Adam Carolla Was Right....

When he was doing his morning show in L-A, which can be heard anywhere thanks to iTunes, he would often rant about how city officials would screw up on building permit requests. I would sympathize with his rants, and even more so now.

My apartment complex has been without hot water for two days because of a gas leak under the building. This not only means very cold and very quick showers, but also no hot water to wash clothes. Of course, that can be resolved by just going to a nearby laundromat..but where do you go to get clean?

I've done my best by doing very quick but thorough showers with cold water, then boil hot water to wash my hair and shave. It's worked out, but very inconvenient.
The word from my landlord is that the city's dragging its feet on approving a city permit for the repairs. Without that, SMUD can't sign off on the repairs, and the staff can't restart the water heater. It's a case of the city not recognizing a problem because it's not affected directly. They also say it's due to staff shortages after budget cuts. Well, excuses doesn't warm up my shower, guys. Hopefully, this will be resolved by Friday. Otherwise, it will be a long weekend for the complex without hot water for showers, even if it's the Memorial Day weekend.

Blame it on Felicia Day

Last July, as people gathered at Comic-Con to see Joss Whedon and the cast of Dr. Horrible, many saw Felicia Day "Twittering". Some people suspected it may be something naughty, but it's really the world's biggest chat room, where you can express yourself in 140 letters or less. I didn't think I could get into that, because I express my philosophies about life in general in massive, long-winded paragraphs.

Well, I've been twittering for a week, and I'm getting good at this. I managed to get a direct message from Amber Benson, but I am careful to just reply back. If I see her again, I will ask for permission to send my messages direct, if I ever see her. Ditto for Eliza Dushku, who may have won the battle for Dollhouse, but saw her Celtics and Bruins lose their post-season dreams to be make the Patriots and Red Sox jealous.

As near as I can figure it, a third of my followers may be border-line spam, and I don't get a lot of direct messages. Still, it's been only a week. They have to know I am around, and not too creepy.
I also realized that Twitter is more perfect for me than I thought. I'm someone who likes to respond in one-liners. I learned that from Groucho, Hawkeye Pierce and MST3K. I tweet maybe five or six times a day, especially now with the upfronts unfolding. Afterwards, it may be less often. I will be using it to let people know about my pictures for what trips I have soon.

If I can Twitter using my phone, maybe I can send updates during red carpet events, if I can find any. Doing it during Comic-Con panels may be too tough, especially if I am assigned to certain events. We shall see.

Why does Emmy not like Bonnie?

The Daytime Emmy award nominations just came out. Bonnie Hunt's show got three nominations, but she didn't. Neither did the show. However, The View is up for major awards. So, I suspect Barbara Walters told Emmy voters not to vote for Bonnie because they couldn't voter for a show Walters never watches. If that's the case, the Daytime Emmys don't exist for me this year.
Or it could be how Bonnie re-created her appearance on that show, and got more laughs than the "View Girls". Hey Barbara, do your homework!

On the other hand, the Emmys are well known for ignoring those actors who do a great role, and get snubbed. In the 50's and 60's, it was Jackie Gleason and Andy Griffith. In the 80s, it was Angela Landsbury. In the past ten years, it's Buffy and Joss Whedon in general. Despite the big splash Dr. Horrible has made, I am confident the Emmy organizers won't honor it only because they haven't made a category for it, or will try to fit it into one. If they did, Joss would say "Thanks, now how about Felicia Day?"

The good news is there will be a second season, and it will have a new executive producer that used to work for Jimmy Kimmel Live. Does this mean the show will be Kimmel-ized?
Maybe it already has...

Bonnie's mom=Uncle Frank
Nick and his band=Cleto and the Cletones
Don=maybe Guillermo

Then again, David Letterman did it first with Paul Schafer, Biff Henderson, Alan Kalter and Hal Gurnee from the NBC days.

It's a step in the right direction, and hopefully it will go far enough to get people to really take a look at Bonnie Hunt.

Is a family reunion scary?

Well, maybe.
For one thing, I just found out about it today, only because I was calling my mom to apologize for not reaching her on Mother's Day. I got my brother instead, who is gettnig over turnng 47. I told him that I wasn't to eager to approach my birthday, either. Anyway, apparently they had planned the event for some time, but almost forgot to tell me.

Considering that I haven't seen my mom in nearly nine years, and other relatives for even longer than that, you can't blame them. I haven't seen my brother's kids in maybe 15 years. I wouldn't be surprised if they refuse to believe I can related to them.

Remember, this was years before the internet made it possible for families to keep in touch, no matter if they are separated by hundreds of miles. I may have a computer, but I may be the only one.

This is going to be very uncomfortable for me. They're going to keep asking why I didn't keep in touch. For me, it's lack of money, and just plain fear. You might get away with not keeping touch for a couple of years, but after nine or ten, you might as well consider yourself an orphan. It would be hard to explain why you never call or write. It's not as bad as Lily Rush trying to find her dad on Cold Case, but it's close.

Maybe it's because I haven't kept touch since my brother died 13 years ago. I felt guilty I could only stay a few hours, then drive back to Eureka. Then my sister died about a year ago. Again, I didn't have a chance to say goodbye.

Maybe I should go, because my mom will hit 77 in July. She's still as sharp as they come, but how long will it be before I say goodbye to her, too? This is my chance, and I should take it.

I doubt anyone would be impressed with my life, even if it did include meeting peopel like Joss Whedon, and the MST3K gang. I'm sure they've never heard of them. If they are realy glad to see me, and ask for my e-mail address (or even Twitter), that would be a good sign.