Game Night

Friday night was game night, part duex at our place. Last time we partied at Jaime's place, but she has a cat and Corey's allergic. So, there were about ten people at our place, which I believe is the most we've ever had over at once for that long. Our place is small and there wasn't much elbow room, but it didn't matter. We had a blast. I was also excited because I got to play host and serve snacks on some of our new serving platters (thank you Steve and Tracy Jones) and drink margaritas out of the new goblets.

Nick, Larry, Dan, Corey and I started off by playing Clue before the 2nd wave of people came over. I have no idea how we did it as kids. That game is hard. Good thing we played early on, alcohol wouldn't of helped.
When the rest of the group arrived we moved on to Catch Phrase. No, not Strip Catch Phrase, Dan and Junior, that's reserved for you guys back in KC. We also played the name game or whatever you call it (everyone calls it something different). It's the game where everyone puts a bunch of names in a bowl. The first round you can say anything to get the others to guess the name you drew, the second round you can only say 2 words and last round is mimed. Anyways, that's what these pictures are from. We're in the miming stage. I think Owen is starting to mime that he nicked his face shaving.... as in Stevie Nicks.

Corey and I continued the gaming on through the weekend . We played Doctor on Sunday.... no not like that. Larry gave us Operation along with some other fun games as a wedding present.
Thanks Lars. Fun stuff. Fun stuff. Can't wait for Game Night part three.

And Happy Birthday Josh

Man, what was happening 9 months ago? A bunch of my friends celebrate their birthdays in August. This past weekend it was Josh. He hit number 30 finally. Pete turned 40, Josh 30...it's milestone year, too. Well here's some fun trivia for you. My pal Josh is the same age as:

* liquid soap
* Pop Rocks
* Rubik's Cube
* the laser printer
* the push-through tab on a soda can
* the first truly personal computer

So there you go. Happy Birthday, my man. Now here's a picture of Josh rocking out at karaoke the last time I was in KC. He blew the damn roof off the place.

I love dumb people

Question: If you could live forever, would you and why?
Answer: "I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever," --Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest

"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff." --Mariah Carey

"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life," --Brooke Shields, during an interview to become Spokesperson for federal anti-smoking campaign.

"I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body," --Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward.

"Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country," --Mayor Mario n Barry, Washington, DC.

"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president." --Hillary Clinton commenting on the release of subpoenaed documents.

"That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it," --A congressional candidate in Texas.

"Half this game is ninety percent mental." --Philadelphia Phillies manager, Danny Ozark

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." --Al Gore, Vice President

"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix." --Dan Quayle

"We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?"--Lee Iacocca

"I was provided with additional input that was radically different from the truth. I assisted in furthering that version." --Colonel Oliver North, from his Iran-Contra testimony.

"The word 'genius" isn' t applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein." --Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback & sports analyst.

"We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people." --Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instructor.

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure." --Bill Clinton, President

"We are ready for an unforeseen event that may or may not occur." --Al Gore, VP

"Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas." --Keppel Enderbery

"Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances." --Department of Social Services, Greenville, South Carolina

"If somebody has a bad heart, they can plug this jack in at night as they go to bed and it will monitor their heart throughout the night. And the next morning, when they wake up dead, there'll be a record." --Mark S. Fowler, FCC Chairman

Messages

A couple of nights ago, Corey and I watched our friend Clay Morgan's independent movie, "Messages." For those of you that were in it... Smashing Job! I particularly liked the "club" scene. Nick Rigoli in true Rigoli fashion cracked me up. I was a little disgusted by Nikki and Dennis' makeout scene, but that's to be expected of the DuPonts. Anissa played the Carrie Fisher, best friend role quite well and Kaia is adorable as was Rob Grabowski. It was all very touching. It was really nice seeing the group from KC together like that. I was jealous that I didn't get to be in it and that I missed the original screening. Nice work Clay!

-Mo

Garrett's birthday pictures

1. Amy, Christopher and Tyler, "look, something shiney." Yeah, Tyler doesn't quite understand that there are different rules of etiquette for different situations.


2.Garrett, the man of the hour, "mmm, steak."



3. I can't remember the name of the waiter. It was quite unusual. He had quite the lovely voice and said the words, "bone marrow" quite hilariously.

