The protesters who hi-jacked our fun afternoon.

I picked Amy around 9:45am, and we headed to downtown Denver. We parked near the Denver Art Museum (DAM) and made our way through the construction to go inside. They are currently building a huge new building, in a very odd shape. It should be interesting to see it when it is completed. They had a giant sculpture of a brush and dust pan outside (sorry, I meant to take a picture of it, I forgot). Having never been to DAM, I was excited, and then promptly disappointed. Only the first floor was open, and it was all art about the construction. The highlight of the museum was the bathroom sink. Seriously. When you go to wash your hands, the sinks sings to you.

We left and headed towards the 16th Street Mall & LoDo. While we were passing city hall, there was a protest rally going on. We couldn’t really tell what their stance was, there were many signs, and the speaker was very dull. We moved past that and we on 16th street when I convinced Amy we needed to get milkshakes at Johnny Rockets. We sat on the patio, and even order some food with our milkshakes. Just as we were finishing up, here came the protesters. Now it was clear by their chanting what they were there for. “yay Lebanon. boo Israel. yay Hezbollah”. Suddenly we didn’t feel much like being near them, so we paid and tried to get away from the scene. One man was removed by police from the mob, he was carrying an Israel flag and a sign that read “Hezbollah killed U.S. Marines”. I guess the police felt he needed to be protected. We tried to keep in front of the them, ducking into shops we wanted to see. Every time we’d exit, they were there. It was starting to get on our nerves. We eventually hopped on the free shuttle and took it to the Tattered Cover. I don’t like that location as much as the old Cherry Creek one, but any Tattered Cover is a good one. 🙂 We took the shuttle back towards the museum, and that’s when I decided I need to snap a picture of the protest for the blog. You might not be able to see it, but they were turning to the right in front of us, so we went straight to skirt around them. We saw the one anti- Hezbollah guy again, he was following behind them. I heard him say he had at least 20 people tell him they appreciated his sign.

So that was my Saturday, my free day to go girl stuff. Amy suggested next time we go get pedicures. We decided since our nice Saturday was hi-jacked, our hubbies should let us have another go at it.

Felt like doing a random ten today.

When You Were Young – The Killers
Bent – Matchbox 20
It’s Not Right But It’s Okay – Whitney Houston
D’Yer Mak’er – Led Zeppelin
Plush – Stone Temple Pilots
Just The Two Of Us – Dr. Evil
A Little Respect – Erasure
Ride Wit Me – Nelly
Standing Outside The Fire – Garth Brooks
In Your Soul – Corey Hart

Man, I have some weird stuff on my computer.

– Kelly is interviewing Zach Braff tomorrow. She leads a rough life. (*the interview has since been cancelled. I’m bummed too. But she tells me she’s got an interview with Rob Zombie coming up.) You can find her work here or her other stuff on her blog.

– iTunes lets you pre-order The Killers’ new album Sam’s Town, so you can get the single When You Were Young and not have to buy the song twice when you get the album.

– I’m watching The Tube several times a day, a new music channel that shows only music videos. Revolutionary huh?

– Our trip to Vegas is in less than two weeks. I’m hoping to not lose all my money, and not to melt in the heat.

– Look at the nice stuff Chris had to say about me..“so melissa is the big winner everyone. ….there’s a big surprise ; ) she now has bragging rights, and must hereby be addressed by ‘oh great, wise contest winner who’s watched too much tv’.” (Chris-I forgot to link to it, mea culpa. I fixed that.)

– Amy & I are going to the Art Museum on Saturday. No kids, no husbands. Geoff & Elijah are going to go to the farmer’s market to get homemade peanut butter.

– I think our problems with ADT may finally be behind us. I realize I’m inviting trouble by declaring this. 🙂

I’m not going to endorse a Tom Cruise movie, but there is a scene in Vanilla Sky where Tom’s character is with Penelope Cruz’ character, and she changes into Cameron Diaz. And he freaks out. I sometimes have that fear, that one day I’ll open my eyes, and my life won’t be real. But then I think that’s silly. It’s just something that crosses my mind every so often. (I won’t say I liked Vanilla Sky, I didn’t hate it either, I just felt confused.)

I love my life. When I look back at the person I was 10, even 15 years ago, I’m amazed at how much I’ve changed and grown. I never would have imagined the life I lead now was possible.

As I’ve mentioned, I’m watching a lot of HGTV, DIY, and A&E. I’m trying to get ideas for projects I want to tackle. We’ve decided to paint Elijah’s room. I think I want to switch the furniture in the two bedrooms, but I keep wavering. We’re also going to drywall the basement this winter (hopefully).

