Post-holiday fun

So, anyone else eat too many Christmas cookies the past few days? Trick question! There's no such thing as too many Christmas cookies.

Hope everyone had a good holiday - mine was the same as usual, not too many disasters, family mostly sane and normal. Dad tried to get Aunt Linda drunk on cosmopolitans. Grandmom said mildly offensive things. Someone threw their green beans on the floor and wouldn't own up to it. We had to teach Aunt Donna how to use the pause button on her remote control (seriously, who doesn't know that the two little lines means pause?). Everyone laughed at the story about my mom dropping the entire tray of oatmeal cookies on the floor, but after that, no one ate the oatmeal cookies (we didn't serve the floor cookies, I promise).

My cousin Devi and I did manage to whup my mom and my aunt at Trivial Pursuit. The entire car ride home, my mom kept saying things like "I can't believe you beat us!" and "You got all the easy questions!" (We didn't, by the way, she's just a sore loser, the rest of the family will back me up.)

So here's some exciting new for those who, like me, had to work today: There's a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. It's another animated version, with Sarah Michelle Gellar doing the voice of April.

Also, EW's interview with Stephen Colbert. He's so awesome.

Going to Paris for the weekend? Can I come?

Aww, this time last year, I was leaving for Paris... to embark on a journey in the footsteps of Victor Hugo. Okay, I used college funds to take a vacation. Like you wouldn't do it if you had the chance. I did stay in that spooky hotel that was haunted by Hugo's ghost, and I went on a tour of the Paris sewers. I totally earned that money.

Only 5 shopping days left...

And yet, all my Christmas shopping is done. Weird.

Maybe that's why I am Time's Person of the Year. Yes, you heard right. It's me. What do you mean, it's you? No, it's not, it's me! I have to agree with Stephen Colbert - there would be much less confusion if it were just written in a language that used different words for the second person singular and plural pronouns. But it's not, so I'm going to go on assuming that I am the Person of the Year. I mean, I deserve it, don't you think?

Some things to get you in the holiday spirit: Here's Santa Claus, 24-style, and some info on the New Orleans musicians that performed on Studio 60's Christmas episode.

There's also a cool article about the making of the Charlie Brown Christmas movie. I still love that movie. I've been known to do the dance. Come on, you know what I'm talking about. And how cute is it that the kids doing the voices sometimes didn't know what they were saying, and they had to be taught phonetically... awwww.

Someone has turned Joss Whedon into an elf! And you can Elf Yourself, while you're at it. Also Buffy-related, some more info on who's involved with the season 8 comic.

Lunch break

Lots of things to keep you busy on your lunch break... since I'm posting during mine.

If, like Kelly, you've recently become addicted to downloading TV shows from the internet, then here are two websites I found at Pop Candy: TV Links and Peekvid.

Checking in with Buffy alums, Julie Benz has an interview about her new role on the show Dexter, and she also talks a lot about playing Darla on Buffy and Angel. I never really thought about it before, but she was the first vampire we ever saw... talk about pressure! Also, Nathan Fillion, who played creepy Caleb on Buffy, and a slightly less creepy guy on Firefly, is doing a new series, the plot of which I don't quite understand, but that's okay.

Amber Benson is working on a new movie. Like her first movie, Chance, she is acting, directing, and producing it herself (and, like Chance, I will probably never get to see it without spending $45). Michael Muhney from Veronica Mars co-stars. Sirens of Cinema has a feature where Amber talks about her experiences on the set. It's monumentally complicated to get to - you have to view the sample issue, then select the article "Director on a Hot Tin Set" from the table of contents, then zoom in to read it - but it's very good, and written in first person by Amber. Apparently, part of a series on her movie, but I don't know how to get to the other articles.

And finally, find out what's more important than Gilmore Girls. Amy Sherman-Palladino talks about why she left, what she's doing now (a new sitcom), and why she wants to throw herself off a building (well, don't we all, if you're still watching this season?).

How did people survive before the internet?

