Aug. 8: Linky goodness

This post is not so much “stuff Jen says,” but “stuff on which Jen thinks you should click.”

My niece created this site: I Live Here: PDX. It makes me wish I lived in the city because then she would profile me but-cept then the site would shut down of boredom and that would make her sad. Anyway, if you live in Portland, Erin is looking for you. Contact her through the I Live Here: PDX Facebook page. You’ll be faaaaamooooous!

This tutorial for making a super-cute T-shirt shrug has been all over Pinterest lately. People have posted pictures of their completed shrugs below the tutorial, which is kinda fun to see.

We saw our first Broadway in Portland show of the (our) season, Les Miz, yesterday. The kids and I did a lot of reading up beforehand so we’d know the characters and basic plot, and I think that helped, because it was frequently hard to hear the lyrics (stoopid Keller Auditorium). The show was so much better than I expected it to be. Even Jack didn’t totally hate it. He and I found this LEGO Les Miz video yesterday—it’s got terrible sound editing, but the LEGO part is good.

Here’s some help treating your laundry. Sherrice and I discovered the wonders of Dawn liquid years ago, but a lot of these other suggestions are new to me. And while you’re in list mode, here’s one for the types of glue that can/should be used for different materials.

If you like cucumbers, you’ll love this salad.

Ever picture The Office with a Dallas-like intro? Me neither, but there ya go. Here it is in a classic sitcom style—isn’t it weird to watch The Office with a laugh track? Here’s my favorite: The Office in Japan.

The new IKEA catalog came out last week! Mine is already marked up and dog-eared. If you haven’t gotten yours yet, here’s where you can request one.

Have a super-duper fantastic week, y’all.

Apr. 24: Catching up again

Here’s what kept me away from my blog most of this past week.

• Life got insane there for a while, with way too many ups and downs for my liking, so I’m taking today to relax and recuperate before I start another week. How will I do it, you ask? I’ve got Tina Fey’s new book, Bossypants. Good enough. Peace and quiet, except for my occasional LOL-ing at this very funny book, and I should be a happy, rested girl.
• I kind of really, really loved the spin on Rent’s Seasons of Love they did on The Office Thursday. Will Ferrell’s no Jesse L. Martin, but this was still all kinds of fun.
  
  
  
  Next week is Michael’s last show. Sad face.
• Yesterday was a gorgeous, sunny day here in Portland. The four of us went downtown in search of fun, and found it along the Willamette—specifically, at Saturday Market. I couldn’t resist a beautiful handmade glass-and-metal spinner for the front porch. We got elephant ears, semi-highs on weed smoke, and best of all, sunshine. It was crowded and crazy but good weather after a way-too-long winter brings out the best in Portlanders, to be sure. We Manullangs thoroughly enjoyed our day. 
• There’s a new-ish iPhone app called Crackle that streams movies and TV shows for free, though there’s not a huge selection (yet). Last night I watched Reign Over Me, which is about a guy who reconnects with a friend who lost his family on 9/11. It was sad but sweet and I loved Don Cheadle in it. Adam Sandler wasn’t bad (better than his dramatic role in Punch-Drunk Love, IMO), but his voice got on my nerves after a while, as it was at its whiniest. Oh, and I’ve decided I do not love watching full-length movies on my iPhone. An iPad would be much better. Or… a TV!
• Here’s an amusing tumblr page featuring pictures of cats where they don’t belong.
• Please tell me my kids weren’t the only ones who ate chocolate for breakfast this morning. (And Happy Easter, by the way!)
• Do you read PostSecret? I thought one of today’s secrets was especially snicker-worthy:
  
  
  Thank the gods that my kids’ teachers have all had a decent grasp of our written language; I’ve never felt the need to do this. EVER. But I see a lot of other teachers’ notes home that really, really make me want to shake ‘em.
  
