Okay, Idol 2.0 . . . I went to Connecticut with the kid I babysit regularly and his mom for the show. We had a blast and I took about 2893423984 pictures because we were so close to the front.

But of course, there has to be That Girl who puts her hands up and singlehandedly ruins otherwise good photos. I think she's related to Hair Guy (who stands in front of you and makes your camera focus on his gross, over-gelled hairdo instead of whoever is on stage).

HEY GIRL HEY!

oh cool

my favorite...the jazz hands edition


In conclusion, if you would rather keep your hands attached to the rest of your arms (lest I remove them with sheer brute force), please keep your limbs to yourself.

today is my xanga team anniversary! let's have a party.

(click to enlarge)

saturday, matt and i went to the columbus zoo with my little bro and we partook in a goat petting excursion. please note the differences in enthusiasm between the three of us.

yesterday, i went out with my dad and my dog to let her run around a little bit. observe. we love this dog.

good dog.

NATALIA and ANDY go to a Columbus theater to see Mamma Mia!: The Singalong Version. This is made abundantly clear by the both the ticket seller and the ticket taker. We are going to a singalong.

The MOVIE starts. NATALIA and ANDY start mini-dancing and singing when the, oh, you know, words are displayed below the film during songs.

DUDE NEXT TO THEM: Could you just...settle down? We paid to see this too, you know.
N: . . . sir, you do know this is a singalong, right?
DUDE rolls his eyes.

The NEXT SONG begins. DUDE and his wife decide they have had enough of such tomfoolery.

Aaaaaaaaaand scene.

Guess "you know this isn't the regular movie" from the staff and the words under the picture weren't enough of a clue.

I was just going through my super old Xanga site and found these pictures:

WHO REMEMBERS TREELOOT?

I spent more time clicking on that pixelated tree trying to find the monkey/jackpot. Alas, I never found it. The URL is now registered to a Flash based games site and all we have is fond memories of never actually winning anything . . . except a stuffed monkey with a URL embroidered on its chest.

What's your favorite long gone website?

(honorable mentions: Headbone Zone, Zeeks for tons of free junk, the old Noggin site, the You Are My Friend site, MyECamp/MadHive, MainXChange)

Mike S. was a brown-haired boy in my fourth grade class. He was smart, Jewish (going as far to say "oy vey" at one point when he got a divison problem wrong), pop culturally referential and would draw pictures in his notebook for me (it's absolutely safe to say I still crush on gentlemen like this now).

In one of our ongoing drawing dramas, he drew Monkey S., a primate who subsided on the food I would draw for him - anything from tin cans to bananas and shoes - and we would formulate storylines for Monkey without ever saying anything, lest we get in trouble for talking in class.

Mike and I went on a swanky date - we saw Houseguest with his mom serving as the chaperone - but things fizzled out when we were in different classes the next year and went to different middle schools.

I've found most of my elementary school compatriots on Facebook, but he's still missing from my friends list so I don't know what he's been up to since I saw him last. I have high hopes for him, though - maybe as an artist, a writer or at least someone who can use the word "shpilkes" convincingly.

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

writing things down makes your hand hurt. i vastly prefer blogging but it isn't practical on the subway.

So the US women's gymnastics team goes into the team finals in second place after having a disastrous semi-final including spills, chills, and out-of-bounds...ills?

At any rate, I want to know who exactly is competing on these other countries' teams. Does anyone want to start a Xangamerican gymnastics team? Apparently you can fall off of the apparatus and still manage to either place or medal, so don't worry if you've never done gymnastics before. It's okay! Go team!

P.S. Who wants to design leotards?

For real.

I love kids' music . . . here are my childhood essentials straight from my mp3 player.

1) Anything from Schoolhouse Rock
2) Sesame Street: I Love Trash/I'd Like to Visit The Moon
3) Arthur and Friends: Havin' Fun Isn't Hard (When You've Got A Library Card) followed closely by Leftovers Goulash
4) The Wiggles: Hot Potato/Henry The Octopus/Fruit Salad
5) Marcy Marxer: Jump Children

omg, maybe I will make a mix tape for children

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I've already sung the praises of Spreadshirt, but it needs to be said again: they are wonderful.

My sister's birthday is this week, and I made her a Spreadshirt of her own - for you non-German speakers, it says "where's the party?"

Now I'm designing hoodies for the HSM3 premiere in October!!!!!!!!!1 Who knows how to draw a wildcat?