Lost In GroVont

Who is Sarah Palin?

Interesting news to wake up to this morning. John McCain selects "gun-totting" Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice-President. Over the next two months, we are going to get to know everything and more about Palin. (Her Wikipedia article has already been updated with her status as McCain's running mate.)

My first thought was this McCain's attempt to woo the uncertain Democrats who don't necessarily like Barack Obama. Most of the uncertain democrats are women, some of them are Hillary Clinton supporters. Palin finished her speech with references to former women who pushed at the political glass ceiling: Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton. (The response to Clinton's mention was both claps and boos.) These mentions cemented the key reason why Palin was selected.

Waiting to see how some of the narrow-minded Republicans respond. This announcement makes the Presidential campaign even more interesting.

Veronica Mars sings and dances (or reads Shakespeare). It doesn't matter if it's on the big screen.

Can Rob Thomas accomplish the same feat as Joss Whedon and produce a successful feature film based on a canceled TV show? From Ask Ausiello:

The creator of Veronica Mars was sitting down with his beloved, lamented series' star, Kristen Bell, to discuss bringing the cult hit to the big screen. "Kristen and I ran into each other, and we did discuss a Veronica movie," confirms Thomas, who says he has also had "a few conversations" with Mars executive producer Joel Silver.

Whedon was able to accomplish a rare feat by completing the movie version of his short-lived show Firefly. Serenity may not have produced Harry Potter-like numbers, but it was successful. Veronica Mars has a similar cult fan base which continues to place fan videos on YouTube at an alarming rate years after it has been canceled. If Thomas does manage to get everyone on board and release this film, it would be the most anticipated film release for me in a decade.

The entire town is closed for lunch

Today, I forgot the first rule of small towns: Any place that does not serve food is closed from Noon to 1PM, including the veterinary center.

After our false start, Buster did get to the vet today and was given a bath and a pedicure. We also made the acquaintance of a feisty, small dog named Lewis.

Summer is sorta over. The original plan was not to spend the entire summer in Kansas, only a few weeks. This plan was quickly voided after being told the wait for a new Prius is 3-5 months.

Adjusting to small town life again was not easy, especially when I didn't have a car. There are some perks. Non-perishable goods generally cost less. A 2 liter bottle of Diet Coke is over a dollar cheaper. Gas never exceeded the $4 dollar mark here. However, the humidity in Kansas and the onslaught of mosquitoes has not been a pleasurable experience. Fresh produce of the "exotic" variety is scare or overpriced. (I miss avocados.)

It was not a lazy summer. We did manage to finish refurbishing the kitchen at my folks' house, and I finally managed to clean up my corner of the basement this summer. Now, I'm getting ready to load up Daisy and head back to Jackson, Wyoming, next month. I'm already excited about the upcoming winter of snowboarding in the Tetons, and I'll be there early enough to get in some hiking before it starts to snow in October.

Upcoming will be a post on the new Uh Huh Her release. Study up. There will be a test.

The bottom of the barrel

After nearly five years of not having a car, I purchased a Toyota Prius which I've christened Daisy. Typically, I'm not big on naming inanimate objects, but I found myself typing Daily when adding my car to the garage on Fuelly. However, I can't help but say "Daisy. Daisy Adair." every time I greet my car.

The car comes with big responsibility, but with any toy, it's an opportunity to purchase new gadgets. The Prius includes an Aux jack which works with my eighteenth-century iPod. To get the car to charge the iPod battery, however, I had to purchase an extra jack. The Kensington LiquidAUX is working out great, and the sound is good.

Fuelly is an online application which was released earlier this month and already has some buzz. Helping Fuelly along is the user friendly interface that is simple and intuitive.

Fuelly calculates your miles per gallon after each fuel up, and you can compare your driving statistics to others with the same car type and the EPA Estimates. Almost makes me wish I had to fuel up more in order to get stats. Now, I can track mileage on trips, see quickly how much I've spent on gas, and anyone can follow Daisy's stats on Fuelly here.