  Having said that, the other day I caught a typo on a memo I sent out to teachers a few months ago. Get this—I used “please” instead of “pleased.” Yes, I said, “we are please to tell you…” Can you believe that? Would it be weird if I re-wrote the entire memo with a huge apology-slash-retraction? Would that make it worse? Because, really? I. Want. To. Die.
• At last week’s PTO meeting we had nominations for next year’s new board members. My term is up, but I may be re-signing to co-president with Sunshine. That is, if people vote for us. There are rumors that they won’t. Watch for more on that in a future post because OMG, I can’t believe people sometimes.
• Friday is the Royal Wedding. Sure, William and Kate are getting married, but the REAL royal wedding is at Willamette Valley Vineyards. Kim F’n is going to be Kim F’n-W! It’s sure to be a fabulous time, EVEN THOUGH Kim didn’t ask me to perform the ceremony EVEN THOUGH I’m an ordained reverend. (I think she’s afraid I’d curse too much.)

In closing, I want to thank all of you who emailed or commented after my last post. You are so good to me. It was a rough week. I don’t know how these things snowball and finally end up in a blog post, but I’m working on controlling them a bit better. Regardless, I love you for letting me be me.

Feb. 18: IDCEAYWTPFriday

It’s Friday, and that means you get a post called I Don’t Care Enough About You to Write in Transitioning Paragraphs Friday. I haven’t done one of these in a while, but please don’t think that means you can expect anything interesting.

• I worked a couple long days this week and spent the rest of the time doing PTO-related things. Today I pretty much didn’t do anything all day long, and it was awfully nice. I get tired of having to use my noggin. As much as I love the work I do, it’s a constant brain-drain.
• Since Katie has a new iPod, we’ve all been trading music back and forth and in the process I’ve decided that I’m tired of my music and need new music and I’m saying the word “music” way too many times in this sentence. Nothing in the iTunes store appealed to me today. I stopped by the free mp3 downloads section on Amazon and found a whole bunch of stuff that—in preview mode, anyway—sounds great! The Benjy Davis Project is my favorite album so far, but I downloaded five others that I hope I’ll like too. I always forget about that section on Amazon, and sometimes it’s pretty cool. Today it was pretty cool.
• As I wind down in the evenings, I try to find something mindless to do. This week it was playing Texas Hold ‘Em online that helped me get sleepy. It’s fun, yes, but it’s nothing like hanging wit’ my peeps for reals on Poker Night. And you know something that really drives me nuts? I swear, almost every time I get beat online it’s by a pair of fours, but when *I* play a pair of fours, I lose to, like, a nine of a kind or something. Every time! Something else I hate is when somebody goes all in before the flop. HELLO! Now  none of us can play, thankyouverymuch. I guess my point is that my opponents online are jackholes compared to my opponents who are my friends.
• Speaking of friends and poker, WHEN IS OUR NEXT POKER NIGHT? Pretty sure we’re overdue, folks.
• Did you watch The Office last night? Threat Level Midnight was the best movie I watched… um… all day!
• I spend a lot of time at the kids’ school, and not just because rubber cement is so readily available there. Here’s one of the other bonuses: reading student projects. I saw a report by Fancy Riley™—she did “How to Train a Dog,” and I was impressed at how thorough (and fancy!) it was. But the one below hers really caught my eye, and here’s why:

Yes, that says “How to draw a bunny that got ran over by a car!”

Awesome, right???

• I’m following advice and have begun to compile last year’s blog posts and messages into a document that will tell the story of how I kicked cancer’s ass. I’m not very far into it yet, but just setting up the document was a big step. I don’t know what I’ll end up doing with the finished product; it may just be a story for my grandchildren. Whatevs. I need to do it for me, too. It’ll be therapeutic, especially if I stick to the truth. I’m debating fiction vs. nonfiction… because how else can I work Agent Michael Scarn into the story?
• The other night I woke up to something super-smelly. At first I thought it was Vic (because I’m kinda mean and because he’s sometimes stinky) and then I thought the dog farted. But the smell just wouldn’t go away, and I finally got up to see if I was the only one smelling the B.B.O. And what did I step in on my way to the light switch? One of six or seven soft turds the puppy had left outside the bathroom door. Curses! So, in the middle of the night, we spent 20 minutes picking up poo and scrubbing the carpet and swearing at every dog who has ever lived in the history of the world. It was 40-ish degrees outside, but we opened the windows wide anyway to air out the stench. It took a really long time to get back to sleep, and I kept thinking, is this a good enough excuse to get me out of work in the morning? Because my dog pooped?
• I have two new iPhone apps to share! Ted, my brother-in-law, makes fun of how I write entire posts about iPhone apps I like, so maybe he just shouldn’t read this paragraph.
  