I’ve been watching Sports Night on DVD, I get the impulse to watch it, then I have to watch the whole series. I just can’t leave it up in the air. And while I never got into The West Wing, I’m planning on checking out Aaron Sorkin new series Studio 60. I love his casting choices, not only because he’s reuniting Amanda Peet & Sarah Paulson, but Matthew Perry is awesome.

Anyways, I’ll close with a quote from Sports Night. Sharon, I get my quotes from the good people at imdb.com. Sometimes I have a specific quote in mind, sometimes I have a specific movie or tv show in mind. I’m not that smart. 🙂

Isaac: If you’re stupid, surround yourself with smart people. If you’re smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you.

I tried two new recipes this week, one was a skillet lasagne (or lasagna), and the other was peanut butter cookies. Both turned out very well. If interested, I can email them to you. The skillet lasagne I saw on America’s Test Kitchen, I was looking for meals we could make that wouldn’t involve using the oven. Since it cooled down later in the week, I was willing to make cookies.

Alton’s show, Feasting On Asphalt (previously blogged about), is an awesome show! It does ignite a desire to do a road trip though. But we have enough going on in the coming weeks (Vegas, Cate & Kaisara’s visit, Athena & Stephanie’s visit), that a road trip will have to wait until next summer.

I miss Lisa, she’s on vacation, and called today to say she was staying longer! 🙁

I’ll close with a quote from Caroline In The City (gee sure wish I could watch it in reruns).

Richard: How could anyone not like the opera. Opera is transcendent. It is the most intense musical experience a person can have.
Caroline: Plus you get to wear those neat, long gloves!
Richard: You know, I’m certain that’s what Mozart had in mind when he wrote The Marriage of Figaro. ‘Oh, goodie, now women can accessorize!’

Last night I dreamt that Geoff got transferred to a different magnet, so we had to pack a bag and move to Michigan. I was very sad, but luckily in my dream, Michigan was right next to Pennsylvania, so we would have been able to visit Hershey. I think my subconscious wants chocolate.

We got a wicked rain/hail storm blow through last night, it hit about 6:45pm. It was pretty remarkable to watch. It washed away some of the wood chips in our backyard, so now we have felt exposed. I hate the wood chips anyways. 🙂 It was total flash flood, a perfect opportunity to crawl into a warm bubble bath. Since Pearl (my iPod) died, Geoff has lent me his (Squilliam). My favorite feature on his is the “on the go” playlist feature, which mine didn’t have (my iPod is like 4 years old). Here was my bath playlist:

How Do You Love – Collective Soul
How To Save A Life – The Fray
Life’s Rich Tapestry – Modern English
Why Georgia – John Mayer
Protection – Massive Attack

Sure I want a new iPod, but it can wait.

No plans set in stone for this week. I’d like to try and go to the Denver Art Museum, either with or without kids. I’ve never been, and it’s free all summer. This means a trip downtown, so I’ll be able to go to LoDo and check out the Tattered Cover.

I’m going to close with a quote from The Patriot.

Charlotte: You have done nothing for which you should be ashamed.
Benjamin Martin: I have done nothing. And for that I am ashamed.

I hate the look of where our society is going. Hell in a handbasket.

Should we be judged by the sins of our father? Are we not held accountable by our own actions? There have been some racist remarks made by my family years ago. Does that make me a racist?

Why aren’t people following everyone around, writing down everything that is said, by any given person, and then using it to cast them in a bad light. On any given day, I say at least 10 stupid things, that maybe I don’t mean, and yet the lynch mob isn’t hounding me.

Yes, Mel Gibson made a HUGE mistake. He’s an idiot. Who the heck is dumb enough to drive intoxicated? And who is dumb enough to take someone’s words when they are drunk and pass them off as truth? Did alcohol become a truth serum while I was sleeping? Then I know tons of people who love me. Really, they told me so when they were drunk.

I am sick and angry at a world that couldn’t care less about news, and cares more about sensationalism. It makes me angry that people take it upon themselves to “make their own news”.

These were the thoughts I had before bed, and even while I was trying to sleep. I was originally gonna post about my weekend, but who really wants to read about that? 🙂 We went to Boulder, we had a blast, we saw our friends Jason & Nicole’s new baby girl Colette. And we watched a lot of home improvement shows. I’m inspired now.

I had to delete a few blogs from my list, some people deleted theirs, or they just never blog (that’s you Andrew!). I need more friends.

I find it fitting to close with a quote from Good Night, And Good Luck.

Edward R. Murrow: To those who say people wouldn’t look; they wouldn’t be interested; they’re too complacent, indifferent and insulated, I can only reply: There is, in one reporter’s opinion, considerable evidence against that contention. But even if they are right, what have they got to lose? Because if they are right, and this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost. This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box