A little calmer

This week has been much calmer than the last two weeks of hell. Though we've been busy, it's not nearly as crazy. I've even been able to work out again a couple times this week during lunch rather than pass out in the nap room at work. I haven't been about to run though, because someone stole my sports bra. The break in hecticness started on Saturday. That evening after I had a couple photoshoots, we went to Drake Brothers restaurant in the Drake hotel. It was our friend Garrett's birthday and our other friend Amy works for the Drake so we got a sweet deal on our meal. It was sooooo good. The waiter was wonderful. He was very over the top, but really treated us well and even sung for Garrett. My filet minon was particularly amazing, as was the chipotle corn, onion rings and chocolate cake. We all left the restaurant fat, happy and a little wine buzzed. On Sunday I had another client, but then I got to rest. That night we saw The Aristocrats. It's dirty, raunchy and hilarious. We even got free popcorn and a drink because no one was there to ring us up. That's what they get for hiring 17 year olds that are more interested in flirting with each other than the customer. Man... I'm so mature.
Anyways, Tuesday was my second I.O show. It wasn't too bad. Granted it wasn't the best show I've ever been in, definately your typical sophmore effort. This team has a lot of bonding to do. I'm honestly not sure how long it'll stay together, but I hear that's pretty typical of your first team with I.O. They change teams around like it's dirty underwear. So if the teams are like dirty underwear and me and many of my friends are in teams, does that make us turds? Man... mature and hilarious, Corey's a lucky man.
Last night we went to dinner with Corey's cousin, Anne in Chinatown. It was both of our first times down there. For those of you that have never been, it pretty much just rows of Chinese restaurants and little stores filled, and I mean filled with Chinese chachkees. The food itself was definately the best we've had since moving to Chicago, but I wouldn't say it was necessarily any better than Chinese food I've had in KC. You'd think that in a city with such diversity, you'd be able to find decent Chinese food...hmmm. Last night was one of the first nights we didn't do any wedding stuff in the evening. We're 17 days away and pretty much all that is left are small things. I'm sure we're forgetting something though. I just know we're going to get back to KC the weekend of and we'll be blindsided by a huge part of the wedding that we completely forgot about. I didn't care about that last night though. I was out like a light by 10/10:30pm on the couch, which is the earliest I've gone to bed in a long time. Corey on the other hand had another case of insomnia and was up until who knows when. Hopefully he won't be too grumpy tonight. I just don't know if I can handle another beating.
Last night in my sleep I had my first wedding nightmare. Apparently this is pretty common for brides as the big day approaches. Basically in my dream, the girls in the wedding party were getting ready. We were supposed to meet at Figlio's (the place we're getting married at) at 4pm for pictures. Well in the dream I look at my watch (because it goes so well with a wedding dress) and it's 5pm and no one is ready. I start telling everyone to hussle, we have to go take pictures and be ready by 6pm when the guests arrive and expect the ceremony to start. Next thing you know, we're standing in front of these aluminum garages (nothing like Figlios) and all the guests are staring at me in my gown, which has suddenly turned into a weird, cheap, fluffy thing. I'm upset because the pictures still haven't been taken. My sister is trying on 3 different dresses and I'm turning into bridzilla in front of everyone because it's a bridesmaids dress and the fact that she's trying on other colors and styles at this point is pissing me off. My mom is making me cry because she's not ready and she's mad at me for getting mad that everyone's not ready. So the photographer decides just to take my pictures, but the suddenly cheap gown keeps bunching up and looks ridiculous, so I get even more upset. I finally run "out" of the ceremony to go back to the cabins (? don't know why cabins) that we were getting ready at to smoke a cigarette and find Corey so we can just get married by ourselves. I woke up panicked, a little out of breath and pissed off. I'm better now, but it took me a while this morning to collect myself and remember it was just a dream.
-Mo

Glam Girl

I don't know about you, but I spent my Friday night at Marshall Fields annual Glamorama.
If you're thinking, wow that sounds like fun... well, not so much when you're working the after party as a glam rocker elevator girl. 7 "actors" were hired to help create a glam rock ambiance and I was one of them. Basically, I spent 5 1/2 hours in an elevator escorting scantily clad women (and some men) to the after-party on the 7th floor of Marshall Fields. The food and liquor were flowing freely as over 2000 of Chicago's coolest people partied the night away. The music was amazing, though I could only hear parts of the songs as my elevator door would close and I'd head back down to the first floor to pick up more partiers.
I started the night by getting "glammed" out by a fabulous gay man from MAC cosmetics. My job was literally to stand in the elevator on the 1st floor and as guests arrived press the 7th floor button and bring them to the party. As the night progressed and people got drunker, me and the other 6 elevator girls rotated which floors we "sat" at to bring people up and down.