  Both apps have free versions, and might be available for the Droid.
• SoundHound will tell you what song you’re listening to. It just hears it and displays the song title and artist, lyrics if they’re available, and a link to download the song. You can even sing into it and it’ll tell you what song you’re singing! So cool.
• IntoNow is similar, but it works with the TV. It listens to what you’re watching and tells you what it is.
• Here’s something I’m feeling grateful for this evening: Katie’s going to the new Justin Bieber movie with her friends next week! I don’t have to take her! I don’t even have to make up an excuse for why I can’t/won’t! This is a very, very good thing. My Mother of the Year crown may be crooked and tarnished, but it’s still on my damn head.

Oct. 30: New girl group

If you watched The Office last night, you might have seen a promotion at the end for a webisode starring Subtle Sexuality, a new girl group comprised of Kelly and Erin. The video isn’t embedding correctly, so here’s a link to the first of three parts. The second and third should follow.

I’m liking Erin, the new girl; she seems to fit in well with the insanity of the ensemble, and I love how she takes the music video so seriously. But Andy? Nobody beats Andy these days. The thing last night with him and the birthing coaches and all that? Hilarious. And his cameo in the music video is priceless. Love him.

Oct. 18: The Office musical

Random Sunshine™ posted this to Facebook this morning and I’m stealing it because if you enjoy The Office, you’ll love it and that makes stealing okay. So I’ve heard.

Apr. 5: Our couple name could be “Jin” or “Jem”

I had a dream last night about me and Jim Halpert. He dumped that psycho Pam and told me he loved me, so Michael Scott immediately called a staff meeting to announce the bittersweet news. My whole dream was like an actual episode of The Office. Just think, if these were interesting dreams, I could be a scriptwriter and just dream up all the episodes. Instead I’m a loony who dreams about fictional characters falling in love with me, and not even in an intriguing way. Let’s face it, no one would watch the episodes I’d write.

I woke up with a fat lip this morning and am talking weirder than normal. Seriously, one side of my lip is totally swollen and I look like I got punched. Now, I’m not saying I couldn’t possibly have deserved to be punched, but I wish I knew who did it and why. Vic swears it wasn’t him.

I blame all that yardwork I did yesterday. I’m telling you, it’s not healthy to exert oneself, people!

Dec. 24: Good grief

The Office Christmas, in Charlie Brown style:

Dec. 15: My horn can pierce your face

If you saw the Christmas party episode of The Office last week, you’ll enjoy the Princess Unicorn web site. Don’t miss a page; the photos of the kid cuddling with Princess Unicorn are the best. And the product warnings on the front page are reminiscent of the oh-so-awesome Happy Fun Ball:

Caution:
Wash hands thoroughly after handling Princess Unicorn.
Do not play with Princess Unicorn if you are allergic to lead based paint.
The spike on Princess Unicorn is incredibly sharp, so Princess Unicorn can pierce the sky. It can also pierce your skin. Handle with care.
Appropriate for ages 2+

Nov. 2: Down at Schrute Farms

Jack combed his hair after a bath tonight and came out looking more like Dwight Schrute than I ever expected or hoped a child of mine could look. He borrowed Victor’s glasses for the photo. Actually, we made him put them on; Jack had no idea why we were laughing so hard, why I wanted to take a picture, or who Dwight Schrute is. It confused him even more when I asked if he wanted to gnaw on a nice, juicy beet.

June 20: He's left the beet farm

Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute on The Office) is in the newest issue of Entertainment Weekly. Check out these videos of Rainn being transformed into some of TV’s most memorable characters for EW’s photo shoot.

June 10: The Office in Malaysia

If you click MENU the window will re-size to fit the space.

Apr. 20: Crimes and punishments

Did you see The Office this last week? Jim and Pam were lightheartedly discussing living together, getting engaged, etc. Then Jim showed the camera the ring he bought for Pam. And I totally got goose bumps, like he was showing the camera the ring he bought for ME. When we’re watching The Office and there are tender moments between Jim and Pam, Vic looks at my reaction because he knows that I’m getting goose bumps, crying happy tears, or texting Alisa about it.

