Balls to you sir, balls to you sir, up and down the court.

Guess what I found AGAIN this morning at work!

A freakin' bat.

Flippin' winged creatures at the library - I'm on a roll.

I feel like Neville, "why is it always me?"

For those of you who don't already know go here: "Bats are Cute-ish" "Bats have rabies" "That's why I said ish"

or Here: "Freakin' Birds"

Anyway, so I'm doing the expired/cancelled holds list and I look up and see this big black thing on the ceiling. Of course my kneejerk reaction was to run screaming in the other direction.

My farmgirl background failed me, not for the first time.

When I couldn't find Superwoman I ran (actually ran) to the basement to get Girlscout and Cabin Fever was like "you do realize what shirt you're wearing, right?"

I look down and it's a Batman t-shirt.

So apparently this is all my fault.

I ran into my Trainee on the street after it happened and she said that tomorrow I should wear a t-shirt with a bag of money on it.

Good plan, but it would probably just end up as "found money" and go to the cash register.

Anyway, here's the pic that's went viral around the workplace.



The whole time I'm attempting not to flee just in case it would detach and fly at my head.

I have a feeling I won't be living that down anytime soon.

But whatever.

I await all the upcoming pranks...

So, I've decided that fall is my favorite season.

The weather cools down.

Football starts.

Hockey starts.

The good TV shows come back - except Major Crimes, that goes away for a few months.

I know it isn't technically fall yet, but I consider it to be fall because school is back in session.

Which is another reason why I like the fall - I no longer have to worry about school being back in session cause I'm done.

Got my Master's, I've earned some time off.

As much as I love the Blacklist, the Voice, Castle and all that I'm mostly excited for the football and hockey. Huskers are gonna rock it - even though our quarterback is only a Sophomore I have faith. We've got Bell, Abdullah, and Gregory - we'll be fine.

And as for hockey, it's gonna be interesting because we have a new manager, a new coach, and a completely different team (with the exception of a few who made it from last year) so it'll be exciting to see the changes. Which were needed cause last year was not our best year by far.

We went for full season tickets this year, and I'm stoked cause pre-season is coming up in September. However, the boyfriend will be gone so I'll have to take someone else. Hmmm....whom to choose. Queen of the Known Universe has no interest. It's Oldest Sister's birthday so she'd have other plans. Perhaps I'll ask Smo. Or Queen of Awesome. Or P-Squared. Will have to look into that.

What else?

Okay, now that camp season is officially over I can finally post this. This is the M rated version of the 7th and 8th graders skit from this year. If you want the G rated version that they did scroll down a post.

Watch it, it will make you laugh I promise. Even if it is wildly inappropriate. I did say M rated. 



Again, M Rated and they did the G version. There are many versions on Youtube but this crew is my favorite.

This one from the 90's comes in second:


Wow that's a lot faster.

The flag man is my favorite.

Though the tennis player in this one is pretty good too...

By the way, the end ballerina is usually either the captain or cruise director.

You have no idea how many times I've watched those videos and continually repeat the phrases as I walk through the library. It just brightens my day.

Though "balls to you" is frequently whispered under my breath if something bad happens.

In other news we went to World of Outlaws again this year. Donny Schatz won so balls to that. He wins everything so no one likes him.

With the exception of the like 4 people in the immediate row in front of us.

Though we spent most of our time down in the pits. It's cool cause you get to talk to all the drivers and of course the boyfriend knows all their names and all about their cars and all that. Cause he's smart like that. But his favorite driver was there so he got a couple new shirts. He and his wife have these southern accents, it's awesome.

I would have gotten shirts but I like my yellow crew shirt. Even though it means commentators will talk about it over the microphone.

I did mention that already right? We were at the races and I was talking to my friend so I wasn't paying attention when suddenly the boyfriend leans over and goes "they're talking about your shirt." I was like what? Then listened and heard "she's ignoring us..." So I turned around and they were like "heeyyyyyyy!"

Then they kept offering me money for my shirt. Which I rejected. And just when I thought it was done they brought it up again later.

Oh the joys.

But it's my fault cause it is an awesome shirt.

And bright yellow so it's hard to miss.