It definitely got boring at times and by the end of the night (1:30am) I was exhausted and my feet were killing me. However, there was some great people watching and hilarious moments I got to witness.
There was a wide range of outfits, from ball gowns and tiaras to barely there shimmery, glitzy little numbers. A few people looked good, but overall most looked pretty ridiculous. They were like teenagers that finally had something to get all dressed up for. I particularly liked the 60 some year old women with mini skits and gigantic boobs. They came to Marshall Fields from the fashion show at the Chicago Theater. They started out very polite and friendly. Of course they got drunker and drunker, louder and louder, more and more obnoxious as the night progressed. I was spilled on (and consequently wiped down in places that I hadn't been spilt on) by strangers, kissed and flirted with by all sorts of characters. One of the elevator girls got her boob punched like a punching bag by a gay man. Ha, he played with her fun bags! Man I wish I could claim that story as my own.
The models from the fashion show were also at the party. There's nothing like 6 foot tall, 100 lb model with legs as tall as me entering the elevator to make me feel like the fattest midget in the world. These gorgeous women with their rich men would get into the elevator and I'm just the dorky girl smooshed against the wall pushing an elevator button. High light of my career...really. I also can't tell you how many times I heard from the passengers "Lingerie... 5th floor....ha, ha, ha." Dude, you aren't the first one to think of that joke...and it's not funny, nor is it ever going to be funny.
Some of the great things I did hear though were...
From a regular, average looking women to a male model : "So why did you move to Chicago, to model?"
Male model: "Yeah, for work, what do you do?"
Women: " Oh, I work for a book distributing company."
Male model: (way too enthusiastically) "WOW!"
Women: "Yeah, we've been distributing books for over 100 years."
Male model:" Yeah, I just started reading."

Another now classic involved an elevator full of strangers...
Woman to man: "Hey, I know you... you're my gynecologist!"
Man: "Uhh.. yeah, hi"
Woman: "Do you remember me?"
Man: "Uhh...yeah, you dyed your hair."
Woman: "How do you know I dye my hair...Oh, I know how you know." "So, do you remember how I had those two miscarriages?......"
The rest is not important. It was just great to be the fly on the wall in an extremely awkward situation.

Other fun sightings of the party (as I "sat" on the 7th floor waiting until someone needed a ride down) were the 2 very young girls dancing and practically stripping for an old man, a few thongs, a boob and some middle aged guy that had to be a computer geek, dancing his ass off in what looked like some sort of mating call for wet noodles. Being one of the only sober people there, it really makes me think twice about getting drunk and dancing with my friends. Man we must look stupid half the time. I just kept thinking about the Red Balloon last weekend and wondering if we were that retarded to outsiders. Yeah, probably.
I also met a couple celebrities. I met the guy, Fred something of the B-52's. Well, ok, he didn't notice me and actually rudely bumped into me in my elevator, but still. DJ Tony from the Ellen show was also there, he was the DJ for the party and was great. I did get to meet him and tell him something stupid like, "I liked the music" or "Good job" or something equally lame.

It was one of the longer nights of my life. I went home exhausted, but I think it was well worth the $175 I got paid and the hilarious stories and mental images I'll have in my memory.

- Mo

Happy Birthday Pete

Our good friend Pete Calderone celebrates 40 years on this earth. 40! As you look at this recent photo of Pete, you'll notice he sure don't look 40. And even more so, he sure doesn't act it. You can check out his online musings by clicking on the link in the right column for "Our Friend Pete". Also, you can go see him perform comedy, live, in Kansas City at ComedyCity doing improv or sketch comedy in Monkeys With Hand Grenades.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to also point out how much has changed since 1965, the year Pete was born. Lyndon Johnson was President, Canada adopted it's familiar maple leaf flag, and the first US forces landed in Vietnam. On the positive side, the St. Louis Arch was completed, Disney launched Epcot, and "The Sound of Music" won the Oscar for Best Picture.

Celebrities that also turn 40 this year include: Sarah Jessica Parker, J.K. Rowling, Scottie Pippin, Andy Dick, Stuart Scott, and DJ Jazzy Jeff.

So Happy Birthday Pete, founding member of the KC Optimist Club and recently named "Kansas City's Most Eligible Bachelor".

More karaoke pictures

Nothing to add here. Just more pics. I'm not really sure what the deal is with that last one of Monique. It just makes me laugh.

- Corey

KC Trip - Aug 5-7

So I guess you want to see some of the pictures from this weekend trip to KC? Well, fine. Here you go. These are from karaoke night at the Red Balloon. If you've never been, get a group of friends together and go. It's the kind of dive that other dives strive to be. Cheap, enormous beers...pool...darts...and horrible versions of country songs sung by people taking themselves wayyyy too seriously. Enjoy the photos...

