Bonnie's Journal

This weekend was really, really, fun! kradical & wrenn threw a most excellent party on Saturday night, to which, Brian, alorarose and I were invited, as well as a bunch of other people, both whom I had either previously met or met for the first time last night.

It was really good to see suricattus & Ian Randal Strock again. Hadn't see the former since the reading back in August and the latter since February.

The food was really yummy too! kradical made his own tomato sauce, which is spicy & very flavorful. wrenn made pulled chicken, and Dale made a baked brie which was to die for!

Had great conversations throughout the night, which brought forth some extremely amusing quotes, such as these gems:

"I do that through all cats and porn!"
"Sadly, this is not Klingon foreplay, this is classic human douchebaggery!"
"Pull up your asbestos Satan panties!"

To find out who said those, see my Twitter feed.

Brian, alorarose, and I stayed the night. More amusing conversations occured today. We left around 2:30 to go home.

I love my friends :)

~*::Meow::*~

Yesterday was great fun! Brian and I headed to NJ to celebrate dqg_neal's 40th birthday (with bonus of it being held on karistan's 36th birthday). kradical and wrenn were there too :)

There were 14 of us and we went to a fine Mexican restaurant in Freehold called Escondidos. Brian had the Mariscos Platter and I had a combo of a Chile Relleno, Empanada, and Tamale. Everything was absolutely scrumptious!!

After fooding, most of us headed back to their place for more hanging out and laughing and kitties! The cats were actually social and friendly, despite there being many, many humans.

We left around 7:45. Shockingly, both going there and coming home, we hit relatively no traffic. Huzzah!!

~*::Meow::*~

As promised in This Post, I'm going to tell you all about two really great podcasts: The Chronic Rift and Fanboy Remix.

Fanboy Remix is the brainchild of Bobby Shortle & Brian Verderosa, both of which I went to High School with. They graduated a year after me, but I was good friends with Brian (we still occasionally talk nowadays, but I haven't seen him since he was touring as his solo project and I was living literally next door to him, so it's been quite a few years). Anyway... I've been listening to the Fanboy Remix podcast pretty much since its inception (when Brad Jones, another person I went to HS with, was part of the show), through the format change and gaining a female perspective. Nowadays, Fanboy Remix is a podcast which features Bobby, Brian, Jacqui (a Brit transplant!), and Bob talking about TV shows they've watched recently, reviewing new movies, Box Office numbers, "Trending topics", and more! It's hard to really describe the dynamic of the show, so you'll just have to listen to it. Here's the most recent podcast: Episode 2.29 "Happy Holidays" You can subscribe to them on iTunes as well.

The Chronic Rift is a podcast based off of a Public Access Show that aired in NYC in the 90s, which was hosted by Judith Funari and Keith R.A. DeCandido (kradical). Created by John S. Drew (drewshi), both the old Public Access Show (which is available to view Here!!) & the podcast offer news, reviews, interviews, discussion, and commentary on all aspects of pop culture with a heavy emphasis on science fiction and fantasy (I borrowed the description from the Chronic Rift website). Each week, the Chronic Rift regulars bring amusement to their listeners ears. Everything brought to the table is interesting. Once a month, they have an In Review episode where John S. Drew poses a trivia question for the listeners to answer and win prizes. Also in that episode, Keith has his "Couch Potato Salad" where he reviews tv shows he's been watching. Very recently, they ran the 12 Days of Riftmas and each day there was a different regular hosting the show and doing something they wanted to do. For example, on Day 3, Orenthal (popfiend) read two warped versions of Twas the Night Before Christmas, one of which was a Lovecraft Christmas. I've said this elsewhere, but I absolutely love being read to. That being said, Day 3, Day 7 (where John S. Drew reads his Doctor Who short story), and Day 11 (where Keith reads 2 of his stories that I mentioned here) were my favorites of the 12 Days of Riftmas. I would link you to the most recent Chronic Rift episode, but it's an after show. You can download the episodes directly from the website or subscribe to it on iTunes. You can also subscribe to the old Public Access Show (The Chronic Rift Classic) on iTunes. Trust me when I say it's worth it just to see Keith as his 21 year old self.