And speaking of all things awesome, I hit up a Saltdogs game and got paid for it!

Hey, it was for work, don't give me that look.

The game itself was a part of Summer Reading - if you completed the program you got a ticket for that one and the kids who wanted to could participate in a parade beforehand.

Which a coworker and I got forced into marshalling.

She needs a nickname, especially now that she's transferring to our branch. And I will be flailing to her frequently because that's what I did to her predecessor. She was in charge of supplies for the system and I am for our branch. Hmm...Will have to work on a nickname. Ideas?

What else? Oh yeah, got some Scale of Awesome's for you.

Guardians of the Galaxy


Scale of Awesome says 8/10. This one was actually pretty enjoyable, the boyfriend and I laughed a lot, especially about the Kevin Bacon stuff. And I'm looking into buying the soundtrack, it was pretty awesome as well.

Dish Nation


Okay so this is actually a TV series, not a movie but I'm including it because it's new to me and I like it. Basically it's a bunch of different entertainment radio morning shows that are filmed and it's hilarious. My favorite is the Rickey Smiley Morning Show out of Atlanta. It consists of Rickey Smiley, Headkrack, Rock-T and Porsha Williams. A close second is the Heidi and Frank Show or the Kidd Kraddick Show, those are both good. I don't like Seattle's which is Brooke and Jubal in the Morning but it rotates in every other week.



There, those are my three favorites. (order shown Kidd, H/F, and Rickey)

I know you don't care, but I do.

Anyway, you know how I am about media and entertainment news and all that so this is like the fun and entertaining way to keep up on my stuff. You should check it out, it's wildly entertaining.


Alright, on to the music:

Shake It Off - Taylor Swift


too catchy for its own good, it's been out like 2 days and i already bought it...i love her. i know most people don't but i really do.

All About That Bass - Meghan Trainor


which is fantastic!

and guess who just covered that one...

Home Free!!


i love those guys, but i've already rambled about them enough.

final one of the night is...

Bang Bang - Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, and Jessie J


no official video for that one yet but it's still early on. and all three are huge so i'm sure it will be awesome.


And that's all I got. Wow, that was long. Should probably post more often, huh?

Up next in life is Roller Derby, TAB and (if it gets approved) a crap-ton of programming aimed at patrons aged 18-29. But we'll see about that last one. IF it does get approved, and that's a big IF, I'm gonna need some serious feedback.

Alright, have a rock star week.

Hope you took your heart pills cause I’m coming out.

Lots to post about, let’s start with the big stuff.

So we went to see Cher. And Cyndi Lauper.

Yes, I know you’re all jealous. It was fabulous. She was fabulous. She said so herself. She is, after all, an icon. She can say whatever she wants, and she was right about that one.

Cyndi wasn’t bad herself. And I mean herself. Cher was surrounded by backup dancers, she had costume changes, and sequins galore. Cyndi was just Cyndi and a band.

And she held her own. She can still belt it.

But Cher was my favorite. And she sang all my favorites! Except Bang Bang, that one she skipped but that’s okay.

She made up for it with some good one-liners. Here are a few of my favorites:

Gonna squeeze this show in cause I’m off to Valentino's...

Hope you took your heart pills cause I’m coming out.

With just a piece of dental floss to keep me from plunging to my death…at 68.

What’s your granny doing tonight?

Been a gazillion years since my first Farewell Tour, and I was really old then.

People ask, is this your last farewell tour? Well shit, I can’t come back I’ll be dead. And well, some of you will be too.

I pissed off half the young female singers in this universe by saying "follow this bitches!"

I’ve been drinking this forever…Eisenhower was president. (about Dr. Pepper)

It's it's a white wine spritzer. Or a white trash white wine spritzer.

This sad-ass little cooler... (apparently that's an inappropriate gift for an icon)

And I’m so fabulous.

Why do you sit up there, you can’t see shit! and also the party is down here...

Here are some cool pics as well. Keep in mind we were way up there in the stands.



Cyndi Lauper




And the fabulous Cher




I should have taken a picture of the drunk chick in front of us. She was a fantastic dancer. Not really. Way off the beat. And it was more like swaying with random arm movements than actual dancing. I'm surprised she was still standing by the end of the night, but it was quite enjoyable to watch.