- Corey

Mission Accomplished

We're back from Kansas City and we're alive. This trip was the most successful yet. There was no fighting, no yelling, no crying. It wasn't even that stressful. It was definately busy, but everthing ran smoothly. Our appointments were on time and each vendor took care of us. And let me say, this wedding is going to kick ass!
We got into town late Friday after a bit of a delay. We each went to our own family's house to sleep. I of course had to get my Orange Flurry from Sonic. It's just cruel how the advertisers tease us in Chicago with all the Sonic commercial here. I've done the reseach and there are no Sonics within 90 miles of Chicago. Retarded. Anyways, I hung out with my parents for about an hour, going through baby picture and other photo albums. I must say... I was adorable! In the morning I had a dress fitting and I didn't get lightheaded this time, like on my last trip. I think that's due to actually having food in my stomache. Then Corey picked me up and we went to the florist, the salon beauty supply, the tasting and to his brother's house to scan some pictures from the wedding and met with our officiant(Dan Walsh) to discuss the ceremony.
After dinner and a couple of margaritas, we met up with the rest of our Comedy City friends for karoke and drinks. I'm on a karaoke roll lately. They served humoungous beers that were bigger then my head! Corey and I had told ourselves that we were leaving my midnight, because we had an early morning the next day, followed by more running around. Well, yeah, that didn't happen. We didn't even leave the bar until around 1:15am. Not good.
I was feeling it in the morning, plus we had to drive from Overland Park to Lee's Summit to meet with the photographer. I was tired, but doing ok for most of it, that is until the ride back home. I occassionally get car sick anyways, so being hung over on top of it didn't help. I felt much better after yacking at the Rittmaster house.
Luckily it helped, because we had to be presentable for the shower Corey's mom's friends threw us. It was really sweet with good food, friends and great gifts. It's an extrememly weird situation to be put in to sit in front of a bunch of people and open presents. Definately awkward, but a lot of fun.
The last appointment was after the shower. We met with the DJ, who again is great. Eddie Hall...Fast Eddie. Some of you guys know him. We finished the weekend by paking up the gifts and spending a little time with Corey's parents. Though we were tired when we left, we weren't nearly as worn out as the last time. It's such a relief to know that so much is done and it's all going to come together. Oh yeah... I also got sick on the plane. I didn't get sick ON the plane, but I hurled once we got off. I had been feeling fine for most of the day, but again I think it was the motion sickness and lack of sleep adding to it.
Alright, so lesson learned. There will be NO drinking the night before the wedding. I don't even know if we can trust going out the night before. We don't have much will power to leave the party when we're with our friends. You guys are too much fun, so what do you expect. So yeah, I blame my hangover on Nikki and Junior and Dan and Dennis and Julie and Mandy etc etc etc. Thanks a lot guys.

30 Days

Yey! Today marks 30 days till the wedding. Personally I am not nervous at all about getting married, who I'm marrying or being married. I am a little nervous though about everything running smoothly. It's not so much about that things will go wrong with the ceremony or any on the "technical" side. Something is bound to go wrong and I'm fine with that. I just don't want to have any drama the day of.
We're going back to KC tonight and so far every time we've made a trip home (especially) for planning there's been fighting, stress and crying. Quite frankly, I'm done with it. My goal is get along with everyone and get shit done. I know that it's going to be stressful, there's nothing we can do about that. It's always exhausting running around to about 87 vendors and stores, so crying on top of it just makes it worse. Come on, you guys saw the picture of us from the last trip. I really don't want to look like that walking down the aisle.
Overall I think I've been quite the trooper. I've really been cool, calm and relaxed. The only time I get upset is when people just don't listen or make it harder on me by pretty much refusing to be helpful. You're either a part of the wedding planning or you're not, you can't have it both ways. Oh yeah and the melt down I had because of the world's worst "florist" in the world. Seriously, I don't know how she sleeps at night.

I guess overall I shouldn't worry about it so much. It's always nice to see family and there will be a night of entertainment with the likes of karaoke and the likes of beer!

fine, here's MY list

Well, then here's is my list. And I provide it in vivid color. Keep in mind that these are in no particular order, plus my list changes from time to time, so this is simply what my list looks like at this very moment. - Corey


Aisha Tyler
Salma Hayek
Any semi-cute girl w/ tray of White Castles for me.
Catherine Bell
Adriana Lima

My List

There are 2 kinds of lists:

There's the "you're on my list" because you pissed me off.
and
There's the "oohh baby, you're on my list" as in the Ross Geller list.

Here I am talking about the latter, in which you are given permission to hook up with these 5 people if the chance comes up, even if you're in a committed relationship. Here's mine.

1. LL Cool J
2. Gavin Rosdale
3. Brad Pitt (even though he's a jerkpod right now)
4. Carlos Beltrone (sp?)
5. I can never rembember my 5th person. It's possibly George Clooney, he's an oldie but a goodie. Any suggestions?

Who's on your list?

-Mo