This is a question that has been plaguing me all week. Our DSL went out last Thursday, and didn't return until yesterday, so I've had a week - a whole WEEK - with NO internet! Of course, everyone else in the office (all, you know, three of them) decided to work from home or at Borders or someplace else with wireless internet. So that left me, all alone, to sit here in the office and answer the phones. *sigh* On the upside, I got to read a lot, wrote out a bunch of Christmas cards, and taught myself spider solitaire. I managed to get up to 4 suits, which is a testament to how bored I was.

But now - joy of joys! - our internet is back. I think it's funny that one of my friends (who shall remain nameless) said to me, "Yeah, I thought maybe you got fired because you weren't online anymore." Yeah, thanks for the concern...

So... quite a busy time of year. The Governor had his Christmas party for the big donors on Wednesday night. I had to work the door, of course, and I must say that the highlight of my night was watching one of our donors walk face-first into a glass door. I mean, hard. Like, you could hear the thump in the next room. We were really tempted to go up to him later and look for a red mark on his forehead, because man... that had to hurt. But I must congratulate myself because, when I was introduced to him later in the evening, I did not laugh in his face. That took effort, people.

Last night I went out with Sheila to this networking thing she organized. It was a lot of fun. I was kinda like, "Ehhh, I don't know if I wanna go, I'm only gonna know one person...." but it turned out to be really great, and I met some cool people. I also tried bourbon for the first time. It was a free promotion (because, really, not the kind of thing I would pay for). My thoughts: "Blech." Glad it was free. I ended up giving it away to some guy. He may have thought I was hitting on him. It was unclear.

I'm so excited - my parents' friend works at the Wachovia Center, so he got us tickets to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra on Saturday. I love love love the Trans-Siberian Orchestra - if you've never heard of them, they're a rock orchestra that does mostly Christmas music, a mixture of original songs and funky arrangements of the traditional stuff. It's all worked into a story, so that it's almost like the soundtrack to a musical or something. Their first album, Christmas Eve and Other Stories, is still my favorite, but they now have three Christmas CDs and two (or soon to be two) non-Christmas ones. They do an annual holiday concert tour, and I've been wanting to go for years, so I finally get to see them, and we got special upgrades so we're gonna be in box seats, which is awesome. It's probably too late for the concert, but check out the music.

Bridget is back

I love Bridget Jones' Diary. I thought the first one was hilariously awesome. The second one came out while I was in London, and I went to see it with my friend Mary and it was so cool because we were like, "I know that street!" and things like that. So I, for one, am quite pleased that Bridget will be returning for a third movie. Just as soon as Helen Fielding writes the book.

The story is supposed to jump ahead 10 years since the last book/movie, so there's a lot of catching up to do. While we wait for the book to get written, you can read about what's new for Bridget in these columns from The Independent.

I'd also recommend one of Fielding's other novels - Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination. It's somewhat Bridget-like, except with the CIA and Osama bin Laden (maybe). It's a fun read, so put it on your Christmas list.

Lots of TV news

I've been super busy the last couple weeks... with Michelle getting married, I'm all alone in holding down the finance fort. Mailing out insane numbers of thank you letters and Christmas party invitations, and trying to put the office into some semblance of order.

BUT... now that I have a moment to breathe (and I'm typing on my supercool new work-issued laptop), I can post a little something. Sadly, it seems like all of my TV shows have gone on hiatus until January, so here's some random TV news to keep us occupied until then.

Joss Whedon has an interview with TV Guide about - you guessed it - the Buffy comic season 8. I have to say, I've never been a comic book fan, but this is getting me excited.

24 is coming back in January, with a bang as usual. In preparation, the season 5 DVD has been released so slacking fans can catch up. The DVD also includes a season 6 prequel, which is now on YouTube. And it looks like Rick Schroder is joining the cast.

The West Wing star Allison Janney is returning to TV with an as-yet-untitled CBS sitcom. Also TWW-related: Kristin Chenowith talks about life, theatre, and how she feels about her ex Aaron Sorkin basing a Studio 60 character on her (not as pissed off as you might think). Also, she may be doing a sitcom with Nathan Lane. OMG, I so want to see that show.