So, let me reiterate, Cher is fabulous and will remain fabulous. And I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a third farewell tour since every time she said this was her last one she winked and had her fingers crossed.

One way to stay in shape – though the dancers did most of the actual dancing.

Anyway, I went to see her with the boyfriend and my sisters. We had a lot of fun dancing it up. Second Sister and I got pretty into it, but the boyfriend and Oldest Sister joined in on occasion.

Mom and the Cool Aunt were there also, practically on the opposite side we were so there was a lot of waving going on.

The whole weekend was a lot of fun. The next day the boyfriend and I hit up the races – went to the pit after and met some of the drivers so that was fun. I still need a shirt that I can wear when I go to see the BFF as she is taking me to the races as well.

I know, how we both got sucked into those I’ll never know. I can’t come up with a valid explanation as it is other than our boyfriends are hooked and we’re supportive people. Mostly.

So that was this weekend. Oh and we watched a crap ton of Forensic Files as it was marathoned all weekend. It’s the boyfriend’s new favorite show even though it stopped airing new ones in 2010. Interesting stuff.

The weekend before that was fun too cause it was Juwanna’s wedding!

The boyfriend was out of town so I took SMO as my date. We danced the night away. I joked though because every wedding you go to everyone gets all choked up at the vows, nope, not Juwanna. She laughed her way through. I was so proud.

But everyone said the right name so it worked out.

It was pretty much a high school reunion so I got to see a lot of my old friends and some cool teachers too.

Even convinced one of them to hit up the photo booth with me. “Only cause it’s you.” Aw, I felt special. SuperHumann. She was my rock all through high school. And the reason I wanted to teach high school English. Before I went to college and said “screw that” that is.

Too many hoops to jump through. Plus me and children just don’t mix.

Good thing I work at a library and direct a youth camp, huh?

Joking.

Anyway, the wedding was great. We ate lots of food and danced the night away. Afterward SMO stayed over at my place and we jammed out for the weekend.

Was a nice and relaxing holiday.

Those are the big ones. I’m trying to think of other stuff…TAB Web Series is completed and up on the teen section of the library’s website…summer reading has started and work is overloaded with people…hmmmm… oh, the storms.

Tuesday was like storm central here so I ended up crashing with Oldest Sister since she has a basement and I don’t. But I left my cat at the apartment cause she has a dog. Does that make me a bad person?

Scale of Awesome’s for you:


The Neighbors


2/10 I officially hate Seth Rogan. So does the boyfriend. We hated him before this but we saw that good people were in this one so we gave it a chance. Oh my god, just no. Don’t do it, it’s that bad. Though not as bad as This Is The End.

Her


4/10 I feel bad for saying that cause I like the idea of the movie, I just don’t like how it turned out.

Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug


6/10 Better than the first one but I still feel like they’re dragging these out so they can make as many movies as possible.

Monuments Men


6/10 Also just okay. I was hoping for better, though it did have its moments.


Songs of the Week:

Don't Stop - 5 Seconds of Summer


diggin' it.

and of course...

Believe - Cher


my favorite of all of hers - followed closely by If I Could Turn Back Time, but that's mostly cause of this scene here:



tioooommme....

and i'm out.

"He about sang soprano on that one..."

Saturday:

It was gameday in L-Town which means the library was dead. Which is okay every once in a while cause then I can work on projects and book displays. Plus we have fun keeping up with the score. This was a good one, 59-20. Got to do my victory dance.

After work I met up with the boyfriend and we went to the races. A different track this time and it was pretty fun.

I have a new favorite driver.

Never thought I'd say that.

Felt like I should get a shirt to match the crowd surrounding me.

Never thought I'd say that either.

But I held off. It's not like I would wear it to anything other than the races and since winter is coming that's basically over.

Sketch thinks it's funny that I'm going to races after she's done having to go to them.

Sketch is my best friend from college, and neither of us are race fans.

It's not that we're girly girls, we both grew up on farms, but you know, it just wasn't something we would ever go to. Then suddenly we both find ourselves dating these race-obsessed boys who drag us there.

Okay, technically I wasn't dragged, and technically hers is more obsessed since he has his own car and driver, but now I find myself becoming a fan.