Later that night I dreamt that Pam finally broke it off with Roy and she was free to date Jim (yes, like two seasons ago—evidently my dreams have been affected by the writer’s strike too). But Pam waited too long, and Jim had already hooked up with me. Gee, that’s a shame, Pam. I win, you lose. Neeners!

But then things really fell apart. Like, Jim and I were holed up in a high-rise hotel in Scranton and a SWAT team was called in and Angela was giving us her sanctimonious stare from the parking lot. It made me feel bad, so I told Jim he should be with Pam and I turned myself in. I’m so generous. Well, since I was already married to Vic it wasn’t so much generosity as it was guilt from the adultery. Heh heh.

When I woke up it took a while to shake the dreadful feeling that I had been so cruel to Pam, especially after she and I had always been such good friends. I was not, apparently, feeling so bad about cheating on Vic. I’m gonna pretend there could not possibly be an underlying reason for that and investigate it no further.

Jim was the star of my REM sleep again Friday night, when he made me a smiley-face pancake. Unfortunately, that is not a euphemism for anything.

Usually I don’t describe my weird dreams to Vic because it just confirms the tenuous grasp I have on my sanity. But yesterday morning he slept later than I did and I HAD TO MAKE MY OWN COFFEE. I know! I can’t believe how abusive he is. So, to punish him, I told him all about my two Jim dreams. He didn’t seem to mind that I hooked up with Jim. He also said I should make my own coffee more often.

Oh, yeah, I’ll make the coffee. And I’ll go back to spitting in his commuter mug every morning. “Hyock-too... ♫ Have a lovely day, dear! ♫”

Mar. 5: "The Office" links

I love The Office. I love the British version and the American one too. I love that now they show old episodes on TBS on Tuesday nights. I love that I can watch the British ones on BBC America and OnDemand. I love that there will be more new episodes soon on NBC now that the writers' strike is over. Hooray for The Office.

During the first season of the American version I read that the actors have working computers with Internet connections at their desks so they can look like they're busy in the backgrounds of scenes being filmed. A bunch of them created MySpace pages and started blogging while filming. I subscribed to a bunch of their blogs; Pam/Jenna is one that writes pretty regularly. I found out about Kino sandals from her blog and got some for me and Kathy in Key West last year (can't speak for Kathy, but I looove mine). Angela writes about shopping at Target and doing publicity for the show. It's fun to read how normal these people can be--which makes sense, I guess, since many were not well-known before starring on this wildly popular series--and how starstruck and excited they are to go on talk shows and meet other actors. Anyway, you can find links to other actors' MySpace pages if you look at Pam and Angela's friends lists. TV Guide has one written by Kate Flannery (Meredith).

There are also lots of blogs wherein the actor (or somebody pretending to be them) writes as the character they play on the show. Last night on one of the TBS episodes Creed talked about his blog--which Ryan quickly confirmed was fake--found at "w-w-w-dot-creedthoughts-dot-gov-dot-w-w-w-backslash-creedthoughts." Yes, it's clearly a fake address but there is actually a Creed blog out there. It's as bizarre as you would expect anything from Creed to be.

NBC publishes the hilarious Schrute-Space, Dwight's blog (how can it miss with posts like "Beets and Me"???). Here's a fake Dunder-Mifflin site. Don't miss the newsletters. And Dunder-Mifflin Infinity is entertaining too.

Of course, there are loads of fan sites out there too. The Office Quotes has--you guessed it--quotes from the show. OfficeTally has news and info related to the show and its stars. It overlaps quite a bit with what you'll find at Life in the Office. A Google search will turn up countless more sites, but these are the big ones.

It's a great show, wouldn't you agree? My friend Alisa and I used to quote it to each other on Fridays, or text back and forth during the episodes. Whether you've worked in an office or not, if you know anyone that's a little "off," you can relate in some way. I can hardly wait for the new episodes next month.

Jan. 23: "The Office" character quiz

Jen's results:

Which Character From The Office Are You?

Created by BuddyTV

Vic's results:

Which Character From The Office Are You?

Created by BuddyTV