~*::Meow::*~

I had a really awesome weekend. On Saturday, Brian and I flew a kite at Cedar Beach, had ice cream at McNutly's Ice Cream Parlor (which I hadn't been to since HS), and watched Kick-Ass. The movie was really good, very bloody, and soooo not for children (at least one 4/5 year old saw the movie from my mom's previous class...WTF).

On Sunday, Brian, alorarose, kradical, Wrenn, and I went to the NY Renaissance Faire in Tuxedo, NY. The last time Brian and I were there was back in 2007. We decided to caravan, so Brian, Danielle, and myself travelled in Brian's car and went to Keith and Wrenn's place, where we then followed them to I-87 and then we took over as lead of the caravan the rest of the way (because we knew how to get to the Ren Faire from there).

We saw Hey Nunnie Nunnie, Stewart and Arnold (knife throwing show), Birds of Prey show, and Wolgemut!! So full of awesome! There a lot of new stuff there and they rearranged some things and added a new building. We bumped into Ste and Lorraine and her son Jeremy, so we hung with them for a bit before branching off.

We headed back to Keith and Wrenn's and Keith showed us the quite hilarious Roast of him that was done last year at Shore Leave. We were all in stitches. We headed home afterwards and got back around Midnight. All in all a great day!

Today was a lazy day. Brian and I loafed around till 2:30 when we decided we should get lunch, so we finally tried the Denny's that opened in Centereach. Brian ahd never eaten at a Denny's before. He is now a convert. LOL! After that, we headed to his folks so I could pick up my new laptop battery, which is charging right now, so that my laptop no longer dies after only a half hour. Huzzah! This is also the upgraded battery, so it will no longer lay flat. Hopefully this won't pose a problem for having it in my backpack. We shall see tomorrow.

~*::Meow::*~

I saw Wolgemut at The Delancey last night with kradical and his wonderful girlfriend Wrenn. This time, Wolgemut was in their Civvies because they figured they would be in their costumes for the extended weekend, so why the fuck not?! It was a smaller, more intimate crowd than last week. It was also a smaller venue. At the end of a good portuion of the songs, Micha shouted Achte Gesundheit (which means to good health), we'd repeat and then all take a drink. They played some of the stuff they played last week, in addition to a NEW never-before-played-in-public song, and a new arrangement of "The Polar Bear Dance" which they called "Techno Bear". :) At one point during the show, they taught us a dance that we did during one of the songs, with the band in the middle of the circle. Good times!

So, All in all a great show! Dinner is ready, so I shall post again later tonight with the rest of the evening.

~*::Meow::*~

Last night, I had the most epic of dreams involving kradical, chris_walsh, and Levar Burton. It was so epic, I have to write about it! So without further ado, I give you...my dream.

For some reason that occurred prior to my entering into the dream, Levar Burton invited us to be on the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation for the taping of the most awesome Reading Rainbow episode EVER that involved meeting the TNG cast and going behind the scenes...ya know, this episode. Only, instead of us being the ages we were back when it was taped (in 1991), we were how old we are now, including Levar Burton...until he got into his Geordi Le Forge character...then he'd revert back to 1991 him. Bizarre but extremely awesome!

After the taping, Levar Burton wanted to interview kradical and asked him about his TNG novels and new prospects, while chris_walsh and I sat on the sidelines and watched with Michael Dorn, who was still in his Worf makeup (that stuff takes forever to put on!!)

After the interview, the rest of the cast joined us for lunch, as they are now and not in 1991. I was sad that Wil Wheaton couldn't join us, but the day of the taping wasn't one of the production days he was on the set, so he didn't get the memo. Oh well.

The dream closed with us at the airport. kradical and I said goodbye to chris_walsh at his gate before going to ours to catch our plane home.

ETA: I should mention that the interview ended up airing on the episode.

~*::Meow::*~