I'm fine I promise, don't send an ambulance to make sure I don't have head trauma. It's just really interesting to people watch.

Granted we're in the middle of Nebraska so I'm used to seeing a bunch of rednecks, but these are serious rednecks. And drunk rednecks who yell and spill beer and all that.

Plus I like to watch them crash.

Which makes me a horrible person, I know, cause what if someone dies, etc. etc. But don't lie, that's what you look forward to too.

So that was Saturday.

Sunday:

So originally I had two big sporty things going today. If you can call golf a sport. It's more like an activity.

Think I might have lost some diehard golf fans there. SKIP!

But really, it's kind of like cheerleading.

Okay, it's the opposite to cheerleading, but similar to cheerleading it's not really a sport. It's an activity.

Think I lost some cheerleaders there.

Anyway, so we were supposed to golf in this tournament this afternoon but then a church member died and Pastor had to stay back and since 2G would be lost without our Fearless Leader we decided to skip out and run errands instead. I got groceries. Huzzah. Watched some Grimm season two and took a nap.

For like 20 minutes before driving out to play softball.

First game of the season since last week's got rained out.

I'm stoked, we're all pumped, and then the game is about to start and we only have 8 players.

So we're like...well, crap.

So, the Methodists being nice sent over 2 of their players to play on our team.

One of which was our neighbor. Which I didn't realize cause I haven't seen him in like decades and decades.

To be fair, neighbors when you live on a farm aren't 10 feet from you, they're more like a mile from you. Plus he didn't have kids my age so why would I know him anyway?

They also gave us a pitcher.

Who - and this is amusing - only made 1 real defensive play the entire game and it was to throw his wife out at first.

So he was walking home and/or sleeping in the truck.

Thankfully we play best when we're scrappy and were able to pull it off 13-10. Even though we were behind for most of the game, our lineup was way weird, our field positions were way weird, and we had a dude from their team pitching. Thankfully he didn't walk a lot of people cause he's a good guy.

It was actually a really intense game. We play really well in the beginning and the end, that's always our theme. Not sure what happens in the middle, but that's when they always catch up with us.

We started out 2 up, then went up to 4, then they tied us at 4, then after some homeruns they took the lead with 9 which we came back to tie...like 3 innings later...then they got another and I thought we were screwed but last at bat Pastor got a 2 run homerun and then Steve O got a 2 run homerun and we held them so we pulled it off.

Barely.

I really like to hit off this pitcher cause he throws it backward so there's a spin on it.

Well, not backward, but like you know how underhand pitch usually looks like, but he throws it differently with a backspin and I can smack the crap out of it.

I had a really good one over center early on.

It was actually amusing cause I was walking to the plate and on a whim I said something like "help me out here grandpa" and then just killed it.

So I know what to do now in clutch situations.

Granted he was a pitcher, but still. Family legend says he was set to go pro and the day before he was gonna start he got hit by a foul ball and there that went.

I'm hoping next year we'll have the whole gang back together.

It's not the same without all of Who's Steve there to celebrate the good plays.

Though it was amusing to watch Favorite Sister-In-Law jump up and down after she caught the ball and then watch my brother run over and jump up and down like a girl as well.

And that's all I got for this weekend. Exhausted and it's back to work tomorrow so I'm gonna crash.

Song of the Day:

We Like To Party - Vengaboys


"who sings this song?" x4 "the vengaboys!" x4


Oh, and the title quote for this post was after my brother hit himself with a foul ball.

As I fall into the darkness it's impossible to express

Yes, I skipped yesterday. But I got home way late from the races and by the time I got home I was half out of it anyway.

Was an excellent weekend. Worked yesterday with some cool people, caught the highlights of the game - see, now that's how we're supposed to play! - and then went to the races with the boyfriend and his bestest friend Steven.

It was fun, though the whole time I kept thinking of Vic Henley, "they're making a left turn!!"

He's a comedian that Sketch and I watched in college and then I actually DVR'd his special last year so I got to watch it again.



This is a different show but it's highly entertaining.

"and Jesus said..."

"white trash flotilla"

After the races we went over to his other friend's house to play video games.

