If you take one show from us that you should watch, THIS IS THE ONE. If you needed further encouragement, it made the "Top 5 List" on both EW and TV Guide.

2. New Girl: Fox, Tuesday, 8:00 Central, September 20

We started seeing commercials during Idol last year and it stopped our DVR fast forwarding really fast. We are fans of Zooey Deschanel. I loved her in "500 days of Summer" and Snae's favorite show is Bones so she has a loyalty to the Deschanel family. Honestly, we don't know much but the commercials made us laugh so count us in!

3. Unforgettable: CBS, Tuesday, 9:00 Central, September 20
I was a big "Without a Trace" fan so hearing that Poppy Montgomery was going to be in a new show was very exciting for me. I love the idea that she has this ability to remember everything. I was completely convinced that this show would end up on my dvr. But after viewing the preview, Snae was also hooked. So living room dvr it is! This show has gotten the weakest reviews of these three, so we're hoping for the best.

We are picking up many other shows. We have a tendency to pick up lots of shows and finish out with very few. They either get cancelled or we decide they're not worth the time. Last season, we picked up at least 10 shows, and only one of those made it to this year's Vascoozie grid ("Hawaii 5-0"). The new TV season will officially begin on the living room dvr with "Anderson." Wish us luck! We're hoping for a great year and that our three shows make it to the Super Bowl and by that I mean, next year's dvr grid.

What shows are you most excited about this year? We can be easily swayed unless we've already decided we hate it.

Waiting for my Stephenie Meyer moment

So I consider myself an avid reader. I try to read a lot and a variety of books. Several years ago, I was more than a little skeptical to read Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. It was a book about vampires but my sister was very adamant. About a chapter in, I was addicted and continued to enjoy the rest of the series. It also started me reading more young adult books.

But what really fascinated me, was Meyer's story. I couldn't imagine having a dream about a vampire and a girl and then writing a book from it. It's easy to think about now, because we know how wildly successful her books become. But I can't help but remember that when she wrote this, vampires weren't trendy and how crazy she must have felt.

My confession is that ever sense I've heard her story, it's made me more aware of dreams. I used to be an elementary student who wanted to write books but never really have a good idea. Lately I've had two reoccurring dreams. I can't help but wake up wondering if I've just had my Stephenie Meyer moment.

The first dream, I like to call the "thriller dream." Most people would probably call it a nightmare. It involves a friend and me and my friend has really bad taste in guys. She's dated this guy who turns out to be a stalker and I'm usually running around trying to lock doors and windows. Last time the guy's dad was involved and he was creepy too. I had this dream last week and I woke up pretty startled. But I promise within five seconds, I was thinking "I don't think I could write that." It doesn't seem quality at all, more like a Lifetime movie. So I have to look for another Stephenie Meyer moment.

The second reoccurring dream involves registration at high school. It sounds pretty normal but then it gets weird. The people involved spread across the spectrum of my life: high school, college, adulthood. It's just odd and I'm sure that one could mean something and I would hate to figure it out. Still, no Stephenie Meyer moment.

So my plan is to keep sleeping and looking for my Stephenie Meyer moment. . . .on a side note, I've now read the Sookie Stackhouse books and Meg Cabot's books about vampires. Oh, how times change.

Flower Delivery Girl Gone Wrong

So this story begins with a Facebook message from a friend saying that he wanted to see if I could help surprise his wife for their anniversary. He was out of town and asked me to take flowers to his wife since the flower shop is closed on Sunday. So here was the plan.

1. Before my pedicure on Saturday, mom and I were going to run to the flower shop, pick up the flowers and drop off them off at the apartment.

2. Snae and I would take the flowers to our friend's house on Sunday when I was supposed to watch her children. Then Snae and our friend would go to work and it would be seamless.

Sounds like a good plan. . .right? So this didn't happen as planned.

1. Picked up the flowers and quickly realized that the flower arrangement was on the large side. But the plan was still on. Side note-- see how funny they spelled my name?

2. Then we had the big bump in the road. Our friend decided that she didn't need to work today after all. Thankfully, she asked if I would still come over to hang out with her kids so she could go grocery shopping. The entire time she's talking, I'm just picturing this big flower arrangement and trying to figure out how I'm going to get it there.

3. So all day yesterday, we were trying to figure out how I could drive the flower arrangement to their house since it wasn't logical for Snae to come with me anymore.

4. This morning I declared that I could not drive the arrangement. First of all, it would be difficult. Second of all, I get nervous driving to their house as this is the street that I totaled Truman and I didn't want to be distracted about the flowers.

5. So we needed to let our friend know that Snae would be dropping me off and then picking me up after work. This is when the drama started. . .our friend questioned why I couldn't drive myself. Note-- we are not good liars so this was trouble. So Snae said her car was having issues and it made her nervous. So then our friend asked what was wrong with the car and Snae said something that was 100% nonsense. I was laughing so hard across the Scholotzky's table.

6. We finally climbed into DC with the giant flowers. I could literally only look to the side. So at a red light. Snae took this lovely picture. This picture doesn't describe how squished I was in the car.

7. Finally arrived at the house. Flower delivery complete! Big relief. I don't think I would be a good flower delivery girl. Cross that off my career path.

A day in the life. . .

I realized today that I have a pretty good thing going for me today. I have great family, friends, and lots of fun things going on. Granted I still have that giant issue called my career but I'm having a good moment so let's not dwell on that. So here's my day:

1. Try to wear my hair wavy for the first time since it's been cut. Results: better than last time but it's barely holding up in the heat.

2. Did a mischievious errand for a friend. Shhhh.

3. Went with mom to get her first pedicure. Now my feet love me. I can almost hear them singing "Silly Love Songs." Is it weird that my pink toes sound like The Warblers?

4. Took lunch to the girls at Tools. It is that time of year!

5. Went to one of my fav places in the whole wide world. . . The Lewisville Library! It was amazing as usual.

6. Now I'm at home watching "Wildfire" at Netflix. This is my new favorite thing. The other day I dreamed about this show. Good thing I'm over half way through it.

7. After this is posted, I'm going to address shower invitations. "Wildfire" will still be playing! By the way, I'm totally "Team Matt."

8. Snae will eventually come home and we have a fantastic dinner of hot dogs planned. I'm actually pretty excited about this. After a delicious hibachi meal last night, I'm ready for something simple and cheap.

9. We'll have an easy night of TV watching, hopefully catch up on "Project Runway."

I don't think you can have a better day. Just wanted to share. Back to my good life!

The DVR: A Story of Heartbreak and Hope

So our computer broke.  . .then we couldn't afford the Internet . . .now we have a computer and Internet. . . we were going to write something clever . . .but who has the energy. . .let's try this again.

For those of you who don't know. . .we are addicted to the dvr. We only watch recorded TV. And we watch lots and lots of recorded TV. So that's the background that you need to know. There will also be dramatic emotions described. They are exaggerated. We know there's more to this world than reality TV.

A couple of years ago, I conned Snae into watching "Glee." She thought it was okay but I loved it. And she would've quit long ago, but it is one of my favorite shows. So when "The Glee Project" came, we had to watch it. Well. . . I had to watch it and didn't give Snae much of a choice.

But it was much better than expected. We recently gave our friend Cindy a huge explanation of what other shows could learn from "The Glee Project." As with all shows we have chosen a favorite, and we chose Damian. Cute, Irish, sings like a crooner, bad dancer, long shot to win. We love him. Honestly I think when we see him, we actually are pretending to see other Irish guys. Horrible font aside, Westlife is a very talented and popular Irish boy band all over the world and a one hit wonder in the US. PS-- Snae likes that ordinary brunette at the end. I like the third guy who is obviously very religious and smirky. Okay, okay, I'll post a video so you can enjoy Irish awesomeness.

Yes, I am getting to the point. Sunday night we were watching something on the dvr. And then the unthinkable happened. When our show stopped, the tv was playing the show it was recording which was "The Glee Project." It was a couple of minutes from the end and I saw a look of horror on Snae's face and I looked up and Damian was obviously going home. We had no idea what happened and it was horrible. We had already decided to go to bed so I just said that we would watch it tomorrow.

We mourned Damian all day. It was like living under a rain cloud. We decided that without Damian, we would put our full support behind Cameron. Quirky, from Fort Worth, has an unwavering stand on his morals (a very odd characteristic for reality TV). We watched the show on Monday night, we said our goodbyes to Damian throughout the entire episode. We repeatedly talked about how Cameron was a good choice. How he could maybe make it to the end. We were sad but Cameron was our new golden boy.

Then the Glee Project miracle of 2011 happened. (The show is already in talks for season 2 so there's a good chance for a miracle in 2012 . . .hence the date reference.) Damian was NOT going home. The thirty seconds we saw was just a misleading moment when taken out of context. Shocking that we would jump to conclusions. You will never believe who went home instead. CAMERON! So it was an odd feeling. Our "old" favorite was staying and "new" favorite was gone. So we sadly said goodbye to Cameron and hopped right back on the Damian bandwagon. I leave you today with Cameron singing "Blackbird". . .  until the video gets taken down for copyright reasons.

Our Hopes for 2010

We heard a song the other day and it perfectly epitomized our 2010, Lee DeWyze’s “Sweet Serendipity”. You’ll see Lee’s words interspersed with ours throughout this blog…enjoy!

Dear friends,

Have you ever had a year that didn't go as planned? Welcome to our 2010.

As I reflect on our year, I have several hopes.

I hope that instead of thinking of our months of living with mice, we remember how we were able to move away from a bad situation.

“I'm doing just fine/I'm always landing on my feet,
In the nick of time/And by the skin of my teeth
I ain't gonna stress/Cause the worst ain't happened yet
Something’s watching over me like Sweet Serendipity”

I hope that instead of remembering being extremely poor, we remember the generosity of friends and family.

“I don't ask for a lot/Nothing more than I need
Cause I love what I got/Don't need to play no lottery”

I hope that we remember Jordan finishing treatment as planned, instead of my job situation not going as planned.

“Set sail without a destination/See where a wind will take you
You never know where you're gonna fall
But I'm not worried, no I'm not worried at all.”

I hope that when we think about how sad it is for our friends to live overseas, that we think about ten very fun months together and getting to know a baby we never thought we would meet.

“I just want to be strong/At the end of the road
I don’t want to hold on/I want the strength to let go”

But most of all, I hope that we remember that not only did we face this year with each other, but surrounded by a beautiful supportive community--that’s you!

Our hope for you in 2011:
May you enjoy the surprises that life throws your way and live every moment to the fullest no matter what that moment might bring.

”I can’t say what’s next/And I got nothin' up my sleeve
But I don’t lose my head/Cause it ain’t really up to me”

Love, Celina (and Daniela, too!)

Disney Cruise Report

We're back from our very first cruise...and it was a Disney Cruise!  If you know us, you know we are completely obsessed with Disney so this cruise was a perfect fit! It was a three night cruise to the Bahamas and we had a ton of fun! If you read my last post, you know that we had high expectations and some fears.  Here's how those played out: (Items in italics are from our last post)

Things we are looking forward to:
* 24 hour FREE room service-Mickey ice cream pops at two o'clock in the morning, anyone?
We did order from room service, but we didn't get Mickey pops.  We had macaroni & cheese, cookies & milk and popcorn. Odd combination, I know! But it was what we wanted at the time.  Still fantastic.

* Castaway Cay-Disney's private island in the Bahamas is a place you can only get to from a Disney cruise ship. It's supposed to be super-cool and it will be decorated for Christmas!

We loved Castaway Cay! It was beautiful, well maintained and the weather was gorgeous! We had so much fun hanging out at the beach, eating barbecue and riding water tricycles. We couldn't have asked for a better day! Who knew that we could be beach people?

* Movies-There is a movie theater on the ship that plays Disney movies all day: everything from things just released on dvd to first run movies. For us, since we don't have a lot of money for movies, this is a huge treat!
This is funny...we actually didn't get to go to the movie theater.  The one movie we really wanted to see was "Tangled" but they could only show it at midnight on the last evening of our cruise.  By that point we were exhausted and just couldn't do it.  Maybe next time, we'll be on the ship for longer and we'll get to see some movies.

* Magazines-This really doesn't have anything to do with Disney, but Celina has been hoarding magazines for the trip and I can't wait to read The Sexiest Man Alive People!
I got to read my Sexiest Man Alive People.  Ryan Reynolds made me very happy. In fact, we watched "The Proposal" on the plane ride home in celebration of Ryan.  Happy day!

(This next one wasn't on my list, but it should have been.)
*Fireworks at Sea-Disney is the only cruise line that can do fireworks at sea. I can't wait to see how they pull it off!
As part of the Pirates in the Caribbean deck party, there are fireworks above the boat.  They were amazing to see and they were set to the most random song..."Holding Out For A Hero" from Footloose.  Priceless! 

* Our co-cruisers-Some of our favorite people are going on this cruise, too. I think we'll have a great time hanging out, playing, and of course eating!

We had so much fun with the Flints, Browns, Tubbs and Eads! We ate with different folks every night and morning, got to play on the beach and at the pool with the group, and had many group meetings in the hallway outside our rooms. I know we traveled with adults too, but here are some of our favorite pictures of "our kids".

And now for the things we were nervous about:

* Being on a boat-need I say more?

I have to admit it was very scary to stand on our veranda and see this, but we knew that we were always within hours of land.  It was amazing to go on the veranda every morning, afternoon and evening and see how the ocean around us changed all the time.  It was beautiful! Note: The first night at sea was pretty rough and it took a while for us to get the hang of walking while the ship was rocking. Never a dull moment!

* Being bored-Jodie calls it "relaxing". I call it lack of planned activities. But I'm sure there will be more than enough to do when we get on the boat.

I should have never worried about this! Disney never lets me down when it comes to entertainment! In fact, there was so much to do, we already know what we want to do on our next cruise!

* Getting home-We have a six hour wait in the Orlando airport before our flight and a two hour layover in Atlanta on the way. Fun!

Celina calls us the luckiest travelers around.  When we got to the airport at about 9 am, we got on a stand-by list for a 12 o'clock flight.  We heard that there were 26 people on the standby list but amazingly, we were the last two people to get on the flight.  When we arrived in Atlanta, we found out we were already on a stand-by list for a flight that was boarding.  There were plenty of seats on the plane, so we ended up getting right on the flight and got home around 4 o'clock...3 hours before we were scheduled to leave Orlando and 8 hours before we were scheduled to come home.  Talk about lucky!

So, we're back and we are now officially cruisers! We had a fantastic time and we'll definitely be trying it again as soon as we can.  A big thanks to everyone who was a part of our trip and made it a definite once-in-a-lifetime experience!