Well, they played video games, I posted random stuff on Facebook.

Went back to my place to sleep and then woke up and went BACK out there today. We got lunch and watched a lot of movies.

He's dogsitting - it's his dog but he's actually in charge of it this weekend - so we had to stick around the house. Though we did go out to eat and stopped at Walmart.

Broke down and bought Now You See Me.

Which means it's really good cause it's the first one I've bought in a long time. Mostly I just get them through the library, this one I actually wanted to keep.

We watched a boatload of movies today, some of which are The Mighty Ducks, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Office Space and I think there were bits and pieces of others.

Along with some SVU and Cold Case.

They need to release that on DVD.

The second time we've watched Mighty Ducks, though neither time have we caught the whole thing. I should just order the series through interlibrary loan so we can watch them all.

Though I hate the quacking thing. Drives me nuts.

But it was a good and relaxing weekend. Which is good and just what I needed.

Tomorrow is back to work so I'm out. Looking forward to Tuesday, my half day and then Wednesday for our first TAB meeting of the year. Woohoo!

Song of the Day:

jammed to this one on the way back

Get Back in My Life - Maroon 5


love this song. no idea why there's an eagle in the corner.


Watching Iron Chef, yay Alex! She's my new favorite. I used to always root for the challenger but now that I know them better I go for the IC's.

Mostly.

Unless Bobby Flay turns into a jerk to his sous-chefs. Which happens frequently.

Okay, I'm off to the races. Literally.

So this afternoon was kind of a blur.

There was so much going on that my head almost exploded.

But that's okay cause tonight made up for it.

And the day started off just fine...

Got the last parking spot - leaving earlier tomorrow, stupid construction taking up half the lot - checked in the new books, put out all the stuff for display, shelved DVDs, sorted carts, worked the desk, planned for my Catching Fire party - gonna be awesome, more details on that one to come - and then 5:00 rolls around and there are only 4 of us there to close, 2 for each floor which is fine until 1 of the 1st floor people leaves to count the money leaving the other person completely alone.

After she left to count I had a guy come up with over $500 in fines wanting me to waive them cause his card was stolen, then didn't understand why I wouldn't and instead told him to fill out a waiver form. But then he wouldn't leave and just stood at the desk for 10 minutes watching me help other patrons like I was going to change my mind. Sorry dude, don't have that kind of authority. Then there was the guy who wanted to get a library card but I couldn't understand what he was saying so I kept making him repeat everything. Then there was another dude who was looking for books I guess he had turned in earlier that day and he didn't understand why I wouldn't drop everything I was doing to help these two patrons ahead of him in line just to find those books, thankfully by that time InfoMan had come to save me.

By the time I got out of there there was no looking back. Made it to the races right as the warmups were starting. My first race there ever, which is weird for a southern Nebraska girl to say apparently.



I can now say, from experience, that there are all kinds that come to races, but the most prominent would definitely be the beer-drinking redneck.

I was surrounded by cowboy boots and baseball caps.

But I got to see my "mom" aka my surrogate mother from back home. I would spend a lot of my summers hanging out with her kids at their house. Though I think they spent even more at my house playing DDR and throwing crackers at the TV.

"Hey Carson!"

Was cool to jam with her. Introduced her to the boyfriend, think she met him before P Squared - the daughters - have. Woops.

The races were fun. I think the boyfriend was surprised I made it through the whole night without complaining. Like he was with the motorcar trip. Went by a lot faster than expected and after them we went over to meet his favorite driver. Got to go in the semi so he could buy a shirt and then I took his picture with him and with the car - see Facebook.

Rednecks are awesome, I grew up surrounded by them, as a farm kid there's no escaping that joy, but can someone explain the whole "take a tire home with you" thing?

Like the drivers give them tires to take home.

Not like the whole thing, just the rubber part. What are you going to do with it? It's too big to hang on the wall. Do you make it into a chair?

I'm just lost and confused as to this aspect of racing. Maybe you can shed some light.

And that's all I got for today. Music and I'm out, big day tomorrow.


Convoy - CW McCall


heard this on the way back and i had to laugh. was surrounded by trucks after coming out of the races. huzzah for CB radios